Reluctant Grey – Collar Farmers

This study focuses on the Constructivist Political Ecology of Urban Farming Development in Semarang. Urban Farming is considered as an opportunity to develop agriculture even further, not just in rural area but in urban area as well. It offers social and economic opportunities because it reconnects food production and cities. The implementation of Urban Farming may range from Commercial Farming to Non – Commercial Farming. Commercial Farming is described to be more into production as well as food access and food stability, but has the tendency to lack environmental advantages. As for Non – Commercial Farming, it is expected to be less production oriented and thus offer a smaller contribution to food production, yet go well with environmental and climatic change. However, in the case of Semarang Municipality, there is some kind of Tug of War – represented as a Contest of Discourses – between the fascination of Commercial Farming, endorsed by the Municipality, and the charm of Non – Commercial Farming, envisioned by the locality or neighbourhood groups. A Matrix of Weberian Ideal Types is then employed so as to carry out Emphatic Understanding, i.e. interpretive examination, of the Contest of Discourses on Urban Farming Enculturation Program. Such an employment is also meant to trace at which point the Tug of War would eventually conclude. Holding onto the paradigmatic guidance of Constructivism, under the auspices of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, and within the context of Political Ecology, it is revealed that Urban Farming development in Semarang City is full of dynamics of knowledge as power in the form of a Game of Realms. The game is between the Semarang Municipality’s knowledge to theorize in the theoretical realm, which is then transformed into the power to organize, and the locality or neighbourhood groups’ knowledge to practice in the practical realm, which is then translated into the power to suffice. Armed with a Modified Matrix of Ideal Types, the present Research Paper finally arrives at the research findings on The Emergence of Reluctant Grey – Collar Farmers.