Urban growth, youth and environmentalism driving local initiatives in Bandung, Indonesia

Neoliberalism in urban Indonesia has been marked by massive industrialisation. As elsewhere, many of today's environmental problems are direct or indirect consequences of the everyday behaviours of people in the past and the present who will not be here in 50 years. With the city of Bandung as an example this paper looks at local anti-development environmental initiatives enacted by different grassroots organisations comprised primarily of young people who might well become the country's leaders of the future. Drawing on fieldwork between 2013 and 2014, the paper examines how these youth-dominated organisations have challenged rampant development and industrialisation. The purposeful collective identity of young environmentalists is also briefly considered.