Organizer: NYSEAN; Program in International Relations, New York University
Type/Location: Hybrid / New York, NY
Description:
Join NYSEAN for a talk by Dr. Eve Warburton, visiting fellow at NYU Wagner and research fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change at Australian National University.
Abstract:
The global race to secure critical minerals has become a subject of intense debate. Much focus has been on how rising demand for low carbon technology will require new mines and new industrial projects, mostly in the Global South, in turn bringing both economic opportunity and environmental and social risk. Fewer studies have homed on the specific politics of extractive industrial projects. This presentation does so using the case of Indonesia. Analyses of Indonesia are often divided between those that frame its nickel boom as a case of remarkable industrial success, and those that condemn the industry's devastating ecological impacts. Less research investigates the precise politicalconditions that made rapid mineral-industrial expansion possible. This paper shows how Indonesia's declining democracy, weak state capacity, and state-business entanglements created an ideal environment for fast-paced upstream extraction and large-scale downstream foreign investment. In short, Indonesia industrialised because of, not despite, its democratic deficits. The Indonesian case generates broader lessons for how (un)democratic institutions shape, and are shaped by, extractive industrialisation in the Global South.
About the Speaker:
Eve Warburton is a visiting fellow at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a research fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. Her research is concerned broadly with problems of representation and governance in young and developing democracies, with a focus on Southeast Asia and Indonesia in particular.
Registration:
To attend the event in person, please register here.
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