Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono
2024-2025
Home institution
Gadjah Mada University, ID
Country of origin (home institution)
Indonesia
Discipline(s)
Anthropology and ethnology; Social and economic history; Social Sciences; Sociology
Theme(s)
Agriculture & Food; Cultural Studies; Labor, Capital & Innovation; Post-colonialism
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono is professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (ID). His early work concentrated on loosely structured fishing villages, which almost entirely lack any sense of community but where people live a less socially regimented life and maintain a relatively high degree of egalitarianism as they exploit common property resources at sea. His further work concentrated on the opposite pole, which is the tightly structured plantation community where people make a living from clearly defined, privately owned resources and lead everyday life in a pyramidal social system.
Pujo is currently working on the dynamics of farming communities in Java and Southern Germany, where the social system is stratified and access to resources is distributed under the social stratification in the community.
Research Project
Sharing with the Devil: Theft and Corruption in an Indonesian Coffee Plantation
This project aims to produce a monograph exploring a paradox within the 125-year history of the Indonesian plantation industry. Despite appearing highly productive, these plantations rarely turn a profit and are often plagued by significant internal theft. The plantation system, a colonial construct, has outlasted its creators. Although colonialism officially ended long ago, plantations have expanded from two million hectares in 1900 to twenty million hectares in 2010. How can a colonial institution continue to thrive in a post-colonial context? Have colonial relationships been dismantled or simply transformed into new political-economic arrangements? What role does internal theft play in this scenario? How can a business riddled with theft not only survive but also prosper instead of going bankrupt? This project investigates the internal dynamics of plantation structures, focusing on the interaction between capital and labor. The plantation is not just a site of production, it is also a battleground for the concentration and distribution of wealth. Could it be that internal theft, rather than hindering the development of plantations, actually serves as a mechanism that keeps them alive?
Research Interests:
anthropology