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The last three decades have been a time of significant change for the forests and people of Borneo. Logging and public roads have reached the most remote villages, plantations have replaced diverse native forests, and vast strides have been made by the government to extend both the infrastructure and the ideologies for national integration. This collection of articles provides glimpses into the processes and ways that people have lived within or outside the bounds of policy and environmental constraints, and shows how they have responded to some of the most important changes in their social and physical environments. The articles will provide important insights for scholars in geography, ecological anthropology, environmental studies, and forestry planning. ... Read more

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Zakat, one of Islam's Five Pillars, is the practice of giving a fixed proportion of one's financial assets to those in need, thereby purifying both one's soul and one's remaining wealth. In Indonesia, since the coming of Islam, zakat has been a means of worship, and its collection has been voluntary and decentralized.

Arskal Salim's study argues that in the post-New Order regime (1966-1998) zakat practice changed structurally and institutionally through the enactment of a law on zakat management, followed by the establishment of a national zakat agency. A cultural shift is now in progress with two possible outcomes: either zakat collection will become compulsory and centralized or it will become such an intricate part of taxation law that it loses its spiritual relevance. ... Read more

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Combining historical geography with historical demography, and conceived as a study in environmental history, this book examines the long-term relationship between population, economy, and environment in the northern half of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Using a rich variety of Dutch historical sources, it reconstructs and analyzes patterns of demographic, economic, and landscape change throughout this large and ecologically diverse region over a period of almost three and a half centuries. The results call into question some common views regarding the reasons for low population growth, and the relationship between population density and landscape change, in the Southeast Asian past. ... Read more

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This annual travel guide to Singapore has been revised and updated to include recent changes and developments in tourism. Listings of hotels, restaurants, shops, nightlife and other attractions are complemented with maps and suggestions for excursions to Malaysia and Indonesia. ... Read more

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The book investigates tourism as a form of globalization within the context of the island of Bali, which has been voted the world's top island destination for the third time running by American travellers. It takes off with the onset of the Asian Crisis, the largest stock-market crash since the Great Depression. The authors chart the turbulence that has afflicted the island at a time of market uncertainty and global political strife and analyse the responses of Bali's business and community leaders to the crises that have buffeted the island since the fall of Suharto. In particular, the book analyses crisis management with regard to the Bali Bombings, the impact of the bombings on the tourism development cycle and investigates the motives of the bombers. The authors argue that the actions of the bombers can best be understood with regard to the rise of political Islam as a global issue and the book breaks new ground with an analysis of the bombers' global experiences. The book also examines home-grown resistance to certain aspects of globalization, notably the attempt to turn Besakih, the island's mother temple, into a World Heritage Site and top tourist destination. ... Read more

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Maiden Voyages is a fascinating, unusual study of the centrality, impact and place of sea travel on the lives of women in Eastern Indonesia. It shows how women there travel constantly by sea, to move between islands, to urban centres and even overseas. In doing so, they negotiate and cross and re-make their social boundaries. In contrast to the dominant economic approach to migration, this book uses Eastern Indonesian women's own travel accounts to show how sea voyages recreate their identities. The book is based on research of contemporary rural and semi-rural women in the East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia.This book is an original and valuable contribution to the debates on gender, subjectivity, and the local specificity. It aims to contribute to an understanding of women's mobility and spatial relations in Eastern Indonesia. It will be of interest to scholars of geography, migration, gender and microeconomics as well as of appeal to general readers. ... Read more

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This work presents the findings of a study of the effects of overcrowding in households in Jakarta. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The tectonics of Indonesia are very complex, as it is a meeting point of several tectonic plates. Indonesia is located between two continental plates: the Eurasian Plate (Sunda Shelf) and Australian Plate (Sahul Shelf); and between two oceanic plates: the Indian Plate and Pacific Plate. The Indian oceanic plate subducts beneath the Eurasian continental plate formed the volcanic arc in western Indonesia. This chain of active volcanoes formed Sumatra, Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara islands. The Pacific and Australian plate movements controlled the tectonic of eastern portion of Indonesia. ... Read more

