Stigma Management through Literacy Spaces in the Punkbacot Community in Sidoarjo

Punk communities in Indonesia are often perceived as marginalized groups associated with deviant behaviour, social disorder, and low educational attainment. These perceptions contribute to social stigma that influences how punk communities are understood and treated within their social environment. This study aims to explore how members of the Punkbacot community in Sidoarjo experience and manage social stigma through communication, particularly through literacy spaces and practices. The study employed a qualitative approach with a phenomenological research design to examine the lived experiences of community members in encountering and responding to stigma. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with four Punkbacot members and supporting documentation of community activities, and were analysed thematically. The findings indicate that Punkbacot members experience stigma through public perceptions that associate punk with deviant behaviour, disorder, and low educational attainment, as well as through negative evaluations within the broader punk scene. In response, members engage in communicative practices through literacy spaces, including collective discussions, zine production, reading activities, knowledge sharing, and interaction with communities outside the punk scene. These practices provide contexts for communicating experiences, sharing alternative accounts of punk, and creating interaction beyond stereotypical representations. From the perspective of Stigma Management Communication, literacy spaces function not merely as sites of reading and writing but also as community-based communicative contexts in which stigma is encountered, addressed and responded to through interaction. This study extends the application of Stigma Management Communication by demonstrating how stigma management can take place through collective literacy practices within a punk community.