8 th Euroseas conference Vienna, 11–14 August 2015

— Gaharu King – Family Queen? The Gaharu Boom: Gender Symmetries and new Evolving Masculinities in 
Kalimantan, Indonesia 
Kristina Grossmann (University of Passau)
The rising exploitation of Gaharu (Eaglewood), which is embedded in global economic dynamics, leads to far reach-
ing social and economic transformations in involved Dayak families and communities. Giving empirical insights in 
the change and reproduction of gender relations with focus on new evolving masculinities, this paper contributes to 
analyses of gender-specific transformation processes in the context of environmental change.
In the last years, Gaharu has become – caused by the rise of its value on the world market higher than gold – an im-

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
80
portant source of income especially for members of Dayak communities in forested regions of central Kalimantan, as 
e.g. Punan and Bekumpai. The search for Gaharu is structured by changing male dominated patron-client relations in 
which those who find and trade the precious scented wood gain huge amounts of money as well as status and power. 
Gender relations related to Gaharu are strictly separated: Men search for several weeks in the forest whereas women 
maintain the family and social structures in the village. Although gender relations are symmetrical, roles, responsi-
bilities, access, and control show little flexibility. As Gaharu is a possibility to gain or lose huge amounts of money, 
it serves especially for young male adults as a frame for their self-conception, gendered identities and future plans. 
The monetary benefit is predominantly shared in the family and not in the community. Therefore, the Gaharu boom 
causes as well ad hoc inequalities, which can lead – in interdependency with formal inequalities – to exclusions and 
tensions within the community.
— Keeping the Balance? Environmental Change and Gender Relations among the Dayak Benuaq in East Kali-
mantan, Indonesia 
Michaela Haug (University of Cologne)
Global markets increasingly expand into rural areas of Indonesia. Commercial logging, oil palm plantations and 
coal mining have far reaching impacts on the environment and local economic systems in East Kalimantan like for 
example the loss of land and forest resources, the shift from subsistence economy to more wage labor, the shift from 
self-reliance to increasing dependency and from life in the village to life in growing semi-urban centers. Following 
common assumptions, these changes are likely to produce asymmetrical gender relations. However, I argue that the 
Dayak Benuaq uphold central elements of gender equality despite these far reaching changes. Based on a short ethno-
graphic account of gender relations among the Dayak Benuaq I want to discuss the stability of equal gender systems 
and how such insights might be used to enhance our thinking of gender (in)equality.
— Gendered Ruination in the Philippines and Vietnam: Climate Change, (In)Security, and Violence in a Cross-
Southeast Asian Perspective 
Helle Rydstrom (Lund University), Huong Thu Nguyen (Lund University)
Climate disasters do not only ruin lives and societies but also fuel gender imbalances and exacerbate male-to-female 
violence. The people, who experience the greatest negative impacts and suffer the most after a catastrophe, are those 
who were already in vulnerable positions prior to the devastating occurrence. In the aftermath of a climate catastro-
phe, abuse against girls and women increase due to various conditions such as a lack of safety in resettlement areas and 
shelters, the collapse of a society’s socio-cultural infrastructure and safety systems, and violence perpetrated by a part-
ner or a relative in the sphere of the family (Oxfam 2010; UNDP 2013; UNFPA 2010). This paper focuses on the gen-
dered and sexualized violence to which girls and women are subjected in the Philippines and Vietnam before, during, 
and after a climate disaster (Louie and Low 2005; Nguyen 2010; Pringle et.al. 2011). By exploring how discourses of 
masculinity and femininity inform power and abuse in two different Asian contexts, the paper considers first, the legal 
framework which has been ratified in the two countries to protect girls and women from abuse; second, organiza-
tional interventions undertaken to prevent and combat various kinds of violence against girls and women; and third, 
individual and collective experiences of climate catastrophe related violence. A cross-Southeast Asian ethnographic 
approach to the study of disaster-specific violence, the paper would suggest, can shed new light on the intricate ways 
in which the intersections between gender, (in)security, and ruination allow for brutal attempts of transforming girls 
and women into bare life (Agamben 1998, 2005; Butler 2004; Rydstrom 2012, 2014; Stoler 2013).
— Looking at Environmental Change through the Lenses of Gender and Sociality: Economic and Environmental 
Transformations in a Khmu Village in the Lao PDR 
Rosalie Stolz (University of Cologne)
Recent processes of transformation among the Khmu of NW Laos – triggered by agricultural intensification, develop-
ment policies and environmental conservation – will be approached by a focus on house(hold)composition and the 
availability of labour force against the background of concepts and practices of kinship-based sociality.
