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Characteristics of the New Middle Class in Indonesia - Coggle Diagram
Characteristics of the New Middle Class in Indonesia
Culture of the new middle class in Indonesia
Constantly
distinguishing themselves from lower class
of the society by creating social hierarchies through creating and
promoting a “modern” consumption lifestyle
Channels
to promote such appropriations of lifestyle images
Radio
Press
TV
Employees in the media industry
Regarded themselves as the
interpreters of lifestyles
and the
providers of symbolic goods of “modernity”
Significantly
altered people’s perceptions
on what is real, what is possible, and what is fictional
Lifestyle emerged as a tool to establish and to maintain collective identities
Demographics & general characteristics
Who managed to
accomplish higher education
(high school or university graduates)
Earned enough money to participate in a
modern consumer culture
through
consuming symbolic items of the middle-class consumption
The
socio-economic backgrounds
of the members of the new middle class
are vastly different:
civil servants constituted the largest proportion of the middle class
Membership
was
determined by lifestyles and consumption patterns
rather than by income level
Active lifestyle regardless of actual social and economic situations
Symbolic consumption and “lifestyling”
A set of
superficial activities
whose sole purpose was to
manifesting the virtual sense of belonging to a particular social class
instead of reflecting the actual economic well-being of the new middle class’s members
Only few members of the new middle class can afford Western or urbanized lifestyles.
Even
though their occupations are socially prestigious, their income cannot afford the equivalent lifestyles.
Strive to maintain their membership while ignoring their social and economic
reality by indulging in
substitutional activities
(going to Western restaurants, wearing brand name’s clothes, and so on)
Lifestyle shopping
Prevalent among the Indonesian young adults
Fashion
became their mechanism of “
lifestyling
”
Because of the
increased investment in brand names,
the
rise of secondhand market
took place subsequently.
The most popular way to get access to lifestyle items was called
“resource pooling”
. A group of people will gather their limited resources to obtain a shared collection of brand name clothes
The places where lifestyle shopping took place were also where people gather and interact with each other.
Education and “lifestyling”
Education
is one of the
determining factors
to decide whether a person belongs to the new middle class
The
actual qualifications of the certificate holders might not be reasonable justified.
This is because the
main concerns
of contemporary education system
were not placed on the quality of educational curriculum
but on the ability to generate more certificate holders
Housing consumption
Privatization and the protection of privacy
was on the increase. There were changes from traditional to modern housing practices. The reluctance to share privately-owned goods to neighbors has urged certain middle-class families to
move from inner city into housing estates
In the past, there was social pressure to share consumption assets (bicycles, TVs, radios) to neighbors. However, people now try to
minimize contact with neighbors
, and some
parents even prevent their children from hanging out with kids from the lower strata
Collective lifestyle strategies
The urge to establish
a sense of belonging to a particular social group
Strategic group theory
Powerful groups, such as the
military
and the
bureaucracy
, take actions to
seize economic goods, and eventually cultural and symbolic goods
Their ultimate goal
make social distinctions become a culture
nurture perceptions of disparity
reinforce group’s identity and spirits
The transformation of “quasi group” example
After the transformation, the group solidarity and integration was established as self-recruitment and common lifestyles.
People in the same occupational group adopt identical outfit items which have socially distinctive function.
Those who ranked lower in the group strive to identify with high-ranked members.
This resulted in
financial dilemma
in which they have to stretch their financial abilities to adopt such lifestyles either by committing monetary corruption or symbolic consumption
People who were classified into the new middle class in terms of education and occupation (but not income level) underwent
acute pressure to maintain their social status through creating symbolic spaces
(decorating house with iconic furniture that has Western elements)
Conclusion
Prestige and social status,
which can be derived from lifestyles and consumption patterns, become
negotiable values
amid the rapid capitalist economic development
Local elements lost their significance
and were
replaced by Western and globalized symbols
Even though there was an overall decrease in the income and expenditure across members of the new middle class, if they were still capable of maintaining
“symbolic consumption”
, they would insist on doing so