Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effect of Changing Credit Strategies on Land-Management Practices: The Political Ecology of Cloves in Minahasa, Indonesia

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

A number of theoretical frameworks have emerged from the work of researchers examining the complex political, economic, and cultural dynamics through which individuals and groups engage in agricultural production. Among the theories that have shed new light on certain facets of this problem are political ecology, non-market struggles in agricultural production, and contract farming. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how the land-management practices, land-use controls, and land access of clove farmers in north central Indonesia change in response to their use of different strategies for obtaining credit. The project will be conducted in Tincep village in the province of Minahasa on the northern part of the island of Sulawesi. A range of qualitative research approaches, including participant observation, survey, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews as well as analyses of government documents and traders' record books, will be used to assess which economic, political, and social strategies farmers in conjunction with specific crediting strategies. Special attention will be given to analyses of the roles that different kinds of creditors, including some technically outlawed under contracts between farmers and the state. Among the broader questions to be addressed through this project are: Why have clove farmers chosen to engage in particular crediting arrangements with village-based crop mortgagers or city-based speculators at specific times in the harvest cycle and over specific periods during the last decade? How do struggles over land-management practices reflect struggles over who has legitimate standing to take part in different kinds of capital accumulation? What is the impact of different types of crediting systems on land-management and production practices? This project will shed new light on the highly variable roles and relationships of different groups in the clove-based agricultural economy of the region. It will examine how state policies have fostered the development of particular kinds of crediting practices, and it will challenge more standard notions of what it means to be a farmer, a creditor, or a local official and how this shapes what kinds of credit-related relationships arise in this production system. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.