Trissia Wijaya | Murdoch University (original) (raw)
Papers by Trissia Wijaya
Ever since the so-called rise of China has started and particularly after Japan has lost a key In... more Ever since the so-called rise of China has started and particularly after Japan has lost a key Indonesian high-speed railway to China, Sino-Japanese relations have been increasingly posited on a geo-economic rivalry between both states. As a result, perspective on Chinese and Japanese infrastructure investment tends to place the state at the center of explanations and be guided more by what infrastructure projects are imagined to leverage, than what Southeast Asian countries have influenced. Taking issues from existing studies which have overly coalesced the discussion around geopolitical standpoint and norm-based approach, this study brings fresh framings of the political economy of Chinese and Japanese infrastructure regime in Southeast Asia. By using the case study of Indonesia, this study compares the pattern of agenda setting and political settlement that China and Japan have pursued to accommodate state transformation pertaining to the infrastructure development in Indonesia. ...
New Political Economy, Jan 6, 2024
This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persis... more This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persistence of the democracy deficit in China, as Beijing successfully surpressed its people's demands for democratic change and freedom. This paper also examines how the longevity of one-party regimes has simply made democracy such a forgettable discourse. Meanwhile, this paper argues three watersheds of undemocratized China. First, the historical precedence has shown that attempts of electoral democracy have not been successful in China. Second, there is an absence of constructive engagement toward China by external powers, such as the European Union and the United States (henceafter, "US"). Third, democracy lacks strong support from large sections of Chinese society. This paper also sees the another perspective of how the monopolized power of Chinese Communist Party (henceafter, "CCP") has been substituting the implementation of liberal democracy through the meritocr...
The Pacific Review, 2021
This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix ... more This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix with social conflict theory (SCT) focusing on Indonesia’s foreign-sponsored development of Ultra Supercritical (USC) coal power plants. I examine the contradictory development of ‘green’ projects in Indonesia and specifically unpack: how transnational politico-economic forces have secured a stable sustainability fix for the USC and how they have tamed opposition forces and reshaped governance strategies for intensified accumulation. I attempt to empirically demonstrate how such process unfold through two case studies – Cirebon II developed by Japanese and Korean companies and the Java 7 project funded by China. Albeit each have different alliance formations and strategies, both cases demonstrate that the safeguarding of stable conditions for sustainability fixes of USC power plant development is primarily determined by contestation, conflicts, and compromises between socio-political forces – international fractions of capital, state apparatuses, Indonesia’s PLN and coal oligarchy as well as broader civil society actors. They reshape governing strategies that are ultimately organised through the Indonesian state and react to the selectivity of state strategies which privilege dominant forces. The paper contributes to the existing literature on the political economy of infrastructure and serves to take state transformation into account and to dispel the ‘methodological nationalism’ view that presupposes policy outcome and institutional features are inherent to the mode of capitalism of the investor’s country of origin.
Taking issues from mainstream research, which has overly coalesced the discussion around patronag... more Taking issues from mainstream research, which has overly coalesced the discussion around patronage-ridden relationships and money politics, this paper argues that democracy has restructured the pattern of state-ethnic Chinese business relationships into a dispersed network, due to the dynamics of capital convertibility within varying scales of power and interests. Offering a unique perspective on capital conversion, this paper aims to debunk the orthodox view of Chinese capital as being merely money that accommodates politics. The revival of Chinese conglomerates in the political-economic life of Indonesia in the aftermath of crises was subject to capital in various forms: economic capital, socio-political capital, ideas, and knowledge. At the time of capital restructuring, an ever-increasing dispersed network of Chinese businesses demonstrated that their position was neither higher than politics nor independent of it, yet the arrangement allowed them to dovetail well with various f...
This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persis... more This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persistence of the democracy deficit in China, as Beijing successfully surpressed its people's demand for democrartic change and freedom. This paper also examines how the longevity of one-party regimes has simply made democracy such a forgettable discourse. Meanwhile, this paper argues three watersheds of undemocratized China. First, the historical precedence has shown that attempts of electoral democracy have not been successful in China. Second, there is an absence of constructive engagement toward China by external powers, such as the European Union and the United States (henceafter, "US"). Third, democracy lacks strong support from large sections of Chinese society. This paper also sees the another perspective of how the monopolized power of Chinese Communist Party (henceafter, "CCP") has been substituting the implementation of liberal democracy through the meritroc...