As it will be shown by examples from fieldwork, “traditional” kinds of socio-ritual difference might translate into 
socio-economic inequalities. A case in point are houses lacking male labour force, which have a less advantageous 

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
81
economic point of departure. Locally, a gap between winners and losers of new economic opportunities is recognised, 
with concepts of “poverty” and “wealth” getting new connotations. Economic transition and the consequences in the 
fields of ritual life, inter- and intra-house-relations are already foreshadowed in local debates about morally right eco-
nomic behaviour and village solidarity. 
The underlying perspective of this analysis is marked by two presuppositions: first that economic and environmental 
transformation are not only coming from above, but are made sense of and are creatively used by localised persons 
and thereby re-transformed, and, second, that an analysis of gender should be combined with an analysis of kinship 
and sociality to understand the complexity of economic and environmental transformation in a local or regional set-
ting.
— Men Accessing Natural Resources in West Aceh amid Norms and Transformations 
Giacomo Tabacco (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)
I draw from my PhD fieldwork about the active life and the circulation of male artisanal goldminers, gemstones’ seek-
ers and loggers in West Aceh, Indonesia. In this paper I take into consideration three connected events: the sudden 
and lucrative gold-rush of 2008 in Krueng Sabee surroundings, the subsequent decline of its gold production and the 
mass search for the cheaper gemstones, which has recently occurred in the same area. The resulting all-male activities 
have penetrated and transformed most of the existing sites of rural labour and retail, which
previously have been shared by both men and women. On the one hand I demonstrate how the exploitation of natural 
resources has replicated and sometimes strengthen the normative order regarding work and gender. On the other 
hand I analyze how the experience of labouring in an altered natural and work environment have been fostering 
original subjectivities among active men, mostly with regard to their responsibilities, their sense of exclusion and their
impulses to enjoy themselves.
Panel: What Role for Southeast Asia in the Field of Youth Studies?
conveners: Roy Huijsmans (Institute of Social Studies), Suzanne Naafs (University of South Australia)
discussant: Stephanie Geertman (Institut National De La Recherche Scientifique)
panel abstract
Whilst still predominated by research in the Global North, the field of youth studies is rapidly diversifying in geo-
graphical terms. One reason for this is the demographic presence of youth in the Global South due to a ‘youth bulge’ 
or demographic shift towards youth. Throughout the Global South, young people have taken on central and complex 
roles as political actors and media activists, as seen in their role in the Arab Spring and Occupy movement. In addi-
tion, the phenomenon of educated youth unemployment calls into question the links between education, employment 
and economic growth and challenges prominent theories about social reproduction and mobility. Finally, the appar-
ent disinterest among youth in farming and rural futures raises questions about the place of the rural in the lives and 
aspirations for modernity among young Southeast Asians.
Southeast Asian research with/on youth stands out for its relative absence in any of these debates, despite it being 
a highly youthful region. Indeed, Southeast Asia is part of the Asia-Pacific region that is home to 60 per cent of the 
world’s youth population (aged 16-25). This panel invites contributions that address this apparent paradox and ulti-
mately contribute to the question of what Southeast Asian research has to contribute to the wider and quickly evolving 
field of youth studies. Given the rapid socio-economic developments characterising much of Southeast Asia and the 
relative absence of large-scale youth protests the panel seeks to explore the unique contribution of Southeast Asian 
research on/with youth in a focus on everyday struggles of being young and growing up (instead of a focus on ‘spec-
tacular youth’), rapidly changing inter-generational relations that reconfigure the social position of young people, 
social mobility through education and migration, and questions about gendered futures and desires for modernity 
among youth.

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
82
— “Life is ART”: New Emerging Youth Networks in Hanoi
Stephanie Geertman (Institut National De La Recherche Scientifique)
Drawing on two empirical case studies of emerging youths networks in Hanoi, a network of artists and a network of 
green activists, we explore what it means to be young and to be growing up in a communist city recently integrating 
the global economy and culture. How do the new links to foreign worlds shape youth identities and youth networks, 
and how do these emerging youth networks approach the socio-political constraints characterizing Vietnam? We 
suggest that these youth networks carve out new spaces for themselves in order to experiment with new identities 
and behaviours largely through non-confrontational approaches in the face of intergenerational conflicts and political 
constraints. Through their practices in public spaces, youth groups seek recognition (their ‘right to the city’) by the 
larger society.
Exploring their subtle tactics to “be” in public spaces and live their life “as art”, that is in a more free-flowing and un-
predictable way that socialist and confucianist values would allow for, the paper aims to contribute to global debates 
on youth cultures. Much of the work on youth, in North and South America, and in Europe, focuses on either the 
“threatening” role of youths, or their transgressive and confrontational behavior. In this paper, we argue that a closer 
empirical analysis of youth tactics in Vietnam would contribute to a new understanding of their subtle and non-
confrontational political roles.
