Building a New Capital, Reimagining the Nation: Nusantara and the Politics of Indonesia’s Developmental Future

Abstract

Indonesia’s relocation of its national capital to Nusantara represents a major state-led development initiative with implications for territorial governance, national identity, environmental sustainability, and the country’s international positioning. Beyond its administrative objectives, the project raises broader questions about how states construct narratives of modernization, redistribute public resources, and imagine their future relationships with citizens and territory. This study proposes to examine Nusantara as both a spatial transformation and a political project through which Indonesia’s developmental ambitions are articulated and contested. Using a qualitative case-study approach, the research would combine critical discourse analysis of official policy documents and public communications with examination of environmental assessments, planning materials, and media representations. Where feasible, interviews with policymakers, local communities, civil society organizations, and development stakeholders would provide additional perspectives on the project’s social and political implications. The theoretical framework integrates political geography, developmental-state theory, and critical urban studies. The analysis would investigate how narratives of national progress, technological modernity, and territorial balance are constructed, while examining tensions involving environmental protection, community participation, financing, and the distribution of development benefits. Rather than presuming either the success or failure of the capital relocation, the study would assess the competing claims through which Nusantara’s legitimacy and future are negotiated. Its proposed contribution is to connect Indonesian capital relocation with wider international debates on state-led urban development, national identity, and sustainable territorial transformation.