Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This research scrutinizes the role of gender in the study of human-environment interactions in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. We focus on gender, particularly how women and men differ in their understandings of waste management, especially plastic wastes. The middle-class is most susceptible to globalizing impacts on the environment thus it is crucial to know its position and how it is in limbo between all these trajectories that seem to contradict each other. This study uses qualitative methods: observation and purposeful sampling (in-depth, open-ended interviews) in Surabaya and the data are taken from 2017 to 2018. Interviews are gathered from men and women and their responses on the ways gender plays out in the clash between green awareness and desires for consumption. The findings of this research discuss the gendered consumption behaviours of urban-middle class residents in Surabaya and how gender plays in this intersection between environmentalism and consumerism within the stream of globalization. Important findings include how strong gender is embedded in models of consumption and environmental awareness.