Luncheon Series: Wilderness Urbanization in Indonesian Borneo: Sustainability Narratives as Socio-Ecological Fixes 08.28.2025

Delik Hudalah

CAS Luncheon Series
Thursday, August 28 at 12:30pm
Denison Arts & Sciences Building, room 146

This presentation examines the socio-ecological transformations of wilderness through the conceptual lens of planetary urbanization, focusing on extended urbanization in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo Island. By interrogating the interplay between global capitalism and peripheral landscapes, the study highlights how wilderness areas are reconfigured as frontiers of urbanization. It foregrounds the role of sustainability narratives in reshaping industrial practices and governance frameworks, driving a dual logic of ecological preservation and intensified resource exploitation within forestry and plantation agriculture. The analysis draws on the socio-ecological fix framework to unpack the socio-ecological crises and transformations induced by global industrial forces. These transformations, while framed as sustainable development, often reinscribe extractive practices under the guise of green capitalism. The findings reveal the contradictory dynamics of green economic initiatives, showing how they operate as mechanisms for temporarily resolving crises by restructuring socio-ecological relationships and extending urban processes into resource-rich peripheries. By situating these dynamics within debates on planetary urbanization, this paper contributes to critical discussions on the socio-spatial reconfigurations underpinning contemporary capitalism. It advances our understanding of how global narratives of sustainability mediate uneven development and reshape the socio-ecological fabric of peripheral regions.

Delik Hudalah is a Professor of Metropolitan Planning at the School of Architecture, Planning, and Policy Development (SAPPD) and the Director of the Research Center for Infrastructure and Regional Development at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning from ITB in 2004 and 2006, respectively. He then pursued a second M.Sc. in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning and a Ph.D. at the University of Groningen, graduating in 2006 and 2010, respectively. In 2023, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Delik is an urban planner specializing in multiscalar urban expansion in Asia, with a specific focus on Indonesia. He is particularly interested in the interfaces, interactions, and conflicts between socio-economic and spatial transformation, as well as the interplay between global forces and local aspirations in the reproduction, planning, politics, and governance of the urban frontiers. He has participated in various research projects on, among others, peri-urbanization, suburbanization, metropolitan governance, megaregionalization, megaproject management, and capital city planning.

Delik is the author “Planning Indonesia’s new capital city: Behind Nusantara,” a book published by Routledge (2025). His articles have appeared in numerous international journals, including Urban Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Environment and Planning A, Environment and Planning C, Urban Geography, Planning Theory, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Cities, Habitat International, Land Use Policy, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Town Planning Review, International Planning Studies, International Development Planning Review, and Asian Geographers. In addition, his chapters have been included in book series published by, among others, Routledge, Springer, and ISEAS.