The frontier of the middle class: how farmers and fishers pursue better lives in the coastal landscapes of eastern Indonesia

Abstract

The coastal landscapes of the outer islands of the Indonesian archipelago are places rich with biological and cultural diversity. The people who live in these remote and rural places are often comparatively poorer than Indonesians living in urban and regional areas, with limited access to infrastructure, government services and markets. They, like most Indonesians, have participated in the massive economic development that has taken place over recent decades. The places where they live are on the frontier of middle class Indonesia: a place where they can see the material benefits of a developed consumer society, but lack the means to live those types of lives in their rural settings. For the fishers, farmers and forest-dependent people who live in these coastal landscapes, what are the types of lives to which they aspire? How do these aspirations influence the decisions that rural households make about livelihood strategies and resource uses?

To answer these questions, three settlements from a coastal landscape in Buton Island, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, were studied. The research, conducted from 2012 until 2014, explored household livelihood and expenditure decision making through household surveys and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The results of the case studies point to a theory of decision making for rural households under changing standards of living. Living standards were shaped by structural factors known as opportunity structures, such as infrastructure and consumer markets. Social influences, including traditions and modern social influences such as television, and social integration also shaped household goals and living standards. Changes in these structural and social processes affected not only the types of goods and services that were possible in the settlements, but also what was expected of people. Achieving these rising living standards was constrained by the lack of support for rural livelihoods. With limited support for improving the productivity of existing livelihoods, rural households instead diversified, with migration a central part of that strategy. As the mismatch between rural livelihoods and aspirations increased, a new type of vulnerability for rural households and their landscapes emerged. In these cases, the immediate needs of maintaining a living standard are more important than the sustainability of their livelihoods and resources.

The research contributes to the literature on environmental and rural development policy in Indonesia by demonstrating how economic development and the expansion of consumer society has shaped rural household behaviour. I propose that theories of rural household behaviour should incorporate greater considerations of the goals of rural Indonesian households and community living standards, beyond just subsistence, as these shape the livelihood strategies of rural households. Policies and interventions should address the aspirations, capabilities and learning strategies of rural Indonesian households. By doing this, there is greater potential for reducing the environmentally harmful practices of smallholder farmers, small-scale and artisanal fishers and forest-dependent people.