Border and Mobility – Kerr Et Al

Urban Studies: Border and Mobility – Kerr et al. (Eds) © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-58034-3 Environmentalism and consumerism: The contradiction of globalization in behavior consumption of the urban middle class in Surabaya, Indonesia D.A. Arimbi, N. Wulan & F. Colombijn Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia ABSTRACT: The aim of this research is to study the human–environment interactions in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. We will focus on middle-class behavior because the middle class is most susceptible to globalizing impacts on the environment. This study uses a qualitative method: observation and purposive sampling (in-depth, open-ended interviews) in Surabaya and the data are taken from 2017 to 2018. The targeted findings of this research are the consumption behaviors of the urban-middle class in Surabaya and how this class negotiates between environmentalism and consumerism. Important findings include models of consumption and environmental awareness of the middle class in Sura- baya. One most important finding indicates that the higher the social class the individual is, the less s/he is concerned with environmental issues. The choice of middle-class consumptive lifestyles functions as a strong influence for its members to neglect their environmental con- sciousness for the sake of prestige and consumption. Keywords: globalization, environmentalism, consumption, Surabaya 1 INTRODUCTION The contemporary global environmental crisis is arguably the single most important issue faced by our world. Local issues of human health, threatened by air pollution, unclean water, inadequate collection of solid waste, and a failing sewerage system, are particularly pertinent to the lives of millions of inhabitants of cities in the Global South (Drakakis-Smith 1995). The North is notorious for its indulgence in consumption, but people in the South aspire to the same ‘modern’ lifestyle as people in the North. Economic growth will enable them to realize these aspirations. What will happen when the populations of Indonesia, China, India, Brazil, and other emerging economies consume at the same level per capita as the North? This question is not meant to lead attention away from the Northern responsibility for its problematic consumption and production methods, nor to deny emerging economies their fair share of global resources and high consumption levels! But the question does empha- size that the economic development of countries in the South will create problems for the environment. The aim of this research is to study the human–environment interactions in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. We will focus on middle-class behavior, because, as will be detailed in the literature review below, the middle class is most susceptible to globalizing impacts on the environment. These global forces produce two contradictory results. On the negative side, global models (from the West, but also for instance from emerging economies such as China) stimulate wasteful consumption patterns. Indonesians follow global fashion trends, aspire to use a car instead of alternative transportation, use air-conditioning (con- sidered ‘modern’) instead of making use of natural ways of cooling a house, and so on. On the positive side, global models of environmentalism also make an impact on the Indonesian middle class and stimulate its members to behave in an eco-friendly way. Such models of 223 pro-environmental behavior can come from an environmentalist discourse, but also, for instance, from Islam or other religions. Indonesia is rife with paradoxical examples of this double influence. For instance, as we once noted the car-free day in Semarang was opened by the Governor of Central Java, who came to the event by car. He found it beneath his dignity not to arrive by car. Another example is offered by environmental activists who hold a conference in a luxurious hotel on Bali; both the aerial flight and climate conditions in the hotel have no doubt harmed the environment. The specific purpose of the research is to answer the central question addressed in this proposal, which is how urban middle-class Indonesians negotiate the contradictory global influences of wasteful consumption and environmental care. The research is very important to understand human–environmental interactions at a theoretical level. The results will also add to a global, comparative understanding of the effects of economic growth. And finally the research will produce practical insights that can be used to build environmental awareness and action in Indonesia. Part of the research needed to be conducted in the Netherlands. Accepting the definition of the Brundtland Commission that sustainable development is development that “meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987), any study of sustainable development must have a time depth of at least one generation. Therefore adding a historical perspective to study contemporary environmental sustainability is imperative. Due to the Indonesian-Dutch postcolonial legacy, there is by far no country in the Global South with equally rich historical sources than the Netherlands, which enable the study of human–environment interactions. Just as important is the fact that the KITLV in Leiden has the best library resources on Indonesia anywhere in the world. The most innovative aspect of this proposal (the urgency of this research) is the choice to study the dialectics between the contradictory global trends of environmentalism and consumerism of the middle class. Existing studies of middle-class consumption in Indonesia (e.g. Robison 1996; Tanter and Young 1990) do not focus on the environmental consequences of these consumption styles. Existing studies of the environment have too much ignored Indo- nesia, which is a serious mistake. As the fourth largest country in the world, situated in one of the most dynamic parts of the world, Southeast Asia, Indonesia should be of prime concern for a study on the environment in emerging economies in all circumstances. The study is also innovative in its conscious use of a historical approach, as a necessary prerequisite for an environmental study. To study history is not, as so often, an aim in itself, but is indispensable for testing the sustainability of contemporary institutions. This approach will enrich theoretical debates about both scavenging and middle-class consumptive lifestyles. 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE The literature on environmental problems is enormous. If we focus only on solid waste, the number of scientific publications about waste is as overwhelming as the volume of waste itself. There are also many specialized journals, like Waste Management, or Resources, Con- servation and Recycling about solid waste. Growing urbanization and economic development have made the issue of urban pollution, and the treatment of waste in particular, more pressing than ever. Economic growth produces more pollution; conversely, growing pollution threatens the sustainability of (economic) development. Urban pollution not only puts economic growth at risk and negatively affects human health but also imperils human well-being in general (Davis 2007). The influential Brundtland Commission contends that economic and social development can go together with preservation of our resources and does not need to happen at the expense of chances of development for future generations (WCED 1987). This contention, however, is a moot point. David Satterthwaite, for instance, argues that the key to environmental degradation is found in middle-class and elite consumption patterns and the urban- based production and distribution systems that serve them (Satterthwaite 2003: 74). If we accept the working hypothesis that urban poverty is not necessarily the biggest cause of 224 environmental degradation in the Global South (Ghanimé and Jahan 2004; Martínez-Alier 1995), but wealth might create problems, the question arises as to what impact growing prosperity will make. It is not just growing prosperity that is creating environmental challenges, but the modernization of the world. In the modernized world, or, in Zygmunt Bauman’s words, at a time of “liquid modernity”, when fixed, traditional frameworks were abandoned, people had the freedom, but were also required, to make individual choices to determine their position in society, still, of course, within societal constraints (Bauman 2000: 18–23). One way to find one’s place in modern society is by consumptive choices. While the drive to modernization was perhaps led by the West, societies outside the West (who were often once colonized by the West) adopted modernity as well, but selectively; they picked what suited them best (Colom- bijn and Coté 2015). In Indonesia, advertisements in newspapers and journals from the mid- twentieth century promoted fashionable clothes, electric lighting, and modern kitchenware. Also less tangible things and certain behavior conveyed the idea of modernity: Western music, American films, smoking cigarettes, and, especially for women, the use of toothpaste and having fresh breath (Basundoro 2015; Husain 2015; Khusyairi and Colombijn 2015; Kusno 2010: 168–81; Maier 1997; Schulte Nordholt 1997: 20). In a process of objectification, people engage with material objects and as consumers reso- cialize commodities from which they had become estranged as producers (Miller 1995: 143). Thorstein Veblen used the

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