Life in Extraction Zones: Everyday Struggles at the Frontiers of a Resource State
Convener: Geger Riyanto
As a state, Indonesia appears to be structured in ways that facilitate the extraction of resources within its territory. This was evident when the Dutch crafted their colonial institutions, which were designed to enable European capital to secure plantation concessions. A similar pattern persists in the contemporary Indonesian state, whose legal and coercive apparatuses often work in tandem to enable land grabbing for resource extraction. What is clear is that the state have always been heavily dependent on profits from the extractive sector, and current developments, especially amid fierce competition over critical minerals, only accelarate this reliance. Yet, with vast capital granted through state licenses and considerable immunity afforded to resource-extracting enterprises, an important question arises: what happens to the people living in extraction zones? Observers have long noted that those residing in these areas are treated as unimportant—their land is needed, but their presence is not. They must live alongside large plantations, occupying territories they have traditionally used for their livelihoods. They must contend with pollution and the toxicity produced by unregulated mining practices. In some cases, they eventually become dependent on the very enterprises that have taken away their traditional means of living.
This panel aims to highlight the kinds of existence people lead in such extraction zones, unraveling another side of the contemporary unfolding multipolar world with its renewed hunger for resources. How do these people, whose land is considered valuable, but whose presence is deemed disruptive to large capital extractive operations, contend with the arrival of the corporations undertaking the extraction? What transformations and strategies do they develop to navigate their lives under a new presence that significantly alters their landscapes and their relationships with them? What kinds of future aspirations do they imagine in the shadow of extractive corporations? We invite empirical research that captures the intricacies of life in landscapes transformed by mining, logging, or plantations.