Case 1: The Young Nha San Artists
The Nha San artist group was banned in 2010. The collective initially established as Nha San Studio in 1998, provided 
an uncensored space for artists to develop their work freely. The collective had been operating underground for many 
years, they gathered in a private house on stilts (called Nha San) in the fringe of Hanoi. The new younger generation 
of Nha San artists has been exposed to artists and the art scenes abroad. Many Nha San young artists are not embraced 
by the Vietnamese authorities or society, but did receive considerable support by foreign organizations. They take part 
in residencies, in shows and biennales abroad. Within this new context they searched for ways to be able to engage 
with audiences as well in their own country. In 2012 this younger generation established the Nha San Collective, as 
formal non-governmental organization with the aim of being accepted socially. Instead of functioning underground, 
they now apply for permissions for each event . However their activities are not always approved by the authorities as 
well their new ideas sometimes lead to conflicts with the older generation of artists.
Case 2: The Green Youth Activists
On 24 March 2015 the city authorities of Hanoi started cutting down 6700 trees in favor of modernizing the city, with-
out informing the public. This let to the establishment of several Facebook protest pages where experts opined that the 
current plan to replant is unconvincing. One of the pages “6,700 people for 6,700 trees” sought 6,700 “likes” and had 
55,000 likes within 1 day. In a country where protesting and speaking up against the government is not allowed, young 
people creatively organized a ‘picnic’ in a space where it is not allowed, as way of protest. The city responded that the 
plans would be postponed until they could be reviewed. Since then a movement of youths has developed alongside 
the ongoing Facebook discussion. It now organizes every Sunday “peaceful walks”. These however are not without 
incidents and frictions with the authorities. During the 6th Sunday walk on 26 April 2015, the authorities started to 
arrest groups of youths, loading groups of female youngster onto busses, and one of the key organizers was assaulted 
by officers without uniform a few days before the last walk.
— Youth, Phones and Companies: Insights from Southeast Asia
Roy Huijsmans (Institute of Social Studies)
The last decade has seen a growing literature in the anthropology of Information and Communication Technologies, 
such as mobile phones, the internet and facebook. Whilst much of this focuses on research in rich countries, it also 
includes some notable work in the Global South. This latter body of work is important since it is based on very differ-
ent premises than the dominant ICT4D discourse. Instead of asking how the introduction of particular technologies 
can contribute to predefined development goals, anthropological research on ICTs has concentrated on how such 
technologies are appropriated and what they have become in the hands of highly diverse groups of users.
 This presentation seeks to push the debate further from a generational perspective. It does so by marking the genera-
tional dimension of the appropriation of ICTs, focusing particularly on the mobile phones and youth. Whilst youth 
feature prominently in the scholarly literature as important users of the mobile phone and associated technologies, the 
relation between youth and mobile telephony seldom receives the theoretical attention it merits. In addition, the pre-

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
83
dominant focus on uses and meanings of mobile phones means that fairly little is known about how companies unroll 
marketing strategies that work out in a generational fashion and thus shape young people’s use of mobile telephony.
Despite some notable exceptions, Southeast Asia has been poorly covered in research on youth and mobile technol-
ogy. Hence, in this paper I develop the debates introduced above and in doing so tease out what the study of youth and 
mobile telephony in Southeast Asia has to offer to the wider literature. I do so by drawing on primary research in Laos 
and Vietnam whilst also making use of secondary research from the wider Southeast Asian region.
— Parental Expectations and Young People’s Migratory Experiences in Indonesia 
Wenty Marina Minza (Gadjah Mada University)
Based on a one year qualitative study, this paper examines the migratory aspirations and experiences of non-Chinese 
young people in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is based on two main questions of migration in the con-
text of young people’s education to work transition: 1) How do young people in provincial cities perceive processes of 
migration? 2) What is the role of intergenerational relations in realizing these aspirations? Living in a provincial city 
in Indonesia, many of these youth aspire to migrate to larger cities on the Java Island for tertiary education. It is found 
that apart from the idea that universities in Java are of better quality and diplomas from education institutions in Java 
provide leverage in the labour market, migrating to Java is also about growing up. Migrating is often linked to ideal 
notions of adulthood, indicated by independence. Yet, in reality, these aspirations often have to compete with parental 
expectations of family care and of building interdependent relationships with the family (rather than becoming inde-
pendent). Thus young people are often constrained by their families in realizing their dreams to seek education in Java 
and even when they obtain permission to leave, they are expected to come back to Pontianak. This paper will describe 
the various strategies young people employ to realize their dreams of obtaining education in Java, the decisions made 
by those who fail to do so, and the choices made by migrants after finishing their education in Java. It will contribute 
to a body of knowledge on young people’s education to work transitions and how inter-generational dynamics play 
out in that process. 
