Understanding the role of place in local extractive industries transparency: Evidence from an oil-rich district of Indonesia

Abstract

Transparency in the extractive industries has become one approach to mitigate resource-related problems. However, many transparency policies have failed to consider the local contexts where extraction activities occur and conditions that affect local citizens, limiting policies’ societal and governance impacts on the ground. Using the case of resource revenue redistribution implemented in the oil-rich Pelalawan District, Indonesia, we assess what elements exist in places of extraction that may shape citizens’ ways of making sense of oil revenue management and implications for the design and implementation of transparency-related policy for accountable natural resources revenue management. Drawing on the conception of place, we found that social identities and elements of location, locale, and sense of place characterize citizens’ views of oil extraction and local revenue management. In our case, living in closer distance to extraction sites does not determine citizens’ views and informational needs concerning the extractive industries and revenue management. We suggest that unfolding transparency's transformative process requires understanding the physical and non-physical elements of a place (of extraction). Further, by focusing on extractive industries’ influences on the spatial configurations of citizens’ everyday lives, the development of transparency policy can promote relevant and tangible societal and governance impacts on the ground.