HomeAbstract of 10th-shconfTrapped Between the State and Local Protest: Asymmetric Authority and Conflict Escalation in Indonesia’s Geothermal Transition

Trapped Between the State and Local Protest: Asymmetric Authority and Conflict Escalation in Indonesia’s Geothermal Transition

  • Jun 11, 2026
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Abstract Book of the 10th World Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities

Year: 2026

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Trapped Between the State and Local Protest: Asymmetric Authority and Conflict Escalation in Indonesia's Geothermal Transition

Turibius Sandi Djemani

ABSTRACT:

This study examines how intergovernmental authority distribution produces conflict escalation between the Poco Leok Indigenous Community and the Manggarai Regency Government (PemKab Manggarai) in the development of the Ulumbu Geothermal Power Plant (PLTP Ulumbu) Units 5-6 in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Employing a qualitative case study approach within a Multi-Level Governance (MLG) framework, the research evaluates five MLG principles, namely clarity of functions and roles, cross-level coordination, local actor inclusivity, institutional flexibility, and shared accountability, through rule for use and rule in use analysis. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with government officials at central, provincial, and regency levels, indigenous community leaders, and civil society organizations, supplemented by policy document analysis. Findings reveal that while the governance architecture is administratively functional in task distribution and coordination, it fails substantively in three critical dimensions: meaningful local inclusion, institutional flexibility, and proportional accountability. These failures produce two interconnected mechanisms, constrained discretion and blurred accountability, that generate blame displacement toward the regency government and trigger a positive feedback loop of escalating conflict. The study contributes to MLG literature by demonstrating that institutional failure in renewable energy transitions within developing countries is not characterized by the absence of governance structures, but by asymmetric distribution of decision-making influence versus social consequences

Keywords: Blame Displacement; Constrained Discretion; Decentralized Governance; Indigenous Community Resistance; Renewable Energy Transition