— Making it in the City: Young Adults, Faith and Social Tolerance in a Middle-Class Housing Complex in Jakarta
Suzanne Naafs (University of South Australia)
Drawing on ongoing ethnographic research conducted in Jakarta, this paper considers the transitional trajectories of 
young adults (aged 18-40) in Kalibata City, a densely populated residential area in South Jakarta as they move from 
kampung environments to new forms of high-rise living that have produce mixed effects. A recently built apartment 
block within the central city, Kalibata contains a very diverse group of urban residents, offering housing, investment 
and other commercial opportunities to its population of middle class dwellers. In addition, many Kalibata residents 
display an open attitude to people with different faiths and lifestyles. This atmosphere contrasts with some of Jakarta’s 
peripheries, where the pressures of urban development have resulted in intense competition for housing, jobs and 
resources that is sometimes expressed through religious antagonism. The paper discusses the younger generations’ 
views and experiences with ‘modern’ apartment living, their various attachments and detachments to Kalibata City, 
and their orientations and practices in accommodating and managing religious and social tolerance as they deal with 
a housing situation that is different from the generations before them.
— Saint, Celebrity, and the Self(ie): Body-Politics at Play in Late-Socialist Vietnam
Tri Phuong (Yale University)
This essay seeks to examine the polysemous implications of the late-socialist body politic in the youth-saturated mi-
lieu I propose to call “virtual Vietnam.” Since the adoption of Internet usage in 1997, mass media in Vietnam is no 
longer monopolized by the party-state apparatus. According to the Press Law adopted in the National Assembly in 
1989, mass media is defined in political terms as “the organ of speech for Party, state and social organizations” and “the 
tribune of the people essential for social life.” But the Internet has given rise to forms of new media – personal blogs, 
chat forums, and social media tools – whose production, dissemination, and reception fall outside state control. New 
media technologies offer an alternative avenue for the individual to negotiate the system of state-controlled informa-
tion. The multivocal reactions to General Vo Nguyen Giap’s death in October 2013 reveal the capacious potential for 
state-society dialogue online in which official representations are challenged by counterhegemonic contents. By focus-

euroseas 2015 . book of abstracts
84
ing on how three figures of representation – the political leader, celebrity, and youth – become entangled and mutually 
imbricated during the national funeral, the pluralism of media-generated discourses stemming from General Giap’s 
death presents a sophisticated Vietnamese public who flits between the poles of active subversives and passive victims 
of mass media. By closely analyzing youth media practices in everyday life, I argue that discourses of national unity in 
present-day Vietnam are constantly unsettled by seemingly benign online images and commentaries that are inher-
ently political due to playful modes of sociality.
— Coming of Age in the Transitional Cohorts of Youth in Southeast Asia
Peter Xenos (Chulalongkorn University)
In a panel session addressing contributions that Southeast Asia might make to global youth studies, this paper exam-
ines distinctive features stemming from the twentieth century demography of the region’s youth. Much of the youth 
experience in the twentieth century was shaped by the national demographic transitions. These were timed differently 
among the countries and varied widely in tempo as well, so that the train of twentieth century cohorts came of age and 
experienced consequences of the national demographic transitions differently. The same decades and the same co-
horts saw other dramatic social transformations focused on the youth and early adulthood ages, most prominently the 
remarkably synchronous shift toward later marriages, and the educational transformation. Such macro conditions as 
the rise of output per capita were also experienced differently across youth cohorts for similar reasons. It is fortuitous 
that much of this occurred just as statistical record-keeping was being routinized. National data series (censuses and 
household surveys) now permit the combination of data for age groups from a time series of data sources to describe 
important changes in twentieth century birth cohorts as they advanced in age through time. This presentation is a 
progress report on an effort to assemble the evidence into a cross-section time series (CSTS) data structure, taking 
advantage of a diverse array of CSTS datasets that have become available recently describing institutional changes over 
time, and then look for both general patterns and the distinct experiences of Southeast Asian cohorts. It is hypoth-
esized that the twentieth century transitional cohorts experienced distinct conjunctures of macro conditions that give 
them a distinct place among global youth. Understanding these macro conditions and the way that specific cohorts 
witnessed them provide a basis for addressing the panel’s core question, regarding what may be distinct about the 
Southeast Asian experience of youth, and thereby addressing as well the question whether there is actually a “South-
east Asian experience” in terms of common features.