Integritas Terbuka: Peace and Interfaith Studies

Social Violence Representation in BandungBergerak.id Media: A Conflict Study of Johan Galtung

2026-05-17T18:24:55+07:00

This study aims to analyze the representation of conflict and social violence in the alternative media coverage of BandungBergerak.id using Johan Galtung’s ABC Triangle theory. This study is important because social conflict in urban society does not only appear in the form of physical violence, but also operates through structural and cultural violence that often remains invisible in everyday life. This study employed a qualitative research design using a virtual ethnography approach. The researcher selected the virtual ethnography method because the study focused on social activities and conflict representations that developed within digital spaces. The research data originated from the documentation of BandungBergerak.id news articles discussing bullying, restrictions on religious worship, femicide, forced evictions, and environmental conflicts. The researcher then analyzed the data using narrative analysis techniques through Johan Galtung’s ABC Triangle theoretical framework. The findings show that social conflict in BandungBergerak.id coverage does not only represent direct violence such as intimidation, bullying, femicide, and forced evictions, but also reveals structural violence through discriminatory policies, social marginalization, and weak state protection toward vulnerable groups. In addition, this study found cultural violence operating through patriarchy, intolerance, social stigma, and discriminatory language that normalize inequality within society. The findings also demonstrate that BandungBergerak.id presents narratives of conflict transformation through social empathy, community solidarity, environmental movements, and nonviolent practices based on constructive journalism. This study contributes to the development of Johan Galtung’s conflict studies by expanding the analysis of the relationship between digital media, structural violence, and conflict transformation in contemporary urban society. The originality of this study lies in its use of a virtual ethnography approach and the ABC Triangle theory to examine local alternative media as both a space for conflict representation and an arena for peace transformation.

Christian Realism of Reinhold Niebuhr in the Multipolar Geopolitical Crisis of the Twenty-First Century

2026-05-07T16:11:46+07:00

This study analyzes Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism as a framework of political ethics for addressing the multipolar geopolitical crisis of the twenty-first century. The study emerges from the limitations of mainstream international relations theories, such as realism, liberalism, constructivism, and critical geopolitics, which have not adequately provided a normative foundation for responding to global conflicts, structural injustice, neoliberalism, and contemporary digital geopolitics. The study employs a qualitative approach based on library research and focuses on theological and hermeneutical analyses of Reinhold Niebuhr’s thought. The researcher collected data through documentation studies and academic literature reviews, while the analysis employed hermeneutical interpretation, interdisciplinary dialogue, and normative synthesis. The primary sources include Niebuhr’s major works, especially Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man, along with various scholarly works on political theology and contemporary geopolitics. The findings demonstrate that Christian Realism offers a framework of political ethics that realistically acknowledges human sin and egoism while maintaining a normative commitment to justice and moral responsibility in global politics. Christian Realism operates at epistemological, normative, and practical levels in interpreting multipolarity, international conflict, neoliberalism, and global digital domination. The implications of this study indicate that Christian Realism can function as an alternative framework of global political ethics capable of bridging political realism and moral values within the context of contemporary systemic chaos. The originality of this study lies in its effort to reconstruct Christian Realism as a framework of geopolitical ethics that responds contextually to multipolarity and digital geopolitics in the twenty-first century.

Negotiating Tradition and Digitalization: The Cultural Agency of Indigenous Communities in Social Media Adaptation in Indonesia

2026-06-02T11:55:57+07:00

This study analyzes how indigenous communities in Indonesia, particularly the Cireundeu Indigenous Community, manage the relationship between tradition and digitalization through practices of cultural agency in the use of social media. The study employs a qualitative approach with a case study design through interviews, participant observation, and analysis of community social media content. The findings show that digital adaptation in Cireundeu occurs through three forms of cultural agency. First, community elders demonstrate a cautious attitude toward social media as an effort to preserve the continuity of cultural values (resist). Second, the community adjusts the use of technology to existing customary norms (negotiate). Third, younger generations utilize social media for cultural education, tourism promotion, identity representation, and local economic development (enact). This process is supported by collaboration among community members, universities, local government institutions, and other digital actors. The study shows that the community does not perceive social media as a threat to tradition. Instead, community members use social media as a medium to reproduce cultural identity and expand the visibility of the indigenous community. This study contributes to the scholarship on indigenous communities and digital transformation by proposing a cultural agency-based digital adaptation model that explains the relationship between tradition and technology within the context of indigenous communities in Indonesia.

