Reluctant grey-collar farmers: the Constructivist Political Ecology of urban farming development in Semarang

This study focuses on the Constructivist Political Ecology of Urban Farming Development in the City of 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. 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 the City of Semarang, there is some kind of Tug of War -represented as a Contest of Discourses– between the fascination of Commercial Farming, formulated by the Semarang Municipality, and the charm of Non – Commercial Farming, implemented by the community groups. In the effort to have comprehensive understanding of the Tug of War, the Contest of Discourses, assessment of facts and figures of Urban Farming Development in the City of Semarang is needed. Such assessment is expected to provide the qualitative disposition of the present investigation with sufficient quantitative analysis basis. Additionally, 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 Development. 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 Faucouldian Discourse Analysis, and within the context of Political Ecology, the present Research Paper unveils the potential and prospect of the City of Semarang’s facts and figures for Urban Farming Development. At the same time, however, this finding also signifies that the Urban Farming Development endorsed by the Semarang Municipality may deviate from its original direction. Furthermore, the Research Paper also reveals that Urban Farming Development in the City of Semarang 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 community 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 The Emergence of Reluctant Grey – Collar Farmers.