Introduction

Social conflict and violence has entered the development discourse in Indonesia. The country's deep economic crisis and the subsequent democratic transition in late 1990s were marked by a significant eruption of violent conflict of various types. Deep social divisions within Indonesian society have been an inseparable part of the crisis and transition itself. In this regard, rebuilding the economy and restoring people's welfare has to be multi-faceted in nature. Therefore, economic development is required not only for its own sake, but also as a tool for preventing and reducing social violence. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the link between violent social conflict and socio-economic variables to get a better understanding of socio-economic explanations for conflict. However, it seems that the empirical literature on the socio-economic determinants of violent conflict are dominated by studies which focus on the most high profile form of violence, i.e., civil war, and most of them apply a cross-country type of analysis. Only a few studies examine civil war by employing cross-sectional analysis within a single country. However, recent developments in this area of research show the emergence of new studies that employ cross-section empirical analysis within a single country, not only on civil war, but on other forms of social violence, such as civil unrest, ethno-communal violence, etc.

This study deals with the socio-economic origins of a low profile form of violence in Java, Indonesia. It is referred to as ‘everyday’ or ‘routine’ social violence, centred on vigilante violence/popular justice and inter-group/neighbourhood brawls. Routine violence covers group or collective violence, and it is different from individual violence, domestic violence, or homicide – which can simply be labelled as crime. So far, the focus on conflict and violence in Indonesia has been disproportionately directed to higher profile episodic kinds of incidents, which exclusively take place in the form of ethno-communal and separatist violence. There is, however, another form of social violence, a low profile routine kind that rarely produces headlines. These are not reported beyond the local newspapers, unless they turn ugly. If the ‘episodic’ violence is highly concentrated in few regions outside Java, the ‘routine’ type is common to almost all districts in the island of Java.