Remixing environmentalism in Blora, Central Java 2005–10

Abstract

This article explores the environment movement that formed in Central Java after the New Order. It discusses how activists situate their movement at global, national and local scales, and compares this work of situating to the cultural process both Lessig and Knobel and Lankshear refer to as ‘remix’. The national network of student nature lovers’ clubs (Mahasiswa Pecinta Alam or Mapala), local genealogies of resistance to colonialism, the politics and styles of global punk, and the popular images of ‘green’ circulated by advertising and transnational environmental bodies, all contribute to the way environmental activists construct and perform multi-scaled identities. At first glance, these multiple scales may seem confusing and conflicted, but by framing their intersection as a process of remix, this article argues that they may be understood as tactical, and a feature of the new possibilities for activism offered by emerging media technologies.