The literature on public–private partnerships (PPPs) often portrays infrastructure construction a... more The literature on public–private partnerships (PPPs) often portrays infrastructure construction as a depoliticized and technocratic exercise about efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In contrast to these works, we contend the political and economic elites along with their transnational allies – the congruence of state–capital – recycle PPPs in constructing their spatial fixes, guaranteeing profits and passing risks from the private sector bidder onto the public as a whole. We suggest that PPPs lie within the intertwining processes of ‘Development’ and ‘development’, which are articulations of neoliberalism in its latest and most sophisticated iteration. Across different regimes, PPPs’ processes and mechanisms reflect various governance structures and hybrid forms of state–capital relations. Examining Indonesia and the Philippines, we empirically demonstrate how state–capital forces reproduced PPPs to simultaneously accommodate degrees of state intervention and the private sector’s de...
This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix ... more This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix with social conflict theory (SCT) focusing on Indonesia's foreignsponsored development of Ultra Supercritical (USC) coal power plants. I examine the contradictory development of 'green' projects in Indonesia and specifically unpack: how transnational politico-economic forces have secured a stable sustainability fix for the USC and how they have tamed opposition forces and reshaped governance strategies for intensified accumulation. I attempt to empirically demonstrate how such process unfold through two case studies -Cirebon II developed by Japanese and Korean companies and the Java 7 project funded by China. Albeit each have different alliance formations and strategies, both cases demonstrate that the safeguarding of stable conditions for sustainability fixes of USC power plant development is primarily determined by contestation, conflicts, and compromises between socio-political forcesinternational fractions of capital, state apparatuses, Indonesia's PLN and coal oligarchy as well as broader civil society actors. They reshape governing strategies that are ultimately organised through the Indonesian state and react to the selectivity of state strategies which privilege dominant forces. The paper contributes to the existing literature on the political economy of infrastructure and serves to take state transformation into account and to dispel the 'methodological nationalism' view that presupposes policy outcome and institutional features are inherent to the mode of capitalism of the investor's country of origin.
Ever since the so-called rise of China has started and particularly after Japan has lost a key In... more Ever since the so-called rise of China has started and particularly after Japan has lost a key Indonesian high-speed railway to China, Sino-Japanese relations have been increasingly posited on a geo-economic rivalry between both states. As a result, perspective on Chinese and Japanese infrastructure investment tends to place the state at the center of explanations and be guided more by what infrastructure projects are imagined to leverage, than what Southeast Asian countries have influenced. Taking issues from existing studies which have overly coalesced the discussion around geopolitical standpoint and norm-based approach, this study brings fresh framings of the political economy of Chinese and Japanese infrastructure regime in Southeast Asia. By using the case study of Indonesia, this study compares the pattern of agenda setting and political settlement that China and Japan have pursued to accommodate state transformation pertaining to the infrastructure development in Indonesia. ...
New Political Economy, Jan 6, 2024
This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persis... more This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persistence of the democracy deficit in China, as Beijing successfully surpressed its people's demands for democratic change and freedom. This paper also examines how the longevity of one-party regimes has simply made democracy such a forgettable discourse. Meanwhile, this paper argues three watersheds of undemocratized China. First, the historical precedence has shown that attempts of electoral democracy have not been successful in China. Second, there is an absence of constructive engagement toward China by external powers, such as the European Union and the United States (henceafter, "US"). Third, democracy lacks strong support from large sections of Chinese society. This paper also sees the another perspective of how the monopolized power of Chinese Communist Party (henceafter, "CCP") has been substituting the implementation of liberal democracy through the meritocr...
