Reconstruction of Urban Community Identity in Social Environment and Discourse of Power in Public Space; Overview of post-sultanate Buton Culture in Baubau City

Abstract

Background and purpose: This study aims to analyze the form of social identity reconstruction in urban communities in Baubau City, Indonesia in expressing their social identity in power discourse in public spaces during the Buton Kingdom/Sultanate period and after integration into the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Social identity refers to the ancestral philosophy of Kaomu, Walaka, and Papara to be constructed in today's modern society as a characteristic of urban identity.
Methods: The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive, using social construction theory or sociology of construction from Boerdeau, Derrida's deconstruction, and Foucault's theory of power, discourse analysis. This study is interdisciplinary in nature to explain the problem. There were 12 informants, 3 of whom were key informants obtained by purposive sampling.
Results: Since the integration of the Sultanate of Buton into the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), the people classified (caste) from Kaomu, Walaka, and Papara have created a new arena or public space as a space for the reconstruction of social identity and new power relations for the urban community. The Kaomu-Walaka as an elite are transformative-innovative by packaging the ideology of power in government (executive, legislature, and political parties). While the Papara as a subordinated community choose a form of reconstruction of social identity paradoxical resistance. The philosophy that is used in building society and the region is internalized by the values of the teachings of bhete yi tombula (the human who emerges from bamboo).
Research implication: This is a differentiator and characteristic of a cultured city community with noble values that are still maintained within the framework of community and regional development in general.