Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons^™

Appreciative Commoning; Musical Knowledge-Sharing In Earhouse Songwriting Club, Arya J. P. Adyuta

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article develops the concept of “appreciative commoning” to focus on the importance of appreciation in musical community practices. By examining the practices of musical knowledge-sharing in the Earhouse Songwriting Club (ESC), a songwriting community, this article argues that greater attention should be paid to the roles of appreciation and support in facilitating media and cultural commoning in Indonesia. The article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in Earhouse, an initiative space located in Pamulang, South Tangerang, established by the musician duo Endah N Rhesa. Exploring three main activities of the community: weekly meetings, monthly showcases, and afterparties, I show how embracing …

From Memory To Commons; Cultural Commoning And Regional Filmmaking In Indonesia, Jordy Satria Widodo, Shuri M.G. Tambunan

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article examines cultural commoning in Indonesian cinema by analysing how ethnic specificity is mobilized and articulated through storytelling, production, and circulation. Focusing on Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap (2022), the study shows how Bataknese cultural elements in this film are activated not as commodified spectacles or exotic markers, but as lived social resources embedded in the narration and its production process. At the narrative level, it is grounded in the everyday practices of family life and memory. At the level of production, the Bataknese director, art director, and cinematographer draw on shared personal experiences to shape the film’s narrative development and cinematographic …

Gerry Van Klinken (Ed.) (2025), "Bacaan Bumi; Pemikiran Ekologis Untuk Indonesia", Amanda Lathifah Laksmana Putri

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Comment Sections As Counterpublics; Negotiating Public Discourse In Indonesia’S Digital Media Sphere, Leon Woltermann

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article examines the potential of YouTube comment sections as spaces of commoning in Indonesia’s digital media sphere. Drawing on the concept of counterpublics – that is, parallel discursive arenas where marginalized groups circulate counter discourses and voice their interests – it explores how users negotiate access to the digital public sphere and oppose dominant narratives. The article employs a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative methods into the analysis of the data, to investigate both the structural features (based on comment metadata) and the discursive content of comments. I argue that the comment sections’ dynamic, non-binding structure facilitates open …

The “Commoning“ Of Critical Labour Knowledge In Indonesia; Digital Mediation And Its Contradictions, Diatyka Widya Permata Yasih, Inaya Rakhmani

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article explores “the commoning of critical labour knowledge“ – the co-sharing of resources to produce, circulate, and practice forms of knowledge generated with, by, and for workers, in opposition to dominant managerial and/or state technocratic frameworks – including through the use of digital media. Drawing on an auto-ethnographic reflection of a collaborative praxis between a university-based research centre and a labour knowledge hub, both based in Indonesia, we argue that this practice is imbued with internal contradictions. The praxis does open possibilities for solidarity, redistribution, and collective critical knowledge-making. However, it is constrained by capitalist logics of algorithmic surveillance, …

Making Sense Of Cultural Commoning In The Streets; Popular Trust Within The Info Cegatan Jogja (Icj) Community, Antonius Galih Prasetyo, Wasisto Raharjo Jati

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

The need for inclusive shared spaces that offer tangible solutions rather than just information has become increasingly urgent, given the limits of state resources. Facebook-based Info Cegatan Jogja (ICJ), with over a million members, uniquely showcases civil society’s productive use of social media. The ICJ project began by documenting police checkpoints (cegatan) and bureaucratic hurdles in Yogyakarta. It has since evolved into a combined online and offline community that regularly reports accidents, thefts, lost items, and other public concerns, effectively functioning as a public awareness, complaint, and information-sharing platform for the entire Yogyakarta Special Region Province. Given the …

David Van Reybrouck (2025), "Revolusi; Indonesia Dan Lahirnya Dunia Modern", Abd Rahman Hamid

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Ronit Ricci (Ed.) (2023), "Storied Island; New Explorations In Javanese Literature", Zakariya Pamuji Aminullah

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Developing “Subversive Commons” Through Boycott And Buycott; K-Pop Fan Activism Of Producing And Consuming Unofficial Merchandise, Nurul Laili Nadhifah, Manneke Budiman

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

K-pop fans are widely recognized for their active engagement in fan activism, as exemplified by Indonesian K-pop fans’ practice of political consumerism to challenge problematic power structures without severing their connection to their idols. Employing digital and field ethnography, this article explores how Indonesian K-pop fans use virtual media spaces for humanitarian activism, navigate ideological tensions with their idols, and engage in boycott and buycott practices toward merchandise as expressions of political consumerism. Here, fans can be categorized into three groups: those who believe in separating activism issues from fandom activities; those who only support acceptable idol activities; and those …

Negosiasi Diplomasi Budaya K-Pop Di Indonesia: Studi Kasus Boikot Penggemar Ateez, Dhannya Febryana

