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Women, gender and protest: contesting oil palm plantation expansion in Sambas district, Indonesia

Morgan, Miranda Yeen

[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2011.

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Abstract

The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations throughout Indonesia has resulted in a range of environmental and social consequences, including dispossessing rural people of their land. But these people are not accepting the infringements passively. As oil palm plantations have expanded and spread, so have instances of oil palm-related protest and resistance. In almost all accounts of oil palm, however, women and gender relations are overlooked. This thesis examines the role of women and gender relations in oil palm expansion and resistance in Indonesia today. Using a combination of secondary literature (specifically, the fields of agrarian political economy, feminist political ecology and contentious politics) and primary data, this thesis provides both a new case study and a new way - through the lens of gender - of understanding oil palm expansion and resistance in Indonesia. At the heart of this research study are the voices, opinions and experiences of 42 women who participated in one protest against dispossession in Sambas district, Indonesia. Emphasizing the role of these women in their households, communities and in this protest, as well as the gender relations that shape and are shaped by the women’s participation at all of these levels, this study offers new analysis of who is impacted by oil palm expansion, who resists it and in what ways. The Sambas case study demonstrates how gender relations shape all stages and facets of a protest, from womenʼs decisions to participate in protest (by informing their motivations and political opportunities) to womenʼs protest activities and how women experience protest outcomes. It also reveals how at all stages of mobilization, gender relations are not fixed. Rather, gender relations themselves may also be shaped by and through womenʼs participation in protest. This study has far-reaching implications not only for the future of oil palm expansion and resistance, but on women’s participation in protest, in politics in general and on gender relations.