ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1678305
This article is part of the Research TopicReimagining Peace Education in a Fragmented World: Democratic Participation, Civic Agency, Democratic Futures and Conflict PreventionView all articles
Reimagined History and Local Patriotism: Rural Youth Activism in Cigombong, Indonesia
Provisionally accepted
- IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia
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This article reinterprets the history of rural youth activism in Cigombong, Bogor Regency, Indonesia, as a form of resistance rooted in collective memory, community values, and symbolic practices in response to the expansion of corporate capitalism in rural areas. Utilizing an ethnographic approach, historical tracing, and supported by quantitative data from 151 rural youth activists, the study explores the transformation of youth agency from the colonial era to the digital age. It also examines how local history is reactivated as both a symbolic and political resource. The findings reveal that local patriotism, manifested through collective action, cultural expression, and net-activism, has generated new forms of community-based resistance. The article underscores the importance of reinterpreting local history as a strategy for strengthening the resilience and autonomy of rural youth in shaping their own futures. By integrating the theory of social fields and the framework of collective memory, this study contributes to sociological discourse on rural youth activism, lived space, and grassroots nationalism in the platform era.
Keywords: Local history, Village youth, Local patriotism, collective memory, rural youthactivism, Cigombong
Received: 02 Aug 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gandi, Kolopaking, Damanhuri and Sjaf. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sofyan Sjaf, sofyansjaf@apps.ipb.ac.id
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