Spreading the Word, Broadening Perspectives: Internet,NGOs and Globalisation Discourse in Indonesia

Globalisation is ambivalent. On the one hand, it brings prosperity, comfort and convenience in the formof economic growth, technological advancement, more open and democratic governance, and so forth.On the other hand, there are vast amounts of casualties from its progress, which only benefits somegroups or countries. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in Indonesia have established themselvesin pivotal positions in the social, economic and political landscape across the country, and their growthhas often been linked with globalisation. But there has been little study to understand how NGOs inIndonesia engage with the issue of globalisation itself. Globalisation has actually just started to becomewidely discussed among civil society activists in the late 1990s. An empirical study was conductedrecently to see how some Indonesian NGOs, in their endeavour to respond to globalisation issues andphenomena, and broadening the discourse on globalisation, utilise Internet technology. The study drawson several case studies to build a detailed story about how different organisations with differentconcerns deploy strategies to deal with the issue. In addition, the study also tried to portray the bigpicture of the dynamics of Indonesian NGOs in engaging with Internet technology through an exploratorysurvey involving some 268 organisations....