Lidya Lestari Sitohang, Lothar Smith, Martin van der Velde
Cross-border activities in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, are often considered as coming forth out of insufficient regional development, necessitating cross-border engagements. This cross-border engagement is often appraised from a strong national sentiment by other Indonesian nationals. Yet, beyond the rhetoric on national versus regional development needs, little has been discussed on how border crossings are understood from the borderlander perspective, and how for ‘border-people’ these border crossings represent meaningful interactions, which play pivotal roles in the context of (transnational) border-region development. This article argues that border crossing in Kalimantan is best approached with an analytical framework that explores two key forms of cross-border interaction by borderlanders. They are defined along the lines of a formal distinction maintained by the Indonesian state between cross-border engagements considered to be ‘accepted’ versus others which are seen as ‘contested’. Both categories reflect strongly agency-driven engagements, and both highlight clear instrumental behaviour. Understanding the various nature and degrees of interaction involved may help to better understand the complexities surrounding border crossings and thereby also whether distinctions between accepted and contested are relevant at all. In our analysis, we draw on data collected in the Krayan region through a mixed-methods approach. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, State University of Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia; Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands; African Centre for Migration & Society, The Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa
