The Impacts of Corporate Presence on Local Communities

Abstract

The oil and gas industry is frequently positioned as a driver of development in peripheral regions, particularly in resource-rich developing countries. However, such an approach often neglects the social impacts and power relations that accompany the presence of extractive industries in Indigenous territories. This article aims to critically examine the impacts of British Petroleum’s LNG Tangguh project on social transformation, power relations, and community adaptation strategies in Tofoi Village, Teluk Bintuni Regency, West Papua. This study employs a qualitative approach with a case study design, utilizing in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. The findings indicate that the extractive industry not only transforms local economic structures but also functions as a hegemonic actor that reshapes social stratification, customary authority, patterns of social relations, and community systems of meaning. Community adaptation strategies reflect practices of survival within an unequal structural context rather than processes of transformative empowerment. This article contributes theoretically by positioning the extractive industry as a form of social hegemony operating through economic, institutional, and development discourses, while offering a substantive critique of prevailing CSR paradigms and technocratic development approaches in Indigenous territories