Konstruktionen des Westens im Fach Internationale Politik: Eine Untersuchung indonesischer Hochschullehrer
Political Science
Final Report Abstract
The research project entitled Konstruktionen des Westens im Fach Intemationale Politik: Eine Untersuchung indonesischer Hochschullehrer im Rahmen der Forschergruppe „Jenseits von Okzidentalismus. Konzeptionen des 'Westens' in Asien" (Constructions of the West through International Relations Scholars; A Study of Indonesian University Lecturers) had examined the impact of socialization on the perceptions and construction of knowledge and images of West among Indonesian IR scholars. The empirical findings of this research confirms the underlying idea of this project that social interaction provides prospects for reviewing and eventually discarding long held stereotypes and misperceptions between social actors. International exposure, as the findings of this project suggest, has increased the recognition of common characteristics of humanity. This recognition, however is no guarantee of a positive view towards the West. In other words, overseas education and socialization with liberal conceptions in the Western Europe and the U.S. have no clear positive impact on the images of the West. Rather, research interests, extra-academic activities, national history and politics of representation play an equally important role in shaping the scholars' perceptions. Together with the Orientalist discourse they make up the cognitive repertoire or "knowledge pool," from which ideas, images, knowledge and identity of Western countries, may be activated. Although Occidentalism was invented as the antithesis of Orientalism, it has persisted to reproduce the binary thinking previously created by the latter. Relying on a wide range of materials and a mixed-method approach, the project highlights the ambivalence, fuzziness and tensions that are inherent in the construction of ideas and knowledge. It also went beyond the conventional study of attitudes and perceptions in IR to examine the multiple discourses and meanings. One important question which arises from the reflection of the research findings concerns the constructivist accounts for social identity and localization of ideas. To date, social constructivism in IR - the school of thought upon which this project was initiated - has focused largely on the impact of socialization on identity change, and on why some ideas are adopted, while others are either syncretized or entirely rejected. In the process, it has overlooked the reflexive nature of social encounter and socialization. The argument put forth by some interview participants that democracy has long existed in Indonesia and is therefore not foreign to them reflects neither the rhetorical adoption of democracy, nor an internalization of democratic norms. Rather it is an indication of the participants' self-reflection after they have encountered with, and learned about, the concept of democracy. In other words, democracy as a foreign term, could implicitly become part of the Indonesian socio-cultural identity because of its meaning that is associated with the ideas such as consultation and consensus that are considered part of the local culture. Whether democracy has indeed existed in Indonesia is thus less important than how democracy is understood and presented. Following this line of argument, the socialization of new norms and ideas cannot be separated from self-reflection as well as the negotiation of meaning., The consideration of the reflexive nature of social encounter could complement the existing constructivist explanation for identity change in IR.
Publications
- (2011) Beyond Occidentalism: Indonesian International Relations Scholars and their Perceptions of the World, Workshop on "Indonesia's Foreign Policy in the Era Refonvasi: New identities, Changing Interests," 11 July 2011, National University of Singapore
Nguitragool, Paruedee
- (2012) "God-King and Indonesia: Renegotiating the Boundaries between Western and non-Western Perspectives on Foreign Policy," Pacific Affairs, 85:4, 723-743
Nguitragool, Paruedee
- (2012) Topics, Theories and Experience: What's Different in Interviewing in Southeast Asia, Conference on "Methodology in Southeast Asian Studies: Grounding Research - Mixing Methods," 29-31 May 2012, Freiburg
Nguitragool, Paruedee
