Economics, politics and culture in early post-independence Indonesia

The project examines political, social and economic stresses in Indonesia in the early 1950s, immediately after the end of the independence struggle, in order to understand the complex processes of adjusting to freedom from colonial rule. These stresses arose not only from unrealistic popular expectations but also from the multitude of unexpected practical changes in social structure and behaviour that flowed from the removal of colonial systems of authority. Indonesians discovered new opportunities, but they also discovered how limited opportunity could be. The project focuses on indigenous entrepreneurship, the cultural politics of humour and the emergence of electoral politics.