Runavia Mulyasari

Email: r.mulyasari@maw.ru.nl

Project: Locating the Power of Go-betweens: The Role of Brokers and Intermediaries in the Development of Palm Oil Plantations in Sintang District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Abstract: Today, many natural resource-rich regions have transformed into so-called 'new resource frontiers'. Within these new frontiers, often a kind of interstitial space emerges between the sphere of the government and the market where specific actors are playing a dual role as regulators and rent seekers, the so-called go-betweens. The conditions and processes of natural resource exploitation have become far more intense, differentiated and complex and the assemblage of go-betweens in the interstitial space have become far more diverse and opaque. The aim of this study is to develop a better understanding of 'power of go-betweens', and the specific role of these intermediaries in the process of developing and maintaining palm oil plantations.

Funding: DIKTI

Starting date: November 2013

Supervision: Toon van Meijl and Edwin de Jong