The Pacific Review, 2021
This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix ... more This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix with social conflict theory (SCT) focusing on Indonesia’s foreign-sponsored development of Ultra Supercritical (USC) coal power plants. I examine the contradictory development of ‘green’ projects in Indonesia and specifically unpack: how transnational politico-economic forces have secured a stable sustainability fix for the USC and how they have tamed opposition forces and reshaped governance strategies for intensified accumulation. I attempt to empirically demonstrate how such process unfold through two case studies – Cirebon II developed by Japanese and Korean companies and the Java 7 project funded by China. Albeit each have different alliance formations and strategies, both cases demonstrate that the safeguarding of stable conditions for sustainability fixes of USC power plant development is primarily determined by contestation, conflicts, and compromises between socio-political forces – international fractions of capital, state apparatuses, Indonesia’s PLN and coal oligarchy as well as broader civil society actors. They reshape governing strategies that are ultimately organised through the Indonesian state and react to the selectivity of state strategies which privilege dominant forces. The paper contributes to the existing literature on the political economy of infrastructure and serves to take state transformation into account and to dispel the ‘methodological nationalism’ view that presupposes policy outcome and institutional features are inherent to the mode of capitalism of the investor’s country of origin.
Taking issues from mainstream research, which has overly coalesced the discussion around patronag... more Taking issues from mainstream research, which has overly coalesced the discussion around patronage-ridden relationships and money politics, this paper argues that democracy has restructured the pattern of state-ethnic Chinese business relationships into a dispersed network, due to the dynamics of capital convertibility within varying scales of power and interests. Offering a unique perspective on capital conversion, this paper aims to debunk the orthodox view of Chinese capital as being merely money that accommodates politics. The revival of Chinese conglomerates in the political-economic life of Indonesia in the aftermath of crises was subject to capital in various forms: economic capital, socio-political capital, ideas, and knowledge. At the time of capital restructuring, an ever-increasing dispersed network of Chinese businesses demonstrated that their position was neither higher than politics nor independent of it, yet the arrangement allowed them to dovetail well with various f...
This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persis... more This paper attempts to analyze both internal and external determinants which influence the persistence of the democracy deficit in China, as Beijing successfully surpressed its people's demand for democrartic change and freedom. This paper also examines how the longevity of one-party regimes has simply made democracy such a forgettable discourse. Meanwhile, this paper argues three watersheds of undemocratized China. First, the historical precedence has shown that attempts of electoral democracy have not been successful in China. Second, there is an absence of constructive engagement toward China by external powers, such as the European Union and the United States (henceafter, "US"). Third, democracy lacks strong support from large sections of Chinese society. This paper also sees the another perspective of how the monopolized power of Chinese Communist Party (henceafter, "CCP") has been substituting the implementation of liberal democracy through the meritroc...
The literature on public–private partnerships (PPPs) often portrays infrastructure construction a... more The literature on public–private partnerships (PPPs) often portrays infrastructure construction as a depoliticized and technocratic exercise about efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In contrast to these works, we contend the political and economic elites along with their transnational allies – the congruence of state–capital – recycle PPPs in constructing their spatial fixes, guaranteeing profits and passing risks from the private sector bidder onto the public as a whole. We suggest that PPPs lie within the intertwining processes of ‘Development’ and ‘development’, which are articulations of neoliberalism in its latest and most sophisticated iteration. Across different regimes, PPPs’ processes and mechanisms reflect various governance structures and hybrid forms of state–capital relations. Examining Indonesia and the Philippines, we empirically demonstrate how state–capital forces reproduced PPPs to simultaneously accommodate degrees of state intervention and the private sector’s de...
This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix ... more This paper is the first academic attempt to critically bridge the politics of sustainability fix with social conflict theory (SCT) focusing on Indonesia's foreignsponsored development of Ultra Supercritical (USC) coal power plants. I examine the contradictory development of 'green' projects in Indonesia and specifically unpack: how transnational politico-economic forces have secured a stable sustainability fix for the USC and how they have tamed opposition forces and reshaped governance strategies for intensified accumulation. I attempt to empirically demonstrate how such process unfold through two case studies -Cirebon II developed by Japanese and Korean companies and the Java 7 project funded by China. Albeit each have different alliance formations and strategies, both cases demonstrate that the safeguarding of stable conditions for sustainability fixes of USC power plant development is primarily determined by contestation, conflicts, and compromises between socio-political forcesinternational fractions of capital, state apparatuses, Indonesia's PLN and coal oligarchy as well as broader civil society actors. They reshape governing strategies that are ultimately organised through the Indonesian state and react to the selectivity of state strategies which privilege dominant forces. The paper contributes to the existing literature on the political economy of infrastructure and serves to take state transformation into account and to dispel the 'methodological nationalism' view that presupposes policy outcome and institutional features are inherent to the mode of capitalism of the investor's country of origin.