For decades almost the only social scientists who visited Indonesia's provinces were anthropologists. Anybody interested in politics or economics spent most of their time in Jakarta. Following the collapse of the New Order, things began to happen in the provinces that no one was prepared for. Democratization was one, decentralization another. Ethnic and religious identities emerged that had lain buried under the blanket of the New Order's modernizing ideology. Unfamiliar, sometimes violent forms of political competition came to light.
This volume is the result of a two-year research project that brings together an international group of 24 scholars - mainly from Indonesia and the Netherlands but also from the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, and Portugal.