Abstract
This paper examines the socioecological transformations of peripheral resource frontiers in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo Island, through the conceptual lens of planetary urbanization, with particular attention to processes of extended urbanization. It interrogates how urban-industrial capitalism reconfigures these peripheral landscapes into operational frontiers that support metropolitan economies. The paper foregrounds the role of sustainability initiatives, such as certification schemes, carbon markets, and territorially scaled governance, in reshaping industrial practices and regulatory frameworks, which drive a dual logic of ecological preservation and intensified resource exploitation in forestry and plantation agriculture. Drawing on the concept of the socioecological fix, the analysis shows how crises generated within urban-industrial systems are temporarily resolved through green economic strategies that reorganize socioecological relations without transforming their underlying drivers. Based on a critical analysis of policy documents, project reports, and related materials, the findings reveal the contradictory dynamics of green capitalism, showing how sustainability initiatives extend urban processes into resource-rich peripheries while producing uneven socio-spatial and socioecological reconfiguration. By situating these transformations within debates on planetary urbanization, the paper contributes to a relational political ecology of urbanization attentive to frontier spaces.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
