Land-Use Change Conflicts and Anti-Corporate Activism in Indonesia: A Review Essay

While processes of land-use change have triggered conflicts across Asia, our knowledge of the responses of affected communities is largely based on case-studies. This review essay addresses this challenge by reviewing and synthesizing 49 studies of conflicts between rural communities and companies i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of East Asian studies 2022-07, Vol.22 (2), p.333-356
Main Authors: Afrizal, Berenschot, Ward
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activism
Companies
Comparative analysis
Conflict resolution
Corporate social responsibility
Courts
Demonstrations & protests
Land
Land use controls
Local authorities
Mediation
Political activism
Political aspects
Regulation
Review Essay
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural development
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Summary:While processes of land-use change have triggered conflicts across Asia, our knowledge of the responses of affected communities is largely based on case-studies. This review essay addresses this challenge by reviewing and synthesizing 49 studies of conflicts between rural communities and companies in order to identify salient characteristics of anti-corporate activism in Indonesia. We find that, in contrast to the ‘rightful resistance’ observed elsewhere, the strategies employed by rural communities in Indonesia are remarkably “rightless” as both their discourse and their conflict resolution efforts are marked by a remarkable irrelevance of laws, regulations and courts. Communities frame their claims mostly in terms of customary laws while largely relying on informal mediation by local authorities. We attribute this “rightless” character of land-use change conflicts to the weak legal protection of land rights in Indonesia and the relative powerlessness of communities in the face of collusion between authorities and companies.
ISSN:1598-2408
2234-6643
DOI:10.1017/jea.2022.12