Local struggle, recognition of Dayak customary land, and state making in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

© 2016 Dr. Nanang Indra KurniawanThis dissertation is a study of state making in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, adopting a political geography approach to analyse the Inventory of Dayak Customary Lands (IDCL) program between 2009 and 2015. This study attempts to investigate the interaction between state making as a spatial project and the sociopolitical struggle of Dayak peasants for land. I investigate attempts by the local state elites in Central Kalimantan to establish and expand control over indigenous lands for capital accumulation; explore how these attempts affect Dayak peasants’ control of land; and outline how Dayak peasants respond through social struggle to reclaim access and control of land. Through the case of IDCL I analyse the Provincial Government of Central Kalimantan’s efforts to enhance control of space by incorporating adat (customary) discourse and Dayak customary institutions, and by employing a participatory mapping approach—previously used as part of peasants’ strategy to gain rights to land. I also analyse the continued struggle of Dayak peasants through complementary strategies of resistance and accommodation during the implementation of IDCL. Two central Lefebvrian concepts are used for analysis. First, the state mode of production (SMP) (i.e. the role of the state in organising space and reproducing relations of production for capitalist commodification). Second, autogestion (i.e. the acts of a social group to refuse passively its conditions of existence). Data for this study were collected through participant observation, interview, document, and group discussion and analysed through descriptive and interpretive analysis. The main research question is: how does the local state in Central Kalimantan use the IDCL to incorporate Dayak peasant’s struggle in the process of state making and capital accumulation in Central Kalimantan? To answer this question I analyse key historical and contemporary processes of capital accumulation and state making in Central Kalimantan; the local state's strategy under the IDCL to expand its control of people and resources in Central Kalimantan through the incorporation of social struggle for land; and finally the role of sociopolitical struggle in the process of spatial formation of the state. The main argument of this dissertation is that state recognition of indigenous land rights through the IDCL functioned ambiguously: serving dominant class interests, but also enabling Dayak peasants to struggle to reclaim control over land. Under IDCL, state based elites facilitated land based investments by incorporating customary tenure and indigenous narratives. However, the practice of participatory mapping under IDCL has empowered peasant communities, at least partially, to resist state control and land appropriations