ANALYSIS OF POWER RELATIONS IN THE FLOOD CRISIS IN WEST KALIMANTAN

Abstract

Flooding in West Kalimantan has become a recurring socio-ecological crisis affecting communities living along riverbanks, coastal areas, and urban settlements. This study aims to analyze the flood crisis through Michel Foucault’s perspective on power relations by examining how power operates in environmental governance, the production of disaster knowledge, and the formation of community responses to environmental vulnerability. The study employs a qualitative approach drawing on environmental sociology and Foucauldian analysis. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, documentation, and a literature review involving flood-affected residents in several districts in West Kalimantan. The data were analyzed using the Miles and Huberman interactive model. The findings indicate that flooding in West Kalimantan is not merely a hydrometeorological event but is also closely related to power relations in land-use management, development policies, and environmental governance. More specifically, the study identifies four main findings. First, power relations operate through ecological spatial governance, contributing to the formation of community vulnerability to flooding. Second, the production of disaster knowledge through formal institutions, such as the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) and the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), influences how communities understand and respond to risk, while communities also develop local knowledge based on their experiences with recurrent flooding. Third, repeated experiences of flooding encourage the normalization of risk, whereby flooding is perceived as part of everyday life. Fourth, communities develop adaptive practices through social solidarity and reciprocal cooperation as mechanisms for coping with the impacts of flooding.