Abstract
In 1997, Kualanamu was chosen as the site of a new airport in North Sumatra. The central government's unilateral decision created new agrarian conflict and complicated the agrarian issues that had plagued the region since the colonial era. The accumulated conflicts and structural issues left local residents in a precarious state as they became integrated into peri-urban society. This article highlights the complexity of the conflict, the agency–institutional–structural relations that underpin it, and peri-urban resistance within the context of urbanisation and its marginalisation of rural communities.
Highlights
The development of the Kualanamu International Airport resulted in the forced eviction of Pasar VI Village, Kualanamu, Beringin District, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, approximately 25 kilometres east of Medan
We focus on how the agrarian structure has adopted its current format under the influence of global urbanisation as well as how agents created the momentum necessary to oppose to development of an international airport
Persons who were evicted during the construction of the Kualanamu International Airport, as well as those living in the surrounding area, have faced diverse yet simultaneous structural problems
Summary
The development of the Kualanamu International Airport resulted in the forced eviction of Pasar VI Village, Kualanamu, Beringin District, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, approximately 25 kilometres east of Medan. This approach is useful for understanding the perpetuation of poverty amongst periurban poor communities through sustained processes of dispossession In such communities, post-colonial agrarian transformations have intersected with accelerated global urbanisation to create conflict (the emergent properties) within a new spatial entity, what we term the periurban village. Post-colonial agrarian transformations have intersected with accelerated global urbanisation to create conflict (the emergent properties) within a new spatial entity, what we term the periurban village Such structural issues have stimulated new patterns of resistance, which have been smaller and more sporadic than the former traditions of social movements that were concentrated in rural or urban areas. Almost 30%—888,000 hectares— was being cultivated by foreign corporations; less than 10% of this land was being used for subsistence farming by local residents
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