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

Demographics & general characteristics

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

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

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

make social distinctions become a culture

nurture perceptions of disparity

reinforce group’s identity and spirits