In search of middle Indonesia : middle classes in provincial towns / edited by Gerry van Klinken, Ward Berenschot.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-237) and index.

Preliminary Material / Gerry van Klinken and Ward Berenschot -- Introduction: Democracy, Markets and the Assertive Middle / Gerry van Klinken -- Betting on the Middle? Middletown, Mojokuto and ‘Middle Indonesia’ / Ben White -- Working Class Revisited: Class Relations in Indonesian Provincial Towns / Nicolaas Warouw -- Class Mobil: Circulation of Children in the Making of Middle Indonesia / Jan Newberry -- Ethnicity and Young People’s Work Aspirations in Pontianak / Wenty Marina Minza -- Resisting Reforms: The Persistence of Patrimonialism in Pekalongan’s Construction Sector / Amalinda Savirani -- Growing up in Kupang / Cornelis Lay and Gerry van Klinken -- Between the Global and the Local: Negotiating Islam and Democracy in Provincial Indonesia / Noorhaidi Hasan -- In Search of Middle Indonesian: Linguistic Dynamics in a Provincial Town / Joseph Errington -- Bibliography / Gerry van Klinken and Ward Berenschot -- Index / Gerry van Klinken and Ward Berenschot.

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The post-1998 surge in local politics has moved the provincial town back to centre stage. This book examines the Indonesian middle class (now 43%!) up close in the place where its members are most at home: the town. Middle Indonesia generates national political forces, yet it is neither particularly rich nor geographically central. This is an overwhelmingly lower middle class, a conservative petty bourgeoisie barely out of poverty and tied to the state. Middle Indonesia rather resists than welcomes globalized, open markets. Politically, it enjoys democracy but uses its political skills and clientelistic networks to make the system work to its advantage, which is not necessarily that of either the national elites or the poor. Contributors include Ward Berenschot, Joseph Errington, Noorhaidi Hasan, Gerry van Klinken, Cornelis Lay, Wenty Marina Minza, Jan Newberry, Amalinda Savirani, Sylvia Tidey, Nicolaas Warouw, and Ben White. Photographs by S. Chris Brown. Full text (Open Access)