> Publications Surabaya, City of Work Howard Dick has written a very interesting, easy to read, and scholarly book on Surabaya, the capital city of the province of East about Surabaya and makes it what it is Review > Java. Introducing the reader to various viewpoints, he presents a wealth of information on a wide variety of topics, providing a in the first place. The concept of ‘work’ Southeast Asia detailed description of the historical changes in the city during the twentieth century. This serves to corroborate three general is too general to be of much use to dif- conjectures, thus solving a historical puzzle. The conjectures are: (1) ‘the city is the frontier of modern Asian society’; (2) ferentiate between Surabaya and other ‘nowhere was urbanization more dramatic than in Indonesia under the New Order (1966–98)’; and (3) ‘the modern history of cities in Indonesia that are also based Indonesia – especially of Java – can be read as a tale of two cities, Jakarta (colonial Batavia) and Surabaya’ (p. xvii). The ‘historical on a work culture. puzzle is not the sudden and sustained vitality of the period after the 1970s but the long hiatus between the 1930s and 1970s’ (p. Notwithstanding the above criticism xx), partly explained by the ‘[c]ollapse of the sugar exports during the 1930s depression, followed by the Japanese occupation, this book is an eye-opener, especially revolution, and independence, [which] brought on a long period of stagnation and retreat from the international economy’, as for those who are not closely acquaint- Dick states on the back cover. Yet, what is presented in the book actually goes further than its limited purpose suggests. ed with Indonesia’s culture and socie- ty: it reveals the existing historical sections of the historical experience’ a dark grey or black background. Social life is no longer considered to be diversity, richness of social experience, (p. xxiii). By contrast, the structure of Though one may then justly marvel at the sum of a myriad of individual acts and the enormous cultural variation the analytic analysis is much more the painter’s incredible attention for and relations among a collective of peo- that goes with this second largest city rigid. The seven chapters of the book detail and fabulous technical crafts- ple that need all be represented in of Indonesia. < are grouped into three rather tightly manship, it is utterly impossible to minute detail. Instead, social life in all related clusters or parts. make sense of what is actually being its varied forms and patterns is increas- - Dick, Howard W., Surabaya, City of Work: The first three chapters describe represented. From a distance of three ingly seen as the outcome of processes A socioeconomic history, 1900-2000, Surabaya as the unit of analysis, and or four metres, however, these tiny of social construction and cultural cre- Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press deal with the question: ‘What is it that strokes of white paint on a dark back- ation (Smith 1998). Unfortunately, the (2002), pp. 541, ISBN 0-89680-221-3. makes Surabaya an entity in the first ground appear to be shining sleeves idea that Surabaya is such a construc- place?’ In chapter 1 the city is intro- made of openwork silk lace, reflecting tion or creation, a distinct entity that Reference duced to the reader: its geographical the soft light falling through a window. may through time evolve and devolve, - Smith, Mark J., Social Science in Question: locations, appearance to inhabitants The same applies to this study of remains implicit and is nowhere sys- Towards a non-disciplinary social science, and visitors, and the daily cycle of Surabaya. Dick’s approach to data, tematically elaborated. London: Open University Press (1998). urban life. In the next chapter, a vari- using a low-level of classification and ety of economic and political events analysis, presents very detailed infor- ‘Work’ as a label or a Dr J.J.J.M. Wuisman is Lecturer at the that have shaped the city’s economic mation on numerous interesting metaphor Department of Public Administration, Lei- history are described. The implicit aspects and facets, but, unfortunately, A final consideration concerns the den University. He has teaching assignments idea is that these common experiences the big picture escapes the attention of specific role attributed to ‘work’. The in the fields of social science research have contributed to an emerging the reader. concept of ‘work’ seems to have been methodology, comparative and public awareness of common identity and The metaphor of the painting is also chosen primarily to indicate a suppos- administration in non-Western societies, and By Jan Wuisman historical relatedness. Chapter 3 pres- useful to draw attention to a funda- edly typical characteristic of this city, in development administration. ents a statistical picture of Surabaya mental aspect of today’s social scientif- contrast to other cities, rather than as a [email protected] oward Dick’s study is an elabo- and explains how all sorts of external ic understanding of human social life. metaphor expressing what is typical Hrate and detailed analysis of one factors, processes, and influences have case, the city of Surabaya. Dick pres- moulded Surabaya and its identity. ents a wide variety of contextual infor- Employing these three perspectives, mation within which to understand Dick suggests that Surabaya indeed the various processes that took place represents a proper unit of historical in twentieth-century Surabaya. The sociological analysis; that it is an enti- study is, perhaps aptly, described as a ty with a sufficiently distinct geo- historical ‘urbano-graphical’ case graphical, demographic, economic, study. It clearly indicates its aim: an institutional, administrative, and cul- in-depth, systematic, and comprehen- tural identity. sive analysis of the unit of analysis as In the second part, Dick outlines a complex, dynamic, open system in three processes of change: the chang- terms of a wide variety of constitutive ing structure and role of government in dimensions such as: the relationships public health, education, and housing between the local and global (space); (chapter 4), industrialization (chapter the temporal dimension of past, pres- 5), and the spread of the city and con- ent, and future (time); the relationship flicts in the evolution of land use (chap- between nature reserves and rural ter 6). The detailed and interesting areas in the hinterland and overseas treatment of these topics is based on a cities and countries (ecology); and the large variety of documentary sources social relationships between men and and other sorts of information. What is women (gender), young and old (gen- missing, however, is their systematic erations), ethnic affiliation (cultural treatment within a broader perspective: identity), employers and employees that is, as examples of specific social (social class), work, leisure, and con- processes taking place within and sumption (status), inhabitants and directly contributing to the constitution bureaucrats (governance), citizens and and transformation of a distinct entity, politicians (polity), national and for- namely Surabaya. What is more, it is eigner (nationality), as well as those not at all Dick’s purpose to reveal the between ethnic groups and peoples core of the city of Surabaya as a distinct (hegemony). By covering most of these social, cultural, and historical entity. In dimensions this study not only reveals fact, he acknowledges having chosen to the reader the complexity of urban Surabaya as a methodological means of life in the city of Surabaya, but also studying various nationwide historical illustrates its pivotal role in the eco- processes of growth and decline during nomic development and moderniza- the twentieth century. This aspect tion of the eastern parts of Java and becomes blatantly clear in the conclu- Indonesia. sion in the third cluster, which is in the style of a moral discussion on the New What makes Surabaya’s Order, as reflected in the ups and history? downs that Surabaya has experienced Nevertheless, Dick’s study has its during that period, and expectations for own limitations. There is a rather the post-Suharto period. The following sharp difference between his descrip- analogy with a seventeenth-century por- tive and analytic analysis. At the trait by the Dutch painter Frans Hals descriptive level, Dick claims to pres- probably best illustrates my point. ent a ‘loosely structured and idiosyn- From a distance of 50 centimetres, cratic twentieth-century economic his- the sleeve of a painted jacket will appear tory of Surabaya’ by exploring a variety to the observer as tiny strokes of white of ‘key themes by taking several cross- paint representing geometric figures on

IIAS Newsletter | #31 | July 2003 33