How do people make a living in rural Java and how were they
affected by krismon, the Indonesian economic crisis of 1997/98?
In Good Times and Bad Times in Rural Java Breman and Wiradi
present detailed studies of two villages on the north coast of
West Java, one ("North Subang") about half way between Jakarta
and Cirebon, the other ("East Cirebon") about 25 kilometres from
the latter city. Fieldwork had been done in both villages a
decade earlier, allowing longitudinal comparisons. There are
differences between the two villages. North Subang has an "open
field" system where anyone can turn up to work. And many of its
young women have gone to work as maids in the Middle East. East
Cirebon, in contrast, is in an area dominated by agro-industry
and sugar mills, where agriculture has been marginalised. Its
major diversification has been into brick-making. Both villages
have highly unequal distributions of land. In both, many had
become dependent on regular long-distance labour migration, most
importantly to buildi