Panel 2: Norm-setting, power and governance in colonial and political history of the Netherlands-Indonesian relationship 1750-1950

Preliminary programme

 

Abstract

Traditionally colonial and political history were considered separate historiographic fields, but both put much emphasis on (unequal) power structures and how they have been legitimised throughout history. Recently, there is also more interaction between both fields, and an increasing understanding that historically politics is shaped in an international context, that includes (post)colonial dynamics. Furthermore, New Imperial History and New Political History share a key interest in broadening the scope of ‘the political’ with their focus on how norms, that undergird power structures, are created and challenged by different actors (political, religious, business), and often, in mutual interaction between different levels (local, national, international; metropole and colony), instead of ‘traditional’ representations of the metropolitan nation-state imposing its norms on others. Additionally, instead of understanding norm-setting as one-dimensional, clear-cut and static, there is more attention paid to the diffuse, mixed and paradoxical character of this process. 

This session discusses these themes and recent developments. It does so by reflecting on these issues in a panel that is organized by a team of Dutch and Indonesian researchers who are involved in different research projects at the intersection of colonial and political history  and would like to present their findings to stimulate further debate. The presentations and comments focus on understanding processes of norm-setting that are analysed from a governance perspective with much emphasis on the variety of political actors and levels. The aim is to rethink the relationship between supposed separated ‘sectors’ (e.g. church, state, businesses), actors (e.g. church ministers, officials, entrepreneurs, politicians) and levels of governance (e.g. national, international; metropolitan and colonial). The overall ‘case-study’ that is investigated is the Netherlands-Indonesian relationship 1750-1950. 

All contributors focus on: How do norms travel across (colonial) time, space and cultures? How are they shaped (or changed) during this process?
 
Contributors engage with the above question, by discussing the type of norm-setting, the space (locus) and timeframe of the norm-setting under scrutiny and the different actors involved as well as their source-material. Contributors then illustrate their approach through presenting a case study.
 

Panelists

Chairs:

- Dr. Ronald Kroeze

Associate professor of Political History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

- Dr. Alicia Schrikker

Associate professor of Global and Colonial History at Leiden University

 

Alexander van der Meer MA

PhD candidate at Leiden University

‘Metropolitan norms and colonial realities: the separation of sacraments (1725-1775)’ 

 

Philip Post MA

PhD candidate at Leiden University

‘Bureaucratic and religious norms in Ambon at the end of the eighteenth century’

 

Dr. Lauren Lauret

Senior researcher at University College London

‘The political power of colonial re-migrants in parliament: the start of the Billiton Scandal (1882-1883)’

 

Otto Linde MA

PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

‘Before the tsunami: examining the discourse of ‘’waves of corruption’’ in late colonial Indonesia during the 1920s’

 

Uji Winardi MA

PhD candidate at UGM Yogyakarta and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

‘Bulukumba Affair 1925-1938: Hidden corruption and norm-setting of the mundane colonial administration’

 

Dr. Farabi Fakih

Senior researcher at UGM Yogyakarta and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

‘Postcolonial Relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands. A Reflection on Politics and Norm-Setting’