Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effect of Changing Credit Strategies on Land-Management Practices: The Political Ecology of Cloves in Minahasa, Indonesia

研究人员研究了个人和群体参与农业生产的复杂的政治、经济和文化动态，从中产生了一些理论框架。 对这一问题的某些方面有新认识的理论包括政治生态学、农业生产中的非市场斗争和合同农业。 这个博士论文研究项目将研究如何在印度尼西亚中北部的土地管理实践，土地使用控制，和土地使用权的小农的变化，以响应他们使用不同的策略来获得信贷。 该项目将在苏拉威西岛北方米纳乌省的Tincep村进行。 一系列的定性研究方法，包括参与者观察，调查和深入的，半结构化的访谈，以及对政府文件和贸易商的记录簿的分析，将被用来评估哪些经济，政治和社会战略的农民结合具体的信贷战略。 将特别注意分析不同类型的债权人的作用，包括农民和国家之间的合同在技术上是非法的。 通过这个项目要解决的更广泛的问题包括：为什么小农选择在收获周期的特定时间和过去十年的特定时期与乡村作物抵押者或城市投机者达成特定的信贷安排？ 关于土地管理实践的斗争如何反映了关于谁有合法地位参与不同类型资本积累的斗争？ 不同类型的入计制度对土地管理和生产做法有何影响？ 该项目将使人们对该地区以丁香为基础的农业经济中不同群体的高度可变的作用和关系有新的认识。 它将研究国家政策如何促进特定类型的信贷实践的发展，并将挑战更多的标准概念，即农民、债权人或地方官员意味着什么，以及这如何塑造这种生产系统中出现的与信贷相关的关系。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

A number of theoretical frameworks have emerged from the work of researchers examining the complex political, economic, and cultural dynamics through which individuals and groups engage in agricultural production. Among the theories that have shed new light on certain facets of this problem are political ecology, non-market struggles in agricultural production, and contract farming. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine how the land-management practices, land-use controls, and land access of clove farmers in north central Indonesia change in response to their use of different strategies for obtaining credit. The project will be conducted in Tincep village in the province of Minahasa on the northern part of the island of Sulawesi. A range of qualitative research approaches, including participant observation, survey, and in-depth, semi-structured interviews as well as analyses of government documents and traders' record books, will be used to assess which economic, political, and social strategies farmers in conjunction with specific crediting strategies. Special attention will be given to analyses of the roles that different kinds of creditors, including some technically outlawed under contracts between farmers and the state. Among the broader questions to be addressed through this project are: Why have clove farmers chosen to engage in particular crediting arrangements with village-based crop mortgagers or city-based speculators at specific times in the harvest cycle and over specific periods during the last decade? How do struggles over land-management practices reflect struggles over who has legitimate standing to take part in different kinds of capital accumulation? What is the impact of different types of crediting systems on land-management and production practices? This project will shed new light on the highly variable roles and relationships of different groups in the clove-based agricultural economy of the region. It will examine how state policies have fostered the development of particular kinds of crediting practices, and it will challenge more standard notions of what it means to be a farmer, a creditor, or a local official and how this shapes what kinds of credit-related relationships arise in this production system. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.