International Program of Collaborative Research, CSEAS

Research for Java’s Rural History in 20th Century
Project Leader: KOZANO, Yako, School of Foreeign Studies, Aichi Prefectural University
（Term：2011 - 2012）

• Outline of Joint Research
• Purpose of Joint Research
• Outline of Result

• Joint Seminars in 2011 Fiscal Year

Outline of Joint Research

We plan to conduct field research in former Comal County in Central Java, based on social economic and historical methodology. The division of research is as follows. Kozano, Yako; Research of village administration and land ownership, Mizuno, Kosuke; Research of village level survival foundation, Kano, Hiroyoshi; Research of agricultural development and hierarchical structure, Endo, Nao; Research of space use and regional formation at village level.

Purpose of Joint Research

Peasants working a field as smoke rises for a sugar mill in the background (Sragi)

A disused sugar mill (Ampelgading)

　We are planning to conduct social research in several villages in Comal district, comparing the data of farmer households collected by the so-called “Van Mol’s Research” backed up by the Netherlands authorities at the beginning of 20th Century. We will also compare with the results of village-level field research conducted by some of our members (Prof. Kano and Prof. Mizuno) in exactly the same district in 1990. We are going to scrutinize local archives too, in order to conduct surveys about several themes such as population, agricultural production, deforestation, land use, water use, river improvement, epidemics and natural disasters throughout the two centuries since the beginning of 19th century. In addition, we hope to try to research about rural social transformation after the collapse of Suharto’s regime in 1998 considering democratization, decentralization, trade liberalization and market-based effects at a village level.

　Van Mol’s Research was an extremely detailed one, but it was only data collection without any significant analysis. Real social transformations in this region throughout the 20th century became known to us through the result of tracking research conducted in 1990 in order to make the best use of Van Mol’s remarkable achievements. The result was published both in Japan and in Indonesia. Our new research is a challenge in that we aim to enrich and complete the former one conducted in 1990. We expect Java’s rural social transformation processes across the two centuries to be clarified through the results of our research.

Outline of Result

We have started several surveys in former Comal County in Central Java, based on the social economic and historical methodology. The division of research is as follows. Kozano, Yako; Research of village administration and land ownership, Mizuno, Kosuke; Research of village level survival foundation, Kano, Hiroyoshi; Research of agricultural development and hierarchical structure, Endo, Nao; Research of space use and regional formation at village level. We can only conduct several preliminary surveys in Comal district in 2011, but plan to conduct the main field research in August, September and October 2012 in cooperation with Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. We expect Java’s rural social transformation processes across the two centuries to be clarified through the results of this main field research.

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