Changing to Gray: Decentralization and the Emergence of Volatile Socio-Legal Configurations in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

Decentralization policy narratives articulated by donor agencies tend to describe decentralization as a technical process of policy design and implementation, advocating decentralization as a solution to particular problems. Drawing on research carried out in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan following the inception of a decentralization program, this article examines how political processes at the national, district and village levels have led to highly volatile socio-legal configurations that create insecurity and heighten resource conflicts. It concludes that while the politics surrounding decentralization in different domains have ensured that the patterns of governance inherited from the past remain precariously distant from the objectives of good governance, decentralization has also opened up space for positive changes.