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Paper short abstract

Despite many participatory adaptation projects in Semarang, communities remain precarious. Drawing on the concept of anti-politics machine, this paper argues transformative adaptation requires not better participation, but strategic navigation across development discourse toward just redistribution.

Paper long abstract

Despite many environment-related development projects in Semarang increasingly incorporating participatory and inclusive values, coastal communities in the ‘sinking city’ of Semarang, Indonesia and its surrounding areas remain submerged in deepening socio-ecological precarity. Given that literature on transformative adaptation argues that meaningful participation is needed to realize transformation, and participation is everywhere in environment-related development projects, then why is transformation not happening? Drawing on the concept of anti-politics machine, this research explores how participatory politics operates across development discourse boundaries in Semarang's environmental governance landscape and how this shapes adaptation strategies. Data was collected from interviews with stakeholders, including NGO workers, academics, activists, and impacted communities, and analyzed using analytic reflexivity. Findings reveal three mechanisms that constrain transformative adaptation: development apparatus channels community involvement toward resilience-level adaptation that do not address root causes of vulnerability; aspirations for transformative adaptation bring repression to communities when enacted outside ‘acceptable’ development discourse; and expert-subject relations from development projects leak into political organizing spaces. However, development discourse also creates gaps that actors strategically navigate to pursue their aspirations for transformative adaptation. As Semarang and surrounding coastal areas are on the verge of sinking, this research suggests transformative adaptation requires not better participation within development projects, but strategic navigation across discursive boundaries — picking the right battles before the tide rises further.