Intra-cultural consumption of rural landscapes: An emergent politics of redistribution in Indonesia

Rural places throughout the world are frequently sites of amenity-oriented consumption, as much as they are sites of agricultural production, and this is increasingly true for parts of the Global South. The implied assumption, however, has generally been that consumers of rural landscapes are socially or culturally distinct from, and even in conflict with, those living off the land as farmers. This paper, however, presents the phenomena of intra-cultural consumption of an Indonesian rural landscape, whereby place-based cultural identities within a diasporic community are motivating ceremonially-linked remittances and wealth redistribution. This is subsequently supporting a range of non-productivist rural livelihoods. These findings highlight the need to better understand how redistributive practices within spatially dislocated agrarian communities in late-industrializing economies are reshaping processes of contemporary rural change. [Display omitted] •Introduces the phenomena of intra-cultural consumption of rural landscapes.•Rural landscape consumption is linked to a new politics of redistribution.•Non-productivist rural land use is a significant reality in the Global South.•Non-productivist activities increasingly sustain livelihoods in the Global South.•This demands new approaches to contemporary rural development.