Multikultura

This study examines the boycott by Indonesian fans against the K-pop group ATEEZ as part of the dynamics of South Korea’s cultural diplomacy in Southeast Asia. Building on the understanding of K-pop as an important instrument of soft power in South Korea’s cultural diplomacy strategy, this research highlights how regional audiences do not always passively accept such practices. Using a qualitative approach with digital discourse analysis, the study analyzes boycott-related discourses circulating on social media and in online news coverage to explore the narratives, meanings, and cultural implications of this action. The fan boycott is not merely an expression of …

Reimaging Wayang In The Digital Age; "The Sintren" Project And Cultural Commoning, Maya Purnama Sari, Nuning Yanti Damayanti, Irfansyah Irfansyah, Hafiz Aziz Ahmad

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Wayang, as a traditional performing art in Indonesia, continues to develop through various forms of experimentation. One example is the Wayang Lostang YouTube channel, developed by Samuel Indratma through the animation project Sintren, save the planet in collaboration with students from SMK Komputama Majenang. Distribution through YouTube indicates that the transformation of wayang is not merely visual but is also a collective cultural practice grounded in social relations, reflecting cultural commoning in the Indonesian context. This study aims to understand how these practices operate through production, social relations, and the formation of cultural meaning in digital circulation. The research employs …

Preface Vol. 27 No. 1, The Editors Wacana

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Introduction; Media And Cultural Commoning, Shuri Mariasih Gietty Tambunan, Annisa R. Beta

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

"Ta’Aruf", Pious Asceticism, And Shared Meaning-Making In Islamic Youtube Web Series, Andina Dwifatma

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Islamic web series have recently become a notable cultural phenomenon in Indonesia. Unlike mainstream Islamic films, most Islamic web series are created by Muslim youth communities and distributed freely on social media platforms such as YouTube, reflecting a more innovative, grassroots approach to exploring identity. The creators of Islamic web series have greater flexibility in crafting narratives that reflect the experiences of young urban Muslims. Their interactive engagement with audiences, both online and offline, facilitates the collective negotiation and preservation of religious values through digital media. One of the recurring themes in these series is ta’aruf, the Islamic practice …

Staging The Commons Through The “Padha Nonton” Song; Youtube, Community Engagement, And Gandrung Cultural Practice, Intan Mustika Sari

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This study examines how the Gandrung accompaniment song “Padha nonton” participates in processes of digital cultural sharing when circulated on YouTube. It employs a qualitative interpretive method within a netno‑pragmatic framework to analyse audience engagement as a culturally informed social practice. The findings show that the song’s linguistic features convey cultural scripts of invitation, togetherness, and communal spectatorship, reflecting the role of the Gandrung tradition in shaping shared social relationships and cultural values. Furthermore, the study identifies three interrelated processes: re-medialization, re-experiencing, and re-conception through which the performance extends beyond its original ritual context and becomes a shared …

Preface Vol. 27 No. 2, The Editors Wacana

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

The Commons Before “The Commons”; Decolonial Perspectives On Journalism Through "Soenting Melajoe" (1912-1921), Tito Ambyo, Bronwyn Anne Beech Jones

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Through an exploration of the Malay-language women’s weekly Soenting Melajoe (1912-1921), this article proposes “taman” (garden) as an alternative model of journalistic practice and community formation in colonial Indonesia. Countering historiographies that position professional journalism as the telos for media development in the modern world, we argue that Soenting Melajoe draws attention to a form of commoning that preceded and resisted colonial enclosure and Western journalistic frameworks. Through analysing reader contributions and editorial practices, we show how the publication’s writers conceptualized their work as cultivating a taman – a space open to collective participation yet bounded by shared values, …

"Commoning" The Artist-Led Archive; Sharing Heri Dono’S Private Archive With A Public Audience, Eliza O’Donnell, Agni Saraswati

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Built from the ground-up and with no formal government support, artist-led archives in Indonesia engage in commoning practices by creating community-centred platforms for knowledge sharing, in both physical and digital spaces. This article examines “acts of commoning” through the lens of artist Heri Dono at Studio Kalahan in Yogyakarta, an artist-led archive that challenges institutional approaches by treating Dono’s practice-based knowledge as shared creative resources, rather than private intellectual property. Three “acts of commoning” are explored through an iterative process of 1) building, 2) reproduction and digitization, and 3) sharing through exhibition and Instagram. It is argued that commoning of …

Beyond Creative Tourism Cities; Youth Media Commoning In Urban Indonesia, Amalia N. Andini, Mely Noviryani, Andhika Krisnaloka, Anton Novenanto

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

How do young people make sense of themselves through the stories they tell about their lives in cities? In this article, we examine youth media-making in Malang and Batu, Indonesia, as a meaningful practice of commoning that engages with the construction of youth and the city under the neoliberal logic of urban development in Southeast Asia. Our Participatory Action Research (PAR) with young people in local neighbourhoods has produced a series of documentary films and an anthology, co-authored to narrate their lived urban experiences and interactions with tourism. By telling their own stories from kampung wisata (tourism neighbourhoods), they …

