Vulnerability, livelihoods and disaster knowledge in the volcanic highlands of Central Java, Indonesia: 'Itu sudah biasa'

Abstract

This thesis describes the interaction of vulnerability, livelihoods and disaster knowledge in a volcanic area of Central Java, Indonesia. The Dieng Plateau is a volcanically hazardous landscape, featuring a series of craters with a history of recurrent phreatic eruptions and emissions of poisonous gases. While the government manages this hazard through largely technocratic interventions, for local farmers the hazard is integrated with, and a normal part of, daily life (‘itu sudah biasa’). Farmers respond to heightened volcanic activity in an informed manner, while at times taking greater risks for the achievement of the often-lucrative livelihood goals that can help alleviate local vulnerabilities. Despite boasting 127 active volcanoes, there is sill a scarcity of studies that focus on the construction of vulnerability in Indonesia’s volcanic areas. Furthermore, current disaster scholarship is yet to comprehensively describe crucial factors that influence this vulnerability, such as expert and political constructions of risk, and the benefits gained through partaking in livelihoods in volcanic landscapes. By drawing on a multi-methods and largely qualitative approach, combining semi-structured and unstructured interviews with farmers, observation of government-run exercises, a participatory workshop, and household survey, this thesis responds to these research needs. Throughout the three empirical chapters of this thesis, I describe and relate the many and varied ways vulnerabilities are produced, or overcome, in this volcanic landscape. The first conceptualisation of vulnerability argues that it is a product of access to land resources, influenced by Dieng’s history of upland settlement, the unequal spatial distribution of land prices, and the impact of internal state-led territorialisation strategies. I expand on current vulnerability frameworks used within disaster scholarship; specifically the access model and concept of the ‘hazardscape’, to argue that vulnerabilities are also produced through the way governments define and territorialise hazardous land. The second conceptualisation of vulnerability relates it to livelihood outcomes and the impact of a major potato crop boom. By integrating the disaster and agrarian literature, I question dominant views that rural livelihoods in volcanic areas are inherently ‘unsustainable’, and present a holistic picture of volcanic risk, considering capacity alongside vulnerability. The third conceptualisation of vulnerability is related to disaster knowledge and the risk mitigation activities this knowledge informs. I expand on current approaches to the study of disaster knowledge to argue that both local and expert knowledge are locally contextualised and hybrid systems. While they differ in various aspects, they are not separate from, but rather actively inform, the other. The thesis concludes with a discussion of how these three conceptualisations of vulnerability, when combined, can contribute to a more holistic, practical, and contextualised approach to volcanic risk reduction in the Dieng Plateau. This thesis argues that vulnerability to volcanic hazard in the Dieng Plateau is produced through the social, economic, political and environmental processes that govern access to land and livelihood outcomes, while also emerging through the way governments and locals alike define and respond to volcanic activity. This finding bears important lessons for the development of future policies aimed to reduce, or overcome the creation of new, risks in other agriculturally dominated volcanic landscapes throughout Indonesia.