Art as a Medium of Peace: An Aesthetic Analysis of Galtung’s Conflict Transformation Theory

2026-05-17T18:30:06+07:00

This study aims to analyze the role of art as a medium for conflict transformation and peacebuilding through the perspective of Johan Galtung’s conflict transformation theory. This inquiry is important because art not only has the potential to serve as a means of reconciliation and peacebuilding but can also function as a medium for disseminating hatred and legitimizing symbolic violence. The study employs a qualitative approach using a library research method. The data derive from various scholarly sources that discuss conflict transformation theory, philosophy of art, aesthetics, the psychology of empathy, and peace studies. The study analyzes the data through a descriptive-critical approach by examining the concepts of creativity, nonviolence, and empathy, which constitute the core components of Galtung’s conflict transformation theory. The findings demonstrate that creativity plays a crucial role in developing alternative and peaceful solutions to conflict, while nonviolence constitutes an intrinsic characteristic of art that distinguishes it from practices of direct violence. At the same time, empathy does not always generate peace because, under certain conditions, it can encourage group exclusivism and hostility toward others. Consequently, conflict transformation requires the development of intergroup empathy (outgroup empathy) that transcends the boundaries of social identity. The study also finds that, according to several transcendental aesthetic theories, media intended to disseminate hatred do not fully satisfy the fundamental characteristics of art. These findings suggest that art possesses normative potential as a medium of peacebuilding when it strengthens creativity, nonviolence, and inclusive forms of empathy. The originality of this study lies in its effort to integrate Johan Galtung’s conflict transformation theory with the philosophy of art and aesthetic studies in order to explain the conceptual boundary between art as a medium of peace and art as a medium of hatred.

Overcoming Identity Politics through National Islam: The Relevance of Ahmad Syafii Maarif’s Thought for Contemporary Indonesia

2026-06-05T09:18:43+07:00

This study analyzes Ahmad Syafii Maarif’s thought on the relationship between Islam, the state, and nationhood and examines its relevance for addressing identity politics in contemporary Indonesia. This study is important because the mobilization of religious identities in the political arena has the potential to intensify social polarization and undermine national integration within a plural society. The study employs a qualitative approach using a library research method. The data consist of Ahmad Syafii Maarif’s major works and relevant academic literature, which are analyzed through Hassan Hanafi’s theory of Al-Turath wa al-Tajdid and Abdul Karim Soroush’s theory of Qabdh wa Bast. The findings show that Ahmad Syafii Maarif rejects the concept of ad-din wa ad-daulah because religion and the state possess fundamentally different characteristics. Religion is normative and transcendent, whereas the state is historical, dynamic, and open to change. In his view, Islam should function as a source of public ethics that guides national life, while the principle of shura serves as a meeting point between Islamic values, democracy, and Indonesian nationalism. Based on this perspective, Ahmad Syafii Maarif develops the concept of National Islam (Islam Kebangsaan), which places pluralism, justice, and humanity at the center of collective life. This concept offers an alternative to exclusive and sectarian forms of identity politics. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that National Islam represents a synthesis between the reconstruction of Islamic tradition and a contextual understanding of religion that can serve as a normative framework for strengthening democracy and social cohesion in Indonesia.

