To understand the current social situation in Indonesia and its changes over the decades, the population census implemented by Statistics Indonesia, Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), provides us with important basic information. The usefulness of population census data has greatly increased since 2000 because “ethnicity” was added to the questionnaire, and BPS published the digitized raw data. This study analyzes the case of Riau Province mainly using raw data from the 2000 and 2010 population censuses, which show that migration from other provinces increased considerably and the employment structure changed significantly.

The characteristics of migrants in Riau Province varied during different periods. Minangkabau from West Sumatra Province were dominant in the 1970s, but Javanese from Java Island with governmental support (transmigrasi) exceeded this number in the 1980s. Bataks and Javanese from North Sumatra Province have made up the largest number of migrants since the 1990s. The increase in migrants between 2000 and 2010 was driven by the rapid development of the estate crop sector in Riau Province, especially the oil palm industry, and many local ethnic groups also switched from food crops to estate crops. In 2010, more than a third of the total population in Riau Province was engaged in the estate crop sector. Nevertheless, a notable finding from our analysis is that the descendants of migrants are inclined to engage in industries other than the estate crop sector.

In this paper I examine the interaction between the practice of cash cropping and villagers’ daily lives in a local community, from a case study of Karen people in Northern Thailand. By focusing on the transition from subsistence rice farming to cash-oriented strawberry cropping, I discuss how the demands specific to strawberry production intersect with changes in labor allocation and the agricultural calendar. Shan laborers from Myanmar are employed seasonally, socioeconomic disparity among villagers is widening, and new leadership and patron-client relationships are emerging. By describing the historical process of this interaction, I will demonstrate (1) the logic whereby Karen, who have hitherto been known as subsistence rice farmers, have accepted cash cropping; and (2) how cash cropping redefines the forms of labor and villagers’ socioeconomic relationships within and outside the village, including ethnic relationships.

This paper avoids previous discussions that associate an ethnic group with the independent choice of a specific type of subsistence activity deriving from their own cultural background or as a social strategy to flee from state control. Rather, I try to figure out how specific crops with evolving cropping management and the local community have interacted within a historical and social-cultural context to formulate labor forms and allocations as well as villagers’ socioeconomic relationships in their daily lives.

This paper considers the spatial configuration of Manila, focusing on American public health policy during the period 1905–14, when Victor Heiser held great power as the Director of Health. During this period after the Filipino-American War, public health policy was concerned with the improvement of Filipinos’ sanitary customs and promoted the configuration of urban spaces.

For the United States, medicine and public health were measures to justify colonialism in the Philippines. Simultaneously, sanitary customs were regarded as a sign of moral civics, which was a precondition of Philippine independence. American sanitary officers intervened in Filipinos’ lives and social order, and did not give Filipinos favorable evaluations on sanitary customs.

As a result, the urban spatial configuration was shaped by laws and surveillance up to the early part of the second decade of the twentieth century. Interventions in Filipinos’ lives through home inspections were a particularly important matter. The purification of public spaces such as markets, slums, etc., and the relocation of slum residents into suburbs were also enforced. Many lawsuits were filed for violations of sanitary laws, which meant that American sanitary laws brought social friction into Filipino societies. Up to the second decade of the twentieth century, when many American sanitary officers returned, sanitary education in public schools was refined and intensified to insert moral civics into Filipino societies.

Mass mobilization has often had a significant impact in Indonesian politics. Even without state power or financial resources, those who are capable of mobilizing the masses have continued to play a crucial role in politics. Nevertheless, the predominant literature on Indonesian politics has long underestimated the social actors’ power even after Suharto’s demise in 1998. According to them, powerful oligarchic domination has characterized Indonesian politics. In contrast to this account, there is a growing literature that demonstrates cases in which social actors and organizations exert significant influence on the elites and articulate changes in policies by leveraging voting power in direct elections. The focus of these studies, however, is largely limited to political negotiations during elections. This paper examines much broader efforts on the part of social actors to achieve policy change. In fact, such actors are not only utilizing the voting power of elections but also making good use of the judicial system, notably, a judicial review of the constitutional court. Through an analysis of the oil and gas policy after 1998, this paper demonstrates the various strategies that social actors deploy to achieve policy change as well as influence Indonesian politics.