The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development and the Practice of Politics

摘要

The Will to Improve presents a nearly indisputable argument that the logics and practices governing colonial interventions in Indonesia, which have unfolded for over two centuries, remain alive and well in the form of contemporary international development programs in the country. Li's argument results in at times a rather bleak picture in which development programs perpetuate Dutch colonialism's most egregious practices, many of which were not discarded by the Suharto regime but simply retooled in order to violently control the country's marginalized peoples. This is not to suggest that The Will to Improve is without hope. Perhaps the most poignant component of the text is situated in the resilient and tenacious voices of rural Indonesian citizens speaking about their need for land and resources and their right to intercede into practices of politics and governmentality in order to secure fair portions of the country's assets.