#peacemaker: Cultivating Pluralist Dispositions among Bandung’s Peace Communities Online and Offline

Abstract

Abstract In Indonesia, the national motto of ‘unity in diversity’ is challenged, not least by a hardening of religious identities, coupled with rising levels of religious intolerance. In addition to established proponents of religious pluralism, groups of activists strive to sow the seeds of peace among the tech-savvy generation of young urbanites. By adopting the concept of ‘technology of the community’, I analyze the online and offline practices of peace activists in Bandung in 2018 to educate young #peacemakers and create spaces of empathy and solidarity. To address the emotional deprivation as well as aspirations of young people, peace groups rely on various offline and online technologies that straddle notions of comfort and discomfort, of tolerance and engagement. In creating and maintaining spaces of affective interpersonal exchange, these groups become exponents of local arrangements that are conducive to the cultivation of pluralist dispositions beyond national ideology.