Presentation by Bosman Batubara: Subsumption of landscape under capital: Extended urbanization of Indonesia’s new capital city

On the 17th of October Following Forest member Bosman Batubara gave a presentation which identified three distinct yet related qualitative moments of landscape subsumption under capital based on how value is produced and extracted in the location of Indonesia’s new capital city. Logging extraction started in the 1960s in that  area provides an example of formal subsumption of landscape under capital, characterized by the production of absolute surplus value. Industrial plantation started in the 1990s provides an example of real subsumption of landscape under capital, characterized by the production of relative surplus value. The development of a new capital city in the 2020s provides an example of speculative subsumption of landscape under capital, characterized by value-extraction but not value-production, and the shift of that area from once as an operational landscape of extended urbanization into a center of urban development. Inherent to the qualitative changes is a constant (re)production of unevenness which pushes aside Indigenous Community in that area from their control over and access to land and forest.