Dynamic Farmers, Dead Plantations, and the Myth of the Lazy Native
2023. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.
Special Seminar by Tania Murray Li: “Dynamic Farmers, Dead Plantations, and the Myth of the Lazy Native: Counter-Trajectories of Indonesian Development”.
This talk draws on the experience of Indonesia to challenge the globally-circulating transition narrative according to which rural people move to cities as their economies stagnate, and dynamic corporations take over agricultural production. In Indonesia this narrative pivots on the “myth of the lazy native” that presents small-scale farmers as unproductive, hence corporations are needed to get the job done. Counter to this myth, Indonesia’s small-scale farmers producing for global markets have shown great dynamism; it is plantation corporations that generate dead zones of economic stagnation, ecological reduction, and rights abuse.