Labour and Land in Indonesia: An Introduction

This article provides a reflective overview of Indonesian agrarian history, contemporary agrarian dynamics and the growing field of Indonesian agrarian studies. By charting the evolution of the field and highlighting landmark studies, it traces the work and influence of both foreign researchers and the lesser known tradition of agrarian political economy by Indonesian scholars. In doing so, it highlights compelling themes within the political economy of agrarian Indonesia that are engaged in the contributions to the Special Issue on Labour and Land in Indonesia. These include the changing and diverse composition of class relations and their impact on social differentiation; the gendered and generational relationships linking household reproduction to rural and migratory labour; the expansion of plantations and agrarian extractivism; and the increasing bureaucratisation and militarisation of Indonesian rural life. As the individual contributions to the special issue make clear, these areas of research remain central to both the past and future of Indonesian agrarian studies.