Development, Depoliticisation, and Manggaraian Peasants’ Resistance in Western Flores

Venansius Haryanto

doi:10.22146/pcd.35195

Development, Depoliticisation, and Manggaraian Peasants’ Resistance in Western Flores

https://doi.org/10.22146/pcd.35195

Venansius Haryanto^(1*)

(1) Institute Sunspirit for Justice and Peace
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This article explores how certain elements of society show resistance against the process of depoliticisation that works through development. Drawing on the case of peasants in Lembor, a regency in Western Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), this article argues that, by offering a so-called ‘alternative development’, civil society actors attempt to show their resistance against the process of depoliticisation that has been implemented through the rice monoculture farming system. To this end, the theories of depoliticisation and alternative development as resistance shall be used as analytical tools. Depoliticisation is defined in the literature as the process through which the regime of mainstream development relocates politico-economic questions in dealing with the problems of peasants, in this case those in Lembor. Meanwhile, the theory of alternative development will be used to frame the form of peasants’ resistance in Lembor. The ultimate end of this study is to restore power to political analysis. As such, this article seeks to conflate development and democracy in discussing citizens’ welfare.

Keywords

development; discourse; governmentality; depoliticization; peasant

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/pcd.35195

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