Community rights in an age of footloose capital: Mining in decentralized Indonesia

Indonesia, and especially its poorest provinces in the east, is in the midst of a mining boom. In the past decade, political reform has promised democracy, and a 2009 mining law aims to increase the flow of benefits to the Indonesian people. Direct investment in mining from new global players is flowing into districts where local governments, newly empowered under post-2001 decentralisation, are seeking economic growth. Too often this has been to the detriment of mining-affected communities. This situation provides new challenges for advocacy of local rights by local and global organisations. The project addresses these issues in a historical and comparative framework, testing the possibilities for mining to enable local prosperity.