Sovereignty and Violence

Contested forest landscapes in Central Java

Authors

• Anu Lounela University of Helsinki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8903-1983

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.116558

Abstract

The article explores the ongoing dispute connected with land rights in the district of Wonosobo, Central Java, within the framework of state formation and sovereignty. It is argued that in many places in Indonesia and Central Java, local landscapes have become sites of violent struggles for sovereignty more broadly. An analytical distinction between modern and traditional forms of power is made and ethnographically explored, but it is argued that, rather than being separate entities, both forms become conflated in the struggle for sovereignty in various spheres, creating hybrid forms of power.

Keywords: dispute, forest landscape, Java, power, sovereignty, state, violence