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After the eruption, Krakatau provided a unique opportunity to study the colonization of a sterile area by plants and animals across a sea barrier and the gradual incorporation of the newcomers into the developing ecosystem. Krakatau is a comprehensive account of the reassembly of a tropical forest ecosystem over the past century. Ian Thornton tackles the many questions and controversies surrounding the eruption and its aftermath. He writes, "The natural healing process has followed the most extreme form of ecological destruction possible, total biological extirpation. Yet the islands surviving the 1883 eruption are covered in secondary forest, and over 200 species of plants, 70 species of vertebrates, and thousands of invertebrate species now inhabit these forests."

Krakatau will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand not just the rebirth of Krakatau but also the resilient nature of life everywhere.

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A good book
This book could be enjoyed by a person of any academic level.Although it contained many unfamiliar scientific names and terms, I found it thoroughly interesting and informative.Ian Thornton knows his subject well and hasmuch to teach. ... Read more

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Even to a botanist, the rain forests of the tropics consist of a bewildering variety of plants and plant forms, most of them woody and tall and therefore bearing their flowers and fruits discretely out of sight in the dense, high canopy. Animal and bird life is arboreal, heard but not often seen, while the insects, fungi and bacteria at work are specialized studies in themselves. In this eminently readable book, the author brings together an interesting collection of vignettes on plant and animal life in the rain forests of Malaysia and Indonesia -- the richest in numbers of species in the world. Each plant chosen exemplifies some aspect of the wonderful web of rain forest life. Evolving and proliferating through millions of years, the complex interrelationships of a rain forest can be admired -- or destroyed -- by human beings, but never replaced. The author cogently illustrates the basic principles of rain forest ecology, which in its intricate complexity makes of any rain forest a wonder of the natural world, and uses examples throughout to develop a passionate plea for conservation. The book is elegantly illustrated with color plates drawn by Mohamed Anwar of the Bogor Herbarium and line drawings by the author herself. ... Read more

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The Banda Islands are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about 140 km south of Seram island and about 2000 km east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. The main town and administrative centre is Bandanaira, located on the island of the same name. They rise out of 4?6 km deep ocean and have a total land area of approximately 180 km2. They have a population of about 15,000. Until the mid 19th century the Banda Islands were the world's only source of the spices nutmeg and mace, produced from the nutmeg tree. The islands are also popular destinations for scuba diving and snorkeling. ... Read more

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Tourism has been proffered as a sound way to address Park-people troubled relationship. Through tourism, economic benefits for local people can be generated to help address land-use incompatibilities so that pressures on the Park could be reduced. At the same time Park authorities would have an incentive to improve and strengthen their management capacity. The expected outcome is reconciliation that would facilitate collaborative management of Park's biodiversity. This study of the West Bali National Park, Indonesia, was aimed to examine these propositions. Results presented in this book show that the advent of tourism had negative effects on the Park authority and local people. For local communities, the positive effects of tourism through employment opportunities and generation of alternative livelihoods primarily benefited local elites and their relatives. For the Park, tourism among other forced a reduction in size of the important zones to accommodate private business interests. The resultant: relationship between the Park authority and local communities was not improved but, instead, deteriorated further. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Tradition can be pretty useful!
I bought J. Stephen Lansing's book (subtitle: "Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali") to learn how water temples manage water in Bali. Initially, I thought (see this post) that the priests in these temples told farmers how to share water across their rice fields, threatening divine retribution upon those who did not obey.

After reading this book, I have a better understanding. Although my first impression is more or less true (the water temples regulate water flows), it was also a little too superstitious. It turns out that the "priests" (or guardians) of the water temples are more like bureaucrats. Water temples on the lower level (of the subak, or irrigation district of 20-100 farmers) coordinate their labor for common infrastructure and rotation of water deliveries. (They use a "wheels within wheels" system of multiple calendars that cycle every 7, 15, 28, 45 days or on irregular but repeating patterns (7-7-3-1 day patterns); these calendars match various crop and logistical schedules, and they allow various activities to be scheduled independently without losing track of interdependencies.)

