MDes

Land Grabs and Land Grants: Social Forestry as New Governmentality in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Advised by Sai Balakrishnan and Michael Woolcock

In Indonesia, many farmers have been dispossessed of land and economically marginalized by extractive industries since the colonial regime. The hegemony of the state over the resource is challenged by the increasing strength of indigenous, democracy, and environmental movements. Social forestry is a program that is widely advocated by the government and NGOs in Indonesia in response to critics and crisis. By granting land back to villagers and calling for participatory management, it claims to solve the injustice in resource distribution. This thesis aims to reposition social forestry in the history of the democracy movement in Indonesia to explore in more depth by whom, how, and why spaces for participation/decentralization are being opened and filled. It also helps to understand how land and labor conflicts are dismissed and depoliticized in this process.