Sacred Commoning In Indonesia; Faith, Media, And Affective Praxis For Environmental Justice, Najwa A. Nadia

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article analyses how commoning practices are mobilized to address ecological problems in Indonesia and highlights the contributions of youth and faith-based initiatives in the process, focusing on their inventive use of media, cultural, and religious forms. Based on two case studies of a community-run festival in Yogyakarta and a waqf forest project in Bogor, it traces how environmental activism becomes a vigorous arena for intersectoral collaboration, new communal imaginaries, and affective and spiritual reorientations. Situating them in the broader literatures on commoning, affect, media, and religion, the article proposes the idea of sacred commoning to describe the affective processes …

Michael Dove (2024), "Hearsay Is Not Excluded; A History Of Natural History", Gilang Mahadika

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Defending And Challenging American Empire: The 1927-28 University Of Oregon Forensics Program World Debate Tour And The November 25, 1927, Manila "Debate Of The Century", Trond Jacobsen, David Frank

Studies in Debate and Oratory

From October 1927 through April 1928, three Oregon debaters traveled more than 25,000 miles to seventeen countries on four continents, participating in thirty-two debates and seventy-five public speaking engagements as part of the first-ever Debate World Tour. This tour was audacious, but indicative of a remarkable history of debate at Oregon. Drawing on archival materials held by the Special Collections and University Archive at the University of Oregon and other primary and contemporary materials, we document that world tour and feature a November 25, 1927, debate on Filipino independence at the Manila Opera House and the tour of America by …

Children Past Curfew: Surveillance, Resistance, And Childhood In Philippine Martial Law Children's Literature, Krisna Marie T. Balolong

Children's Literature (MA) Theses

This paper examines how two Philippine children's books depict state surveillance and its effects on a child's perspective of family, authority figures, and childhood. Through analysis of Augie Rivera's Isang Harding Papel and Sandra Nicole Roldan's At the School Gate, this project makes a connection between children's literature and surveillance studies, offering new framework to engage with children’s literature depicting authoritarian regimes and state violence, especially in cases where children were targets of their governments. Each book is examined by their representations of state surveillance during the Martial Law era of the Philippines, as well as each characters’ individual …

Reawakening Waⁿdat: Community Research & Reclamation, Darcy Allred

Theses and Dissertations

The Wyandot(te) have undergone language dormancy due to settler colonial impacts of warfare, refugee relocation, forced removals, and U.S. assimilation projects. One of the most pressing priorities among our people today is reawakening our ancestral language, Waⁿdat. The common follow-up question is: how? Through the conduit of Waⁿdat language reclamation, this project grapples with the above question in collaboration with the Wyandot(te) community, and in adherence to the tribal sovereignty of the Wyandotte Nation. The project engages with diasporic perspectives, community-based pedagogy design, and tribally specific research protocols and policies. The living collective knowledgebase with which I engage in this …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

‘Casar Public Lecture: Jazz Diplomacy: America's Conversation With The World', The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

The lectures deliberated about how the U.S. used jazz as a tool of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War, sending jazz musicians abroad to promote American values and counter Soviet influence. Jazz symbolized freedom and democracy but also highlighted racial tensions in the U.S., creating a paradox. These tours influenced global perceptions of America and supported civil rights movements at home and abroad. These lectures were a collaboration with The Music Program in the Department of the Arts at AUC.

Date: 2-3 Nov. 2025

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Preface, Editors Wacana

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Kawi Culture, Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, Aditia Gunawan

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Literature Across Generations; The Old Javanese Epic Poem "Bhāratayuddha" Translated Into Modern Javanese, Keiko Kamiishi

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a revival movement of classical Javanese (Kawi) literature arose in the royal courts of south Central Java. As part of this revival, Old Javanese literary works were rewritten in Modern Javanese, giving Javanese people at that time renewed access to their literary heritage. The paper deals with a specific manuscript, Add MS 12279 in the British Library, which contains Modern Javanese word-for-word and line-for-line “translations” inserted between lines of the Old Javanese epic poem Bhāratayuddha. The unique structure of the manuscript reveals the translation strategies used to address the challenges of balancing the …

Tracing The Transformation Of The "Ruwatan" Rituals In Java From The Fifteenth To The Twenty–First Century, Muhammad Heno Wijayanto, I Made Suparta, Turita Indah Setyani

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

This article explores the transformation of ruwatan (purification) rituals in Java from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first century, focusing on the changes that occurred based on archaeological relics and texts related to ruwatan rituals. A thorough study in connecting archaeological relics, such as reliefs in Sukuh Temple, with puja (ritual worship) texts used in ruwatan rituals and the transformation of these texts from their origins within Kawi culture through to the Islamic period and the present day, has not been attempted. This research aims to identify and analyse the transformation of ruwatan rituals from the fifteenth century, as reflected …