Political economy of land, resources and wealth in Indonesia
Type
Single PanelSchedule
Session 10Thu 10:00-11:30 Classroom NT-159
Conveners
- Ahmad Novindri Aji Sukma University of Cambridge
- Perdana Roswaldy Monash University
- Takahiro Kamisuna University of Cambridge
Discussant
- William Hurst University of Cambridge
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Add to CalendarPapers
- Oligarchy in motion: Dirty politics over ‘clean’ energy transition in nickel-rich Indonesia Takahiro Kamisuna University of Cambridge
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Indigenous Communities and Extractive Industries in West Papua, Indonesia: Negotiating Power, Land, and Livelihoods among the Amungme and Kamoro
Johanes Eliezer Samosong Wato Bonn University
This paper examines the socio-political dynamics between Indigenous communities and extractive industries in Papua, Indonesia, with a focus on the Amungme and Kamoro peoples living in the vicinity of large-scale mining operations. Drawing on ongoing doctoral fieldwork, the study explores how the presence of extractive industries particularly gold and copper mining, reshapes local institutions, land relations, and everyday life.
The research investigates how Indigenous actors negotiate access to resources, assert customary land rights, and engage with corporate and state actors under conditions of structural inequality. It highlights the ways in which development narratives and corporate interventions intersect with local socio-cultural systems, producing both opportunities and tensions within communities.
By combining ethnographic observation with qualitative interviews, this paper contributes to broader discussions on resource governance, Indigenous agency, and the political economy of extraction in Southeast Asia. It argues that while extractive industries are often framed as drivers of development, their impacts are uneven and deeply embedded in local power relations, requiring a more nuanced understanding of community responses and resilience. - Ahmad Novindri Aji Sukma University of Cambridge
- Perdana Roswaldy Monash University
Abstract
Over the last two decades, scholarship on Indonesian politics has examined the new political dynamics of actors, power and its resources after the democratic transition. Proponents of the ‘oligarchy thesis’ have claimed the entrenchment of oligarchy that derives from the former authoritarian regime. Meanwhile, pluralist scholars highlight various actors in democratic Indonesia, as well as patterns of coalition politics in which oligarchs are a part of it.
Climate change and the following clean energy transition have, however, brought new dynamics of resource and wealth distribution in Indonesia. Indeed, the clean energy transition has led to commodity booms both in agricultural and mining resources in Indonesia. The new economic dynamics have raised critical questions on issues of resource and wealth distribution in various sectors and localities in Indonesia. We have seen different patterns – vis-à-vis continuous trends from the previous authoritarian period – of oligarchic entrenchment, corruption and political contestation over the last two decades.
Our panel will multi-disciplinarily examine the political economy of land, wealth and resources in various localities in Indonesia. With the expertise of our panelists in law/criminology, sociology, and political science, the panel will unpack the new dynamics of resource and wealth distribution in post-authoritarian Indonesia. The broader scope of our panel will reveal the geographical and sectoral variance, as well as the historical trajectory, in studying wealth and resources in contemporary Indonesian politics.