Java is one of the world's most densely populated agricultural regions. Since the publication of Clifford Geertz's Agricultural Involution, scholars have viewed mounting demographic pressure on limited land resources as the driving force behind agrarian change on the island. This book shifts the focus of inquiry from population and land to the role of class formation and class power in shaping patterns of economic change.

Based on original fieldwork in West Java, the book provides a detailed analysis of class structure, agricultural production relations and capital accumulation in three villages. The evidence from these locations uncovers hidden assumptions underlying conventional theories, and demonstrates the role of locally-specific class configurations in shaping patterns of economic change at the village level.

The book also shows how standard methodologies used in village studies have contributed to a more general neglect of the role of class power in economic analyses of agrarian dynamics.