The Dynamics of Indonesia's Middle Class in the Vortex of Global Consumerism: Lifestyle, Symbolic Distinction, and the Contradictions of Social Aspiration amid Neoliberal Economic Uncertainty
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Abstract
The Indonesian middle class has emerged as a pivotal social stratum whose consumption behaviors are increasingly shaped by the intersections of global capital flows, digital media ecosystems, and neoliberal economic imperatives. Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's field theory—particularly his concepts of capital, habitus, and distinction—this article critically examines the complex dynamics through which Indonesia's expanding middle class negotiates its social identity, aspiration, and symbolic boundaries within the context of global consumerism. Through a systematic qualitative review of empirical studies and secondary datasets, this research identifies three central tensions: (1) the aspiration-precarity paradox, wherein middle-class households simultaneously pursue upward symbolic mobility while remaining structurally vulnerable to economic downturns; (2) the glocalization of taste, wherein global consumption norms are selectively appropriated and hybridized with local cultural and religious values, producing distinctive consumption repertoires such as the halal lifestyle economy; and (3) the platformization of distinction, wherein digital platforms—particularly social media and e-commerce ecosystems—have restructured the field of symbolic competition, enabling new forms of distinction while simultaneously commodifying identity. The findings suggest that Indonesia's middle class occupies a fundamentally ambivalent position: aspirationally upward-mobile yet structurally precarious, globally oriented yet locally rooted, consumer-sovereign yet platform-dependent. This study contributes to sociological debates on class formation in the Global South by arguing that the Indonesian case represents a distinctive configuration of middle-class subjectivity under conditions of late neoliberal capitalism.
Keywords
Middle class; consumerism; symbolic distinction; neoliberalism; Bourdieu; Indonesia; lifestyle politics; platform capitalism
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