Indonesian Youth, Global Environmentalism and Transnational Mining

Abstract

Indonesian activist students are highly conscious of the environmental risks facing Indonesia and the world. Yet they also want to make good lives for themselves in a nation experiencing strong economic growth. Using the work of Ulrich Beck, this paper examines the accounts of environmental engineering students at a prestigious university who are pro-environmental activists on campus. In interviews, they admitted that it will be difficult to negotiate a lucrative career after graduation while maintaining their environmental idealism. Even though they feel a moral responsibility of care, not only towards nature, but towards the poor of the nation, they are epistemologically anchored to the technocratic tenets of their degree. Moreover, they want to make a successful life. The paper contributes to our understanding of how youth in the Global South engage with the discourse of environmentalism while negotiating the postmillennium risk society.