Distributive Politics and Class Dynamics in Rural Java

Abstract

Based on fieldwork in a village I call Lone Teak in East Java, Indonesia, this paper examines emerging patterns of class differentiation and distributive politics. The history of Lone Teak's landholding structure reveals long-term patterns of inequality. However, since widespread deforestation during 1998–2002, new dynamics emerged. Many households have accessed local state forestland for farming and more attainable state capital has underwritten the expansion of their agricultural production. With greater access to forestland and capital, lower classes have experienced upward social mobility, whereas landowning middle classes struggle to maintain, let alone move beyond their existing position. These state-induced developments have produced a differentiated nostalgia for former President Suharto's era (1966–1998). This nostalgia reflects a response to losses and expectations for better opportunities to accumulate, not a desire for returning to authoritarian rule.