Consuming Indonesia

During the last few decades, Indonesia has experienced unprecedented economic growth, resulting in shifts in more ways beyond income. The consumption of an ever wider range of products and services, and even the ways of consumption have changed over recent decades.

Rather than providing a systematic statistical survey of consumption, this book aims to draw attention to the ways individuals in Indonesian society—in particular the growing middle classes—engage with different products and services. The product of a multinational research group based at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, Consuming Indonesia brings together discussions of changes in Jakarta markets, over consumption of education in a Jakarta kampung, bathroom tiles on the front of rural Javanese houses, Disneyfication of housing for suburban elites, shifts in class awareness, food and massages in Jakarta’s malls, and consumption of cultural products like Islamic women’s fiction and stories about the tragedy of 1965 .

“The second book by a Keio University-based research group, this innovative collection of studies about contemporary Indonesian society is a sign of the growing cultural and intellectual interactions between Japan and Indonesia.” —Dr. Iqbal Djawad - Education and Cultural Attaché, Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo