Ropewalking and Safety Nets ─ Local Ways of Managing Insecurities in Indonesia

Begun in 1997 as economic crises and changes in global business affected more people of the study area of Java, the research program which inspired these eight papers address the increasing breakdown of local and familial support in poor rural and urban communities, and the exclusionary effects of policies of support from other sources. The papers describe how social security efforts have split Indonesia into a small group of those who have a safety net and a large group who do not, the practice of exclusion and inclusion in Central Java, the decline of the system of reciprocal labor in the last quarter of the twentieth century, precarious family support for widows, strategies of managing insecurity for Indonesians of Chinese extraction, the success or lack thereof of urban self-help organizations, entrepreneurs in risks and resources, and insecurity in the livelihood of those in the East Javanese uplands. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Juliette Koning, Ph.D. (1997) in Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, is Assistant Professor at the Vrije University Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Her most recent publications includeWomen and Households in Indonesia (2000), Natural Resources and Social Security (2001), andGenerations of Change (2004).Frans Husken , Ph.D. (1987) in Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, is Professor of Anthropology at Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands). He published most recentlyBeneath the Smoke of the Sugar-Mill. Javanese Peasant Communities during the 20th Century (2000) andViolence and Vengeance. Discontent and Conflict in New Order Indonesia (2002).