Thesis Abstract..the Final Results of A Perseverance..

Finally..the curtain has fallen down..the show is over..and i'm asking earnestly for an ovation..haha..silly me, i guess. Yet, inspite of taking long hours blabbing on my thesis gory process..anyway..i'd like to show here my abstract..the final one, which involved Radit--a friend of mine as the proofreader..yet actually, this final abstract wasn't originally his writing..i had modified it..quite the last minute before i submitted my thesis..
hope this would be a learning thing for all of us..

ABSTRACT

In the construction of women and feminist counter-public sphere, the media series organized by a specific identity-based women community (feminist) for social actions campaign on Violence Against Women, became the very crucial parts. Futher, this research aimed at revealing the dynamics inside the construction of counter-public sphere process which could be seen from the response of the media series towards the patriarchal hegemony and mainstream media domination. The response of which, could bring about the construction of women identity representation within the gender-equality values (the new women identity) amidst the society at large.
To scrutinize the counter-public sphere construction process, this research focused on the counter-public sphere theory. In fact, this theory supported by other theories such Gramsci’s hegemony and counter-hegemony theory, and Archer’s structural dualism. In regard to the emphasis on the construction of women and feminist counter-public sphere by the series of gender-political movement community medias, this research was equipped by the theory of identity, feminism, the politics of identity and movement, the theory of feminist media and professional identity on alternative media. To be rigorous, this research adopted two different interconnected perspectives, which were the radical feminism and the critical constructionism. Both perspectives allowed this research to divulge the social powers that thrusted the gender political movement in Indonesia. The movement of which struggled towards patriarchal hegemony that performed the Violence Against Women, and towards the domination of mainstream media in the public sphere.
As the consequence of both perspectives, this illustrative case study utilized the theoretical framework as a normative guidance for the study of the construction of women and feminist counter-public sphere in gender-political movement on Violence Against Women in Indonesia. Each sub issues of a main issues, were thoroughly researched using the qualitative approach. In regard to the single-case design embedded as the research strategy, each social actions of Violence Against Women issues comprises the violence against women in conflict areas, public and political domain, and domestic; polygamy; pornography; trafficking—were singled out as the research subjects.
Violence Against Women, was a major issue that became the main concern of gender-political movement network with Women’s Journal Foundation as an active organization in its many women movement. Its media programs series, routinely pointed at bearing out the gender-political movement since 1996.
To learn about the social powers gap which caused the construction of counter-public sphere, this research purposively involved six informants from Women’s Journal Foundation, who were active in women and feminist gender-political movement in social actions of each sub issues on Violence Against Women. Meanwhile, four practitioner informants from mainstream medias, were also purposively involved, to express parts of discourses on Violence Against Women social action sub issues--which are covered up by the mainstream medias. Next, these latter discourses dominated the public sphere in Indonesia and strengthen the hegemony of patriarchal culture.
Within the intense years of gender political movement on each Violence Against Women sub issues (2004-2007), media became gimmicks for narrating the voice of women as the rejecting subjects towards Violence Against Women. The movement medias (not only routine media program series, Women’s Journal Foundation also published the media program series for gender-political movement coalition and alliance—such as newsletters, postcards, online movement sites etc), disseminated every dynamics of gender-political movement, including its public campaigns and represented new women identity through its discourses. Generally, the movement medias in conjunction with the public campaigns, could construct the counter-public sphere.
The gender-political movement network, was one element of counter-public inside the multiplicities of public in Indonesian society. The existence of counter-public sphere which in turn reconfigurated the structure of public sphere in Indonesia, were generated by the gender-political movement. Nowadays, the public sphere is filled by the overlapping multiplicities of counter-public sphere.
The women and feminist movement counter-public, had undergone the counter-processes. The counter-processes could be examined from the distinctive nature of discourses culture (expressed in the movement medias and the public campaigns), which took a side in feminine values within women and feminist movement. The counter-processes attempted to elaborate the structural and cultural order, in order to reconstruct the representation of new women identity in Indonesia.
Gender-politics in Violence Against Women issue, still could be imparted through the movement media series which applied the mass media logic. By persuasion strategy, these media series endeavoured to reach the public multiplicities in the society. The foreign donors behind the gender-political movement, indicated the foreign penetration in gender-political agendas for the construction of movement counter-public sphere. Next research is expected to examine the existence of other couter-public spheres with their own politics of identity.