BERAGAMA DI ERA BUDAYA KONSUMER STUDI TENTANG GAYA HIDUP KELAS MENENGAH MUSLIM PERKOTAAN SEMARANG

AHMAD PATIROY, NIM. 1130017034 (2015) BERAGAMA DI ERA BUDAYA KONSUMER STUDI TENTANG GAYA HIDUP KELAS MENENGAH MUSLIM PERKOTAAN SEMARANG. Doctoral thesis, UIN SUNAN KALIJAGA YOGYAKARTA.

Text (BERAGAMA DI ERA BUDA YA KONSUMER STUDI TENTANG GAYA HIDUP KELAS MENENGAH MUSLIM PERKOTAAN SEMARANG) AHMAD PATIROY - NIM. 1130017034 BERAGAMA DI ERA BUDAYA 1.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Registered users only until 5 March 2016. Download (6MB)

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the religious expression of contemporary urban middle class Muslim society of Semarang that is currently being influenced by trends in the cultural life of consumerism. One of the implications of religious expression influenced by consumerism culture is aestheticization of religious life. This tendency is a typical construction of the aesthetic lifestyle due to consumption object succession being viewed as a form of image expression or symbol of the luxury of the religious society in the era of global capitalism. The problems of this research focus on (1) how the material goods consumed in the implementation of various religious activities have given rise to a typical lifestyle that is expressed in religious life; (2) why the material goods consumed in the implementation of various important religious activities are expressed in an attempt to reinforce their lifestyle; and (3) whether the lifestyle expressed is indicative of an increase in religious passion or a form of degradation understanding and practice of religion. The steps undertaken in this research consist of a series of data collection and processing techniques. Data collection includes in-depth interviews and participant observation. In-depth interviews are intended as a form of interviews conducted coherently by using guidelines while participant observation is meant as observations made by way of participating in the daily activities of research subjects. Both of these data collection techniques are done according to the nature of the data to be obtained. The study of the phenomenon of the contemporary lifestyle of the Muslim community is assessed according to the symbolic theory perspective that emphasizes Geertz's hermeneutic framework. This theoretical perspective emphasizes the disclosure of thoughts or ideas of the middle-class Muslim urban residents embodied in everyday religious behavior, both in the private and public spaces. The results of this study indicate that the aesthetic lifestyle of middle-class Muslim residents of Kampoeng Semawis housing of Semarang expressed in the context of diversity is born of the appreciation which is relatively high to the religious commodity goods that are born by the global capitalist market. Various religious commodities consumed in the implementation of Muslim religious activities such as clothing, Salat equipment (prayer mat, rukuh, cap, scarf, beads, etc.), kosher-labeled food, recitation or slametan with fancy dishes and so on are no longer merely to meet spiritual needs but more than that they also contain an attempt to meet the needs of image as a symbol relating to identity and social status. Here, what is then seen is a shift in perspective and behavior towards religion in relation to the needs of the image or symbol. Thus, what happens next is the use of religious symbols in religious practice which is no longer purely a religious decision. Religious tendency which emphasizes the image leads to an aesthetic-symbolic religious lifestyle, which in this case is termed as aestheticization of religious life. As one indicator of consumerism culture, this aesthetic-symbolic lifestyle is born from the sophistication of global capitalist market engineering process of constructing the benefits dimension and religious sensibility into potential commodities for sale. This engineering process takes place through the stages of commoditization, aestheticization, and privatization. The choice of aesthetic-symbolic lifestyle is a contextualization to overcome the contradiction between two different values, namely the local culture and modem culture. Muslim residents of Kampoeng Semawis housing see that these values should be integrated in the life of a Muslim ideally to be fixed at once religious and modem look. Accompanying the contradiction between local values and modem values, aesthetic-symbolic lifestyle is also stimulated by the contradiction between the two models of diversity (mode of religion) of Islam itself, scriptualistic (textual) and substantivistic (contextual) orientation. Muslim residents in Kampoeng Semawis housing view that both religious models should be integrated into an ideal religious order to become scriptualistic Muslims in matters of worship and substantivistic Muslims in matters of muamalah. Thus, aesthetic-symbolic religious lifestyle is a contextualization medium to address a variety of contradictions that arise as a result of the value of socio-cultural transformation in the global level. Similarly, this lifestyle can be seen as one part of the phenomenon of the emergence of variants of religious expression that marks the occurrence of new religious revival process (Islamisation) in the global era. Not always, as feared by many, this will cause siltation on religion. In principle, the aesthetic-symbolic religion is a portrait of a modem lifestyle of urban society constructed to obtain greater opportunities to present themselves --with material and social capital owned-- as a figure of religious Muslims as well as trendy, fashionable as well as pious, or pious as well as smart, as often being provoked by advertising media. For global capitalism market, it does not matter whether the religious commodity constructed can really shape piety and fashionableness of Muslim residents of Kampoeng Semawis housing, but the important thing is to be pious and fashionable to continuously become consumerists.

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