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ABSTRACT
Community-driven development in Indonesia requires the recruitment of volunteers: local residents with the will to develop themselves and others. By revealing the processes of personhood in light of volunteers’ own theories of self, I aim to disrupt simple readings of subjectification in the anthropology of development. Local volunteers understand their recruitment as having the opportunity to occupy a social position that is aligned with their jiwa (nature), and their participation as satisfying their hati (seat of emotion). Rather than assess the success or failure of state actions to regulate or constitute citizens through discursive and affective means, I take seriously this understanding of development as a process of locating and recruiting people predisposed to becoming the subjects of state development. Doing so prompts new lines of enquiry that have been overlooked in understanding processes of subjectification in development: namely the reason why some people are recruited as development subject, while the majority are not.
Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude to the people who graciously gave their time to participate in my research. I worked with two amazing research assistants in Medan, Yumasdaleni from Universitas Potensi, and Aida Harahap from Universitas Sumatera Utara. An earlier version of this paper was published in the Asian Research Institute Working Papers Series, National University of Singapore. My thanks to the anonymous reviewer, and to Michelle Miller: the editor of the series. I have presented versions of this paper at ARI, NUS, and the Anthropology Department University of Sydney; my thanks to the participants for their feedback. The article was strengthened by the very useful suggestions of two anonymous reviewers. Thank you to the reviewers and editor of Anthropological Forum.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 All the names in this paper are pseudonyms (many selected by respondents). Pak is the polite term used before the name of men, and Ibu for women. I have, therefore, not stated whether a respondent is a man or woman.
2 I translate belum mampu as not yet capable, rather than not yet able to afford as some might. Focusing on capabilities is critical to the ‘empowering’ dimensions of the PNPM, and self-improvement. It is different to, and a softer version of di bawah (as below the poverty line): used to describe the characteristics of beneficiaries, but tellingly, rarely in front of them.
3 Unlike other participants in the PNPM in other parts of Indonesia, BKM members in Medan did not receive any financial incentive to participate. Due to the costs of participation (transport and phone) some coordinators requested an honourarium, but their demands were unmet.
4 The Jokowi government has ceased funding the PNPM-Perkotaan in order to focus on rural development. As my research mostly predates this change in government policy, it has not affected the empirical material.
5 There are no Rukun Tetangga and Rukun Warga in Medan. The lingkungan corresponds to the RW in Java.
6 We always met Pak Anto at the BKM office, and it was only after the office closed in 2017 that we met in his home. He said he was embarrassed to meet in his gubuk (a small home of poor people).
7 Earning additional income outside the home has long been socially appropriate roles for women in Indonesia (Robinson Citation2008); however, there can be resistance to wives devoting time to non-economic social activities.
8 I suggest that the introspection is in this instance more important that the specific suggestions of the masyarakat. Elsewhere, I explore how BKM members are subject to frequent complaints due to the moral atmosphere of development as bagi-bagi. Pak Anto continues his narrative by contrasting his morality to that of a rich man complaining that he did not receive help. He is therefore not responding to the morality among the rakyat, but rather in rejection of it.
9 I thank an anonymous reviewer for prompting me to describe it in this way.
10 The missing section is due to an inaudible section of the recording.
11 Pronouns are not gendered in Bahasa Indonesian.
12 Where Indonesian speakers physically feel emotions is an interesting question, but one beyond the scope of this paper.
13 I use the Indonesian spelling of lahir. Geertz (Citation1984) uses lair as the Javanese spelling in the original text.