ABSTRACT
This chapter examines various EE projects and events in Surabaya to see how students are involved, what they learn from participation in competitive events, the involvement and expectations of teachers and TENGO staff, how some approaches fail, and how an EE trip to Perth, Western Australia, failed to educate participants. The projects are often environmental labour rather than environmental education. Although the environmental labour of young people is helping to make Surabaya “clean and green”, even in Surabaya there is evidence of meaningless performance of environmentalism without understanding, of ritualistic compliance with rules and commitment to competition but no commitment to solving real-world environmental problems. The chapter questions whether this forced volunteering of environmental work can be considered an effective form of environmentality. The chapter argues that the approach to EE in Surabaya places the burden of change on those with the least voice: children and people in lower socio-economic classes. The hoped-for movement upwards from the powerless to the powerful is radical and contrary to the traditional flow of power and authority in Java and Indonesia. TENGO and the government are avoiding confrontation with the wealthy and powerful in society, and reproducing inequality.
