Synopses & Reviews
The Will to Improve is a remarkable account of development in action. Focusing on attempts to improve landscapes and livelihoods in Indonesia, Tania Murray Li carefully exposes the practices that enable experts to diagnose problems and devise interventions, and the agency of people whose conduct is targeted for reform. Deftly integrating theory, ethnography, and history, she illuminates the work of colonial officials and missionaries; specialists in agriculture, hygiene, and credit; and political activists with their own schemes for guiding villagers toward better ways of life. She examines donor-funded initiatives that seek to integrate conservation with development through the participation of communities, and a one-billion-dollar program designed by the World Bank to optimize the social capital of villagers, inculcate new habits of competition and choice, and remake society from the bottom up.
Demonstrating that the andldquo;will to improveandrdquo; has a long and troubled history, Li identifies enduring continuities from the colonial period to the present. She explores the tools experts have used to set the conditions for reformandmdash;tools that combine the reshaping of desires with applications of force. Attending in detail to the highlands of Sulawesi, she shows how a series of interventions entangled with one another and tracks their results, ranging from wealth to famine, from compliance to political mobilization, and from new solidarities to oppositional identities and violent attack. The Will to Improve is an engaging readandmdash;conceptually innovative, empirically rich, and alive with the actions and reflections of the targets of improvement, people with their own critical analyses of the problems that beset them.
Review
andldquo;Tania Murray Li brilliantly combines the analytic rubrics of Foucault, Marx, and Gramsci to explain andlsquo;the will to improveandrsquo; as an essential though poorly understood component of rule in Indonesia. This is not your grandmotherandrsquo;s ethnography: the well-written chapters are packed with the conflicts, contestations, and uncertainties that characterize power relations. Deeply engaged with the processes and practices that shape peoplesandrsquo; lives, Liandrsquo;s book should be required reading for scholars interested in how power works and for development practitioners everywhere.andrdquo;andmdash;Nancy Lee Peluso, author of Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java
Review
andldquo;The Will to Improve is an exceptionally valuable and well-conceived book. It speaks to some of the most significant theoretical discussions of recent years, effectively linking studies of andlsquo;governmentality,andrsquo; debates about neoliberalism, and the increasingly rich literature on the social history of colonialism.andrdquo;andmdash;James Ferguson, author of Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order
Review
andldquo;Magisterially linking the contradictions of peripheral capitalism with the limits of governmentality, Tania Murray Li offers a view of developmental rule that draws productively on Gramsci and Foucault. She provides perhaps the most brilliant account to date of neoliberal development in action. A tour de force.andrdquo;andmdash;Michael Watts, Director, Center for African Studies, and Class of 1963 Professor of Geography, University of California, Berkeley
Review
andldquo;Insightful and engaging, this is a fascinating book. Drawing on an impressive array of historical and ethnographic sources, including her own fieldwork, Tania Murray Li offers a brilliant account of andlsquo;expertandrsquo; interventions that, since the end of the nineteenth century, have endeavoured to improve the welfare of a number of communities in Sulawesi (Indonesia).andrdquo;
Synopsis
Theoretical and anthropological study of how techniques of governance have been devised in the colonial and postcolonial context of Indonesia and their effect on current debates over economic development in the region.
About the Author
“The Will to Improve is an exceptionally valuable and well-conceived book. It speaks to some of the most significant theoretical discussions of recent years, effectively linking studies of ‘governmentality,’ debates about neoliberalism, and the increasingly rich literature on the social history of colonialism.”—James Ferguson, author of Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order“Magisterially linking the contradictions of peripheral capitalism with the limits of governmentality, Tania Murray Li offers a view of developmental rule that draws productively on Gramsci and Foucault. She provides perhaps the most brilliant account to date of neoliberal development in action. A tour de force.”—Michael Watts, Director, Center for African Studies, and Class of 1963 Professor of Geography, University of California, Berkeley“Tania Murray Li brilliantly combines the analytic rubrics of Foucault, Marx, and Gramsci to explain ‘the will to improve’ as an essential though poorly understood component of rule in Indonesia. This is not your grandmother’s ethnography: the well-written chapters are packed with the conflicts, contestations, and uncertainties that characterize power relations. Deeply engaged with the processes and practices that shape peoples’ lives, Li’s book should be required reading for scholars interested in how power works and for development practitioners everywhere.”—Nancy Lee Peluso, author of Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java
Table of Contents
List of Acronyms vii
Glossary of Indonesian Terms ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Will to Improve 1
1. Contradictory Positions 31
2. Projects, Practices, and Effects 61
3. Formations of Capital and Identity 96
4. Rendering Technical? 123
5. Politics in Contention 156
6. Provocation and Reversal 192
7. Development in the Age of Neoliberalism 230
Conclusion 270
Notes 285
Bibliography 337
Index 367