From Formal Recognition to Substantive Recognition: Citizenship Challenges of Confucianism in Post–New Order Indonesia

2026-06-08T13:18:21+07:00

This study aims to analyze the gap between formal recognition and substantive recognition of Confucianism in post–New Order Indonesia. Although the state has officially re-recognized Confucianism as a recognized religion since the Reformasi era, its adherents continue to face various challenges related to administrative services, social acceptance, and citizenship equality. This study employs a qualitative approach through a literature review of academic publications, legal documents, state regulations, population data, and previous studies on Confucianism, the politics of recognition, religious freedom, and citizenship in Indonesia. Using Charles Taylor’s politics of recognition perspective, this study identifies four major findings. First, the position of Confucianism within Indonesia’s legal system has undergone historical dynamics characterized by recognition, marginalization, and re-recognition. Second, the formal recognition granted by the state has not fully produced substantive recognition in public services and civil administration practices. Third, various forms of social racism and historical stigma against the Chinese-Confucian community persist despite the abolition of discriminatory state policies. Fourth, the Confucian community has developed various resilience strategies through institutional adaptation, education, social participation, and identity negotiation to maintain its presence within Indonesia’s public sphere. This study demonstrates that legal recognition does not always correspond directly to the realization of citizenship equality. Therefore, broader efforts are necessary to strengthen substantive recognition through policy reform, inclusive public services, and greater social acceptance of minority religious groups. As an original contribution, this study offers an interpretation of the Confucian community’s experience as an example of how recognition operates as a gradual, multilayered, and continuously negotiated process within Indonesia’s multicultural society.

Sunnatullah as a Bridge Between Revelation, Tradition, and Reason: The Relevance of Nurcholish Madjid’s Thought for Contemporary Indonesian Islamic Politics

2026-06-05T09:17:29+07:00

This study aims to analyze the relationship between revelation, tradition, and reason in the thought of Nurcholish Madjid and to explain its relevance to the development of Islamic politics in contemporary Indonesia. This study is important because debates concerning the relationship between Islam, modernity, and politics continue amid the growing tendency toward the formalization of religion in the public sphere. The study employs a qualitative approach and collects data through library research. The findings show that Nurcholish Madjid’s thought centers on tawhid as an epistemological principle that connects revelation, tradition, and reason through the concept of sunnatullah. He understands tradition as a source of values that must be dynamically reinterpreted to respond to social change, while he views modernization as an internal process that remains consistent with Islamic values. This framework generates a substantive vision of Islamic politics that prioritizes justice, democracy, pluralism, and public welfare over religious symbolism. The relevance of this perspective appears in the development of Indonesian Islamic politics, which demonstrates a gradual shift from formalism toward substantivism. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that the concept of sunnatullah functions as an epistemological bridge between revelation, tradition, and reason in the construction of substantive Islamic politics. These findings expand interpretations of Islamic neo-modernism within the context of contemporary Indonesia.

The Disorientation of Value Hierarchies among Generation Z in the Digital Age: A Max Schelerian Analysis

2026-05-17T18:32:39+07:00

This study aims to analyze the crisis of values, identity, and morality among Generation Z in the digital era through the perspective of Max Scheler’s philosophy of values. The study employs a qualitative approach through a literature review of philosophical works, scholarly articles, and previous studies that discuss Generation Z, digital culture, and Max Scheler’s theory of values. The findings demonstrate that digital culture encourages Generation Z to construct identity through digital recognition, reinforces the phenomenon of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and shapes moral orientations that are increasingly influenced by the logic of virality and social validation. From the perspective of Scheler’s hierarchy of values, this condition reflects the dominance of values of pleasure and vital values, while spiritual values and holy values occupy increasingly marginalized positions. As a result, a disorientation of value hierarchy emerges and influences how Generation Z understands the self, social relationships, and moral decision-making within digital spaces. This study expands the application of Max Scheler’s philosophy of values in Generation Z studies and digital sociology by demonstrating the relationship between digital culture, the transformation of value orientations, and moral crises in contemporary society.