First paragraph of the Preface of a book "In Search of Middle Indonesia - Middle Classes in Provincial Towns":

"The collective writing effort that led to this book began with a brainstorming workshop at Gadjah Mada University in July 2005. We talked about the rapid social changes surrounding Indonesia’s 1998 economic crisis, democratization, and decentralization. Previous work on the nation’s local politics had made several of us aware of the mediated nature of these complex processes (Schulte Nordholt and Van Klinken 2007b; Van Klinken and Barker 2009; Aspinall and Van Klinken 2011). People in intermediate social and geographical locations influenced outcomes just by being able to pass on information and resources to others. Why had so little research been done on the middle classes in provincial towns who did much of this mediating work? we asked ourselves. We decided to put ‘Middle Indonesia’ on the research agenda."

In Search of Middle Indonesia - Middle Classes in Provincial Towns