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Friday, October 10 at 4pm
Hale Sciences, room 230

The plantation system, a colonial construct, has outlasted its creators.ÌýThis talk presents research about a paradox in the 200-year history of an Indonesian coffee plantation.ÌýDespite appearing highly productive, plantations over the past century rarely turn a profit and are often plagued by significant internal theft.ÌýBy conceptualizing plantations as dual spaces: arenas of production and sites of wealth distribution, Pujo Semedi examines the tension between plantation owners’ drive for accumulation and workers’ and managers’ demands for resource sharing.ÌýThe plantation is therefore not just a site of production, it is also a battleground for the concentration and distribution of wealth.ÌýHow can a business riddled with theft not only survive but prosper? Could it be that internal theft, rather than hindering the development of plantations, is a mechanism that keeps them alive?Ìý
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With Pujo Semedi, Professor, Anthropology, Gadjah Mada University and Fulbright Scholar in Residence, University of Colorado.