Beyond the Forest City: The Paradox of Sustainability and Maritime Dispossession in the Development of the Capital City

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_101How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Nusantara Capital City; sustainability; coastal communities; blue justice; commons

Abstract

The development of Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara (IKN), in East Kalimantan is promoted as a “smart, green, and sustainable” forest city. However, this study reveals that the state’s sustainability paradigm is technocratic and land-centric, neglecting the socio-ecological dynamics of coastal communities. Using policy ethnography and lifeworld phenomenology approach, the research explores the lived experiences of traditional fishers in Samboja, Balikpapan Bay, and Penajam Paser Utara amid spatial transformations caused by the IKN project. Findings indicate that the development has disrupted maritime livelihoods through the loss of fishing grounds, mangrove degradation, and socio-economic marginalization—constituting a new form of enclosure of the commons. Nevertheless, coastal communities respond with adaptive and resistant practices grounded in local ecological knowledge, collective labor at sea, and participatory mapping, representing forms of bottom-up sustainability. The study concludes that genuine sustainability does not emerge from state policy alone but from the social-ecological practices of coastal communities that sustain the balance between sea, space, and life. This research contributes to spatial political discourse by positioning maritime society as an active agent of ecological justice.

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  - Widya Astuti
AU  - Jefri
AU  - Hashfi Rafdi
AU  - Merina Afrilia
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - Beyond the Forest City: The Paradox of Sustainability and Maritime Dispossession in the Development of the Capital City
BT  - Proceedings of the World Conference on Governance and Social Sciences 2025 (WCGSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1529
EP  - 1541
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_101
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_101
ID  - Hastira2026
ER  -