The New Politics of Ethnicity in Regional Indonesia.

How and under what conditions is ethnicity mobilised politically? This project addresses this fundamental question in the study of ethnic politics by examining the rich but largely untapped field of local politics in Indonesia. It focuses on four distinct but closely related arenas: local elections, associational life, patronage networks and official culture. Through case studies in five provinces, and by drawing on election data from a wider sample of locations, it will analyse the highly varied patterns of ethnic competition and coalition-building across the archipelago. By doing so it will identify factors that make ethnicity matter politically, and the circumstances that may lead to inter-ethnic cooperation rather than conflict.