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Indonesia's New Order, 1966-1998: Its Social and Intellectual Origins

Karsono, Sony
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1367606667

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, History (Arts and Sciences).
This dissertation tackles one central problem: What were the intellectual and social origins of New Order Indonesia (1966-1998)? The analytic lens that this study employs to examine this society is the Indonesian middling classes' pursuit of modernity. The dissertation comes in two parts. Part One reconstructs the evolution of the Indonesian middling classes and their search for progress. Part Two uses three case studies to analyze the middling classes' search for Indonesian modernity under the New Order. The first explores the top-down modernization undertaken by President Soeharto's assistants at the National Development Planning Board, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology. The second case study investigates the "bottom-up" modernization performed by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education, and Information. The third case study deals with how several authors used popular fiction to criticize the kind of Indonesian modernity that emerged in the New Order era. This research yields several findings. First, the Indonesian middling classes championed a pragmatic, structural-functional path to modernity. Second, to modernize the country rapidly and safely, the modernizers proceeded in an eclectic and pragmatic manner. Third, between the Old and the New Order, there existed strong continuity in ideas, ideals, skills, and problems. Fourth, the middling classes' modernizing mission was fraught with contradictions, naiveties, ironies, and violence, which had roots in the nationalist movement in the first half of the twentieth century. The New Order was neither wholly new nor an aberration from the "normal" trajectory of Indonesia's contemporary history. The sort of modernity that the Indonesian middling classes ended up creating was Janus-faced.
William H. Frederick (Committee Chair)
Peter John Brobst (Committee Member)
Patrick Barr-Melej (Committee Member)
Elizabeth Fuller Collins (Committee Member)
683 p.
Asian Literature; Asian Studies; History
Indonesia; New Order; middle class; modernity; think tanks; non-governmental organizations; popular fiction; intellectual history; social history

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Karsono, S. (2013). Indonesia's New Order, 1966-1998: Its Social and Intellectual Origins [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1367606667

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Karsono, Sony. Indonesia's New Order, 1966-1998: Its Social and Intellectual Origins. 2013. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1367606667.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Karsono, Sony. "Indonesia's New Order, 1966-1998: Its Social and Intellectual Origins." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1367606667

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1367606667
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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.