MANAGING LAND RE/DIS-POSSESSION FROM BELOW: HISTORY OF BIOPOLITICS COUNTERMOVEMENT IN TWO JAVANESE RURAL COMMUNITIES
ABSTRACT: The long debate on
whether rural community in Java is more characterised as egalitarian or differentiated
one has underrated the agency of the local people. This paper tries to propose
the agency of local people through a comparative account upon history of two
communities, namely Ngandagan in Central Java and Wangunwati in West Java.
Mobilizing the collective action toward land struggle, both communities
involved in a broad spectrum of property relations reform which ranged from
struggles over material things, revenue, to political power. As those struggles
reflect interventions for “making live” and “not letting die” of the local
population, this paper argues that both communities engaged in biopolitics
countermovement directed to market and political forces threatening their means
of livelihoods and even their life. However, while two communities succeeded in
transforming inter-groups property relations within community, their political
future would eventually neces-sitate the broader transformation of property relations
between the state and the society.
Keywords: history of rural community,
agrarian crises, the agency of local people, land struggle, property relations
reform, biopolitics, Java, Indonesia
Author: Mohamad Shohibuddin
Journal Code: jpsejarah&umumgg140003
