Maculinities and Violence in Indonesia and India

Masculinities and Violence in Indonesia and India

Researchers: A/Prof Pam Nilan, A/Prof Alex Broom & Prof John Germov

AusAID Australian Development Research Awards, 2009-2010, $116 526

Project overview
This project addresses the significant problem of civil violence and its implications for development initiatives. Civil violence presents a major obstacle to good governance and sustainable development projects in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. Yet remarkably little research has been conducted with males, despite their central role in perpetuating cultures of violence. There is an urgent need to gain a better understanding of the forms of masculinity that are being expressed (and targeted) when men engage in civil violence.

In areas of India and Indonesia, civil violence is a taken-for-granted facet of everyday life. There is frequent political rioting, and clashes between local militias and the police/military. In such contexts, violence is often viewed by local populations as inevitable and even mundane in its initial stages. However, isolated sites of civil violence can escalate into looting, destruction of property, assault, rape, and murder on a much larger scale. Such escalations have serious psychological impacts for the individuals involved, present major barriers to development programs, and have economic implications for developing nations such as India and Indonesia.

While we know that there are specific kinds of masculinity associated with participation in civil violence, there is a paucity of research in this area. Most gender-specific initiatives in development aid and research, quite understandably, focus on the empowerment of women as a priority. Documenting women’s experience has been a natural and important focus. However, we argue that understanding male aggression from a male perspective is key to facilitating cultural change. This study aims to document men’s everyday experiences, and work towards devising interventions that encourage men to seek alternative methods of protest and change.

The study aims to:

Offer new comparative understandings of Asian masculinities in historical, social and economic perspective
Illustrate key mechanisms through which forms of hegemonic masculinity are enacted as violence in local contexts
Provide critical analysis of the discourses of masculinity within accounts of Islam in Indonesia and Hinduism in India as locally practiced and understood
Map the impacts of male civil violence on selected development programs and specific community projects
Formulate gender and culture-sensitive principles for researching masculinities and working with men in circumstances of civil violence.

This study is currently in the communication and research dissemination phase.

Project outputs

Journal publications

Nilan, P. (2009) 'Contemporary Masculinities and Young Men in Indonesia,' Indonesia and the
Malay World, 37:109,327-344. Available here

Nilan, P., Broom, A., Demartoto, A., Doron, A., Nayar, K. and Germov, J. (2008) 'Masculinities and violence in India and Indonesia: Identifying themes and constructs for research,' Journal of Health and Development, 4 1: 209-228. Available here

Conference papers

Nilan, P., Broom, A., Demartoto, A., Doron, A., Nayar, K. and Germov, J. (2010) 'Masculinities and Violence in Indonesia and India,' Paper presented to the 9th Conference of the Asia-Pacific Sociological Association (APSA), Kartika Plaza Hotel, Bali, Indonesia, 13-15 June. Available here

Nilan, P. (2010) 'The Gang, Violence and the Life Course for Indonesian Male Youth,' Paper for XVII World Congress of Sociology (ISA – RC34), Gothenburg, Sweden, 11-17 July 2010. Available here

Miscellaneous