About the Journal

Indonesia, in the context of Islamic sociology, represents a dynamic and uniquely complex social landscape. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia integrates Islam into a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and culturally diverse society. Sociologically, Islam in Indonesia is not merely a set of religious doctrines but a lived social force that interacts with local traditions (adat), state policies, global Islamic discourses, and contemporary socio-political changes. This dynamic relationship produces a distinctive form of Indonesian Islam—characterized by negotiation between orthodoxy and local wisdom, between tradition and modernity, and between national identity and global Islamic movements. Consequently, Indonesian Islamic sociology becomes a fertile ground for studying how religious values shape, and are shaped by, pluralism, democracy, and socio-economic development in a rapidly changing society. By positioning Indonesia as both a unique case study and a vantage point for comparative inquiry, IJSI  (Indonesian Journal of Sociology of Islam) aspires to enrich the sociology of Islam as a global field of knowledge, while contributing to scholarly and policy-relevant debates on religion and society in the 21st century.

Aims

Samaja: Indonesian Journal of Sociology of Islam (IJSI) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal committed to advancing critical, empirical, and theoretical research on the intersections between Islam and society. Situated in Indonesia—the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy and one of the most religiously and culturally diverse nations—the journal seeks to explore Islam not only as a theological system, but as a lived social reality that shapes and is shaped by historical trajectories, cultural encounters, and socio-political transformations.

The journal aims to:

  1. Advance theoretical debates in the sociology of Islam by engaging with global scholarship while foregrounding the Indonesian experience.

  2. Bridge disciplinary boundaries between sociology, anthropology, political science, religious studies, history, cultural studies, and related fields in the study of Islam.

  3. Encourage methodological innovation in examining Islamic beliefs, practices, institutions, and discourses across multiple social contexts.

  4. Promote comparative and transnational perspectives, situating Indonesian Islam within broader Muslim societies worldwide.
  5. Foster critical dialogue on contemporary challenges—such as pluralism, social justice, governance, and technological change—through the lens of Islamic sociology.

Scope

IJSI welcomes original research articles, critical reviews, and conceptual essays that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Everyday Islam: religious practices, moral economies, and social ethics in urban, rural, and hybrid spaces.

  • Islamic institutions and authority: religious education (e.g., pesantren, madrasah, Islamic universities), mosque-based networks, da‘wah organizations, and their influence on social change.

  • Identity formation and diversity: intersections of Islam with ethnicity, class, gender, generation, and minority groups.

  • Religion, politics, and the state: Islamic law and governance, public policy, civil society, and state–religion relations.

  • Media, technology, and digital Islam: the transformation of religious authority, activism, and community-building in digital environments.

  • Global–local flows: the impact of transnational Islamic movements, diaspora exchanges, and the localization of global religious trends.

  • Islam and social challenges: poverty, inequality, environmental ethics, migration, public health, and human rights from an Islamic sociological perspective.

  • Methodological contributions: ethnography, quantitative surveys, comparative studies, visual and digital methods in Islamic sociology research.