Above the subak level are one or more levels of temples, each of these receiving "tax" payments from subaks (offerings) in exchange for continuing water delivery (lest the goddess be angry). On a terrestrial level, the superior temples coordinate larger water flows, crop patterns, infrastructure and water rights. Each of these roles explains how the Balinese have been able to grow two crops of rice per year for around 1,000 years. Regulation of water flows is straightforward -- sometimes there is not enough water, sometimes infrastructure constraints require that water go to some subaks but not others, and so on. Crop patterns turn out to be VERY important. Farmers monocropping rice must worry about pests and diseases, and the water temples facilitate coordination of fallowing times and types (flood/rot or dry/burn) so that pests and diseases are "starved out" in an entire area. Infrastructure is also straight-forward in the sense that guardians of the temple provide technical advice (put a weir/diversion here or of this shape), amass funding for big projects, and ensure that infrastructure is maintained. Finally, the temples arbitrate between old and new claims to water, with the goal is maintaining sustainability while developing any and all resources for irrigation use. Elaborate and constant rituals coordinate these activities and the flow of information (up and down) among farmers of various subaks, with "coffee breaks" during rituals functioning as informal information exchanges and coordination.

Perhaps the most important part of water temples is their contribution to sustainability. Lansing gives an excellent description of how colonial Dutch bureaucrats had no idea of how the temples worked. (They assumed that the king had controlled water and taxes for infrastructure; that assumption allowed them to impose a "traditional" tax on farmers.) Even Indonesian bureaucrats had no idea of the temples' roles. Thus, they totally screwed up when they introduced "green revolution" rice that required fertilizers, pesticides and three crops/year. The "modern" system that they rolled out (with the assistance of the typical World Bank technicians) ignored the role of the water temples. Although yields rose in the first few years, water shortages quickly appeared and -- worse -- pests and diseases rose up to destroy up to 100 percent of the "modern seed" crops. In the end, the Bankers and others realized that the temples played a critical -- not superstitious -- role. They allowed the old system to be re-introduced, and the farmers rejoiced!

Besides these interesting facts are Lansing's very thorough description of how water temples evolved and worked (i.e., what Lin Ostrom would call the "institutions of water management") and the way that this "primitive" set of institutions was fully matched to modern challenges.

Bottom Line: I give this book FIVE STARS for its complete and clear description of sustainable water management in Bali.

Analysis of complexity and cooperation on Balinese society
Excellent summary of balinese life ways organized around rice paddy irrigation and cooperation.worth a look.

Where the Green Revolution failed, golf may succeed
A brilliant study of how the ancient social and technical aspects of water management systems in Bali, inextricably bound with nature and religion, undermined the Green Revolution in the 1980s. Highly recommended

Vital coverage of development, technology, society, states
Lansing shows, through Balinese irrigation, that technology is simultaneously social and political,but often not in the ways imagined by Western academics and development experts.A dispersed system of water temples and priests successfully managed the irrigation of multiple valleys and plots through a process in which ritual served the regulatory function of feedback.Development projects decoupled the elements of the system and led to declining yields and increased pest damage.A computer simulation of the system was eventually developed, which effectively translated the system functions into a media that development experts could understand, and led to repairs to the damage done to agriculture following the implementation of Green Revolution techniques, revealing the role of ideology in presumably technical knowledge. The study also disproves Wittfogel's hypothesis that "oriental despotism" or extremely hierarchical and centralized states grew out of the expansion and control of irrigation systems.Highly recommended. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on October 1, 1993. The length of the article is 7503 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: With approximately thirty cities of more than a quarter-million population, including seven with more than one million, Indonesia is a primary focus for the study of the city in Southeast Asia. By occupying a position midway between the hyperdevelopment of Singapore and the isolation of Burma, Indonesian cities provide insight into both continuity and change in the region. A morphological model identifies political and economic trends that influence urban form through time. Based chiefly on large, coastal provincial capitals, the model applies in some degree to all cities in Indonesia.

