Citation

Dick H. Bulletin of Indonesian economic studies 2000; 36(1): 185-207.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000)

DOI

10.1080/00074910012331337833

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Contemporary debate in Indonesia over 'people's economy' and 'globalisation' recalls the vigorous 1950s debate over 'dualism'. Taking as a case study the rise and eclipse of railways, this paper argues that the colonial phenomenon of dualism can with hindsight be reinterpreted as a phase in a previous cycle of globalisation. However, economic history has overlooked the remarkable vitality of the small-scale transport sector. Focus on the small-scale sector highlights the inadequacies of familiar paradigms and suggests the need to reconceptualise long-term socioeconomic change. This analysis has important implications for responses to the current wave of globalisation and how they may be manifest in a more democratic post-Soeharto Indonesia.