The Politics of Maritime Space Production: Ocean Grabbing and State Power in the Development of the Capital City of Nusantara

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_100How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Ocean spatial politics; Nusantara capital city; political ecology; maritime governance; ocean grabbing

Abstract

This study examines the politics of ocean space production in developing Indonesia’s new capital city, Nusantara, in East Kalimantan, as a national strategic project reorganizing power relations among the state, capital, and coastal communities. The research aims to understand how integrating marine spatial planning policies following the Job Creation Law has reshaped access and control over maritime space. A qualitative approach was employed using the political ecology framework and critical spatial analysis through a case study in Balikpapan Bay and Penajam Paser Utara. Data were collected from policy document analysis, in-depth interviews, and field observations. The findings reveal that integrating the Coastal and Small Islands Zoning Plan into the National Spatial Plan and implementing an online licensing system have created a centralized and technocratic form of ocean governance. This transformation has resulted in the marginalization of coastal communities, declining fish catches, and degradation of mangrove ecosystems around the Nusantara area. The discussion highlights that the Nusantara project represents a new form of legally legitimized ocean grabbing under the rhetoric of sustainable development, underscoring the need for more participatory and ecologically just maritime governance.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Muh Fichriyadi Hastira
AU  - Armin Arsyad
AU  - Gustiana Kambo
AU  - Muhammad Muhammad
AU  - Muhammad Saad
AU  - Mimi Arifin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - The Politics of Maritime Space Production: Ocean Grabbing and State Power in the Development of the Capital City of Nusantara
BT  - Proceedings of the World Conference on Governance and Social Sciences 2025 (WCGSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1512
EP  - 1528
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_100
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_100
ID  - Hastira2026
ER  -