Citation Details
Title: A model of Indonesian city structure.
Author: Larry R. Ford
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1993
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: v83Issue: n4Page: p374(23)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Bandung is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's fourth largest city, and 2nd largest metropolitan area, with 7.4 million in 2007. Located 768 m above sea level, Bandung has relatively year-around cooler temperature than most other Indonesian cities. The city lies on a river basin and surrounded by volcanic mountains. This topography provides the city with a good natural defense system, which was the primary reason of Dutch East Indies government's plan to move the colony capital from Batavia to Bandung. It has an area of 167.27 km² and 2,290,464 people in 2005, with a density of 13,693 people/km². For the Hasil Survei Sosial Ekonomi Daerah 2007, 2,364,312 was the population, making it the fourth most populous city in Indonesia, after Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan. The Dutch colonials first opened tea plantations around the mountains in the eighteenth century, followed by a road construction connecting the plantation area to the capital. The European inhabitants of the city demanded the establishment of a municipality, which was granted in 1906 and Bandung gradually developed itself into a resort city for the plantation owners. ... Read more

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"For those who seek an understanding of the politics and social dynamics of contemporary Indonesia, there is no better starting point." Jamie Mackie, Asian Wall Street Journal "one of the most important books on Asia in many years...[Adam Schwarz's] book is measured, thoughtful and intensely readable. " David Jenkins, Sydney Morning Herald".beautifully written, evocative and wide-ranging. It is truly an outstanding work."Merle Rickles, The AustralianIn this second edition of Adam Schwarz's highly acclaimed A Nation in Waiting, the story of contemporary Indonesia is brought right up to date. With two new chapters covering the collapse of the economy, the fall of Soeharto, the presidency of B.J. Habibie, the process of democratic reform and the major social and political challenges facing Indonesia, Adam Schwarz offers a vivid and rare behind-the-scenes picture of a nation's struggle for change.A Nation in Waitinglifts the veil on Indonesia of the 1980s and 1990s and spans a wide variety of contemporary issues to offer a detailed and thought-provoking glimpse of one of the world's least understood nations.Using a wealth of first-hand information, Adam Schwarz gives life to the heated debates on economic policy, corruption and the controversial role of ethnic-Chinese. He analyses the political demands of Indonesia's Muslim community, the mishandled incorporation of East Timor, the debate on human rights and the dilemma facing the Indonesian military as it struggles to redefine its role.With invaluable insights into how politics and business are conducted, A Nation in Waitingis essential reading for anyone wanting to understand modern Indonesia.Adam Schwarz is a business consultant specialising in Southeast Asia and an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University. From 1988-97, he was a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Hanoi. He lives in Washington, DC. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Primer on Modern Indonesia
It covers the period from Indonesia's struggle for independence from the Dutch under Sukarno in the late 40's until the end of the 20th century. Its history is as varied as the expanse of its territory. It ranges from the extremes of its economic cycle to the ethnic clashes between the pribumis and Chinese, from the corruption and fall of the Suharto regime to the genocidal occupation of East Timor.

The author covers each of the above topics in great detail - in addition, he describes the role of Islam in the politics of the country, the influence of the military and the characteristics of the Javanese system of patronage. Each topic is well covered, but for the book as a whole lacks cohesion. It does not detract too much from the content - but potential readers should note that its light on analysis and heavy on factual presentation.

Living in Malaysia and Singapore for most of this period, this book was my first introduction to Indonesia's chequered past. Its neighbours are understandably cautious in how they present views on the largest country in Southeast Asia - controversial news
is often considered sensitive and carefully edited to avoid inflaming the parties involved. For this, I'm glad to have read this book - it was a comprehensive primer on the recent history of modern Indonesia. ... Read more