Description:

The Global Cafe is excited to host Rahardhika Utama, a Ph.D. student with the Department of Sociology! His research interests include political sociology, inequality, bureaucracy, comparative-historical sociology, and Southeast Asia.

Natural rubber remains an important global commodity despite the increasing consumption of its synthetic counterpart. The circulation of rubber has produced diverse forms of social relationship throughout the history of modern civilization. How does the life story of rubber help us understand global stratification? Why do most of the rubber farmers in Southeast Asia continuously earn low income despite engaging in a global economy? Using preliminary data obtained from ten-weeks ethnographic fieldwork in Southeast Asian rubber communities, archival works, as well as interviews with rubber industry stakeholders in five countries in Southeast Asia, this study aims to tell the social life story of rubber to address these questions.

Dinner will be provided!