A Study on Regional Sustainable Humanosphere in Indonesia Based on Long-term Data and Field Work

Principal Investigator: MIZUNO, Kosuke
Period: FY 2011-14

Outline:
The “Comal Project” had been conducted in 1990-92 to understand the long-term social changes taken place in northern coastal area in Central Java with the way to compare the extensive data of 1904 shown in the book “Desa-People’s Economy Shown by the Figures (De Desa- Volkshuishouding in Cijfers)” by Van Moll in 1913-14, with data collected by fieldwork in 1990, especially in relation to the change of agrarian structure, rural elite and livelihood. The current project will do similar fieldwork in the same area to understand the changes that took place in the region during 1990-2011 in relation to the democratization, decentralization, free trade and economic growth, and try to locate these changes in long term societal changes. The current project will look at the long term changes of deforestation, epidemics and natural disaster since the beginning of 19th century and people’s preparations as an integral part of people’s survival strategies. The current project will research the long-term development of Indonesian society hoping to shed light on the changes in the geosphere, biosphere and humanosphere.