Searching for the biofuel energy crisis in rural Java

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:7059241

McGranahan, G

Biofuel shortage in peasant economies is often reported to reach crisis proportions in conditions of high population density. As a group, peasants are portrayed as engaging in irrational biofuel resource abuse. At times this abuse is treated as the inevitable outcome of excess biofuel demand. Otherwise, an explanation is often given in terms of resource-use problems inherent in common property. An alternative explanation is proposed in this dissertation. Rather than the effect of common property (a structure), such crises are more likely the result of capitalist expansion (a process). Systems of common foraging are prone to ownership conflict during transitions to private property. This conflict provides a more cogent explanation for biofuel shortage than any structural flaw in common-use systems. Contemporary rural Java contradicts mechanistic applications of supply/demand models of biofuel shortage. Despite high population pressure, biofuel is not inordinately scarce. There is little basis for the crisis predictions. While assessments of biofuel demand and supply can provide scarcity indicators, they ought not be used to predict overuse. The traditional crisis predictions of supply/demand balancing and common property analysis must be replaced by a more skeptical multi-disciplinary approach.

• Research Organization: Wisconsin Univ., Madison (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7059241
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ASIA
BIOMASS
DEMAND FACTORS
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
INDONESIA
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
ISLANDS
MANAGEMENT
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
RURAL AREAS
SHORTAGES
SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
WOOD FUELS