There is a lack of research on the relationships between rural areas and the urban
hierarchy in Indonesia. Because of this, policies for urban and rural development are undertaken
in isolation from one another, without incorporating the implications of rural-urban linkages for
rural development. This study contributes to our understanding of rural-urban linkages in
Indonesia by examining four villages in the Province of North Sulawesi. Because of the
importance of the Indonesian government's transmigration program for rural development in
North Sulawesi, specific emphasis is placed on the comparison between the experiences of
transmigrant villages and indigenous non-migrant villages in their relationships to the urban
hierarchy.
The main case study covers four villages (two transmigrant, two indigenous) in Dumoga
Subdistrict of North Sulawesi. The linkages between these villages and the various levels of the
urban hierarchy are articulated through the following key sets of variables: economic ties,
population movement, services delivery, physical infrastructure, technology and political
administration. The variables associated with administration interact strongly with the other sets
of variables, as government policies (an aspect of administration) have impacts on all other forms
of rural-urban interaction.
In the comparison between indigenous (Mongondownese) villages and those of
transmigrants (Javanese and Balinese), it was found that the transmigrants were better off in
terms of almost every social and economic indicator. Although the success of the transmigrants
may be attributed in large part to the application of their skills at wet rice farming in the new
environment of North Sulawesi, they have also been strongly supported in their endeavors by
central government programs which provide them with land, tools, irrigation infrastructure and
other benefits. This study also examined in detail the mechanics of policy setting as it pertains to rural
villages. It was found that although a system has been put in place by the Indonesian government
to promote lower level inputs into the planning process, the continuing strong centralization of
the administrative system results in a filtering process as policy suggestions work their way up
from lower levels (village, subdistrict, district) to higher levels (provincial, national). Despite
efforts at administrative decentralization, policy setting and implementation for rural and urban
development remain highly centralized.
The concept of the urban hierarchy which was utilized in this study is that which is
defined by the Indonesia administrative system, consisting of the provincial capital (medium size
city), the district capital (small town) and the subdistrict capital (rural center). It was found that
without its administrative functions, the lowest level on this hierarchy (the rural center) would
have very few functional linkages to the rural areas, as most of the other sets of linkages bypass
the rural centers. The rural-urban linkages of transmigrant villages differed greatly from those of
indigenous villages with transmigrants having stronger connections to higher points on the urban
hierarchy. Considering the income differences between migrants and non-migrants, the longterm
implication of this final point is that we can expect a gradual reduction in the functions of
lower level centers if rural development is successful and incomes increase.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8613 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Tuerah, Noldy |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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