Extracting modernity: Tin mining, colonial legacies, and the persistence of extractive inequality in Bangka Belitung
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: • Colonial frameworks still shape tin mining governance in Bangka and Belitung. • Green transitions rely on extractive inequalities in postcolonial regions. • Tin's environmental costs are externalized from the Global North. • The TIN2030 vision omits structural harms and historical legacies. • A decolonial lens reveals hidden injustices in sustainability narratives. This paper examines the enduring colonial legacies embedded in the tin mining industry of Bangka and Belitung, Indonesia. While tin is increasingly framed as essential to global sustainability transitions, particularly in the Global North, this paper argues that such narratives obscure the structurally unequal and environmentally destructive realities of extraction. Drawing on historical and contemporary accounts, it traces how colonial frameworks of resource control, racialised labour hierarchies, and ecological sacrifice persist into the present under the guise of green modernity. The study reveals how extractive inequality is sustained through institutional and discursive continuities. It situates Bangka and Belitung within a global value chain that continues to externalise environmental costs while centralising benefits elsewhere, revealing a deep contradiction at the heart of sustainability discourses. The paper calls for a decolonial approach to resource justice that recognises the knowledge, agency, and futures of communities historically marginalised by extraction.
Author: Maite Van den Borre
Institution: Utrecht University
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,470
OpenAlex ID: W7128432664