A heuristic typology of mediator-centered power in land use conflicts: An actor centered analysis for developing countries

Muhammad Alif K. Sahide

Forest Policy and Economics, 2025, vol. 178, issue C

Abstract: This study advances a heuristic typology to analyze mediator-centered power in land-use conflicts, offering an actor-centered framework tailored to the socio-political complexities of developing countries. Moving beyond linear knowledge-transfer models, we reconceptualize mediators as power integrators who strategically convert between epistemic, structural, and agential power to shape conflict outcomes by bridging technical knowledge with political negotiation, mediators strategically position themselves within formal and informal governance arenas, negotiating between bureaucratic mandates, elite networks, and grassroots mobilization to reconfigure power dynamics. Through empirical analysis of Indonesian cases, we identify four mediator types: patronage mediators leverage elite networks to broker resolutions through informal politics; activism mediators mobilize grassroots resistance to counterbalance elite dominance; bridging mediators facilitate multi-stakeholder consensus while camouflaging partisan interests; and bureaucratic mediators instrumentalize formal mandates amid competing state priorities. Our findings reveal that sustainable resolutions require mediators to actively manage recursive power-knowledge exchanges, particularly in contexts where conflicts intersect legal systems, patronage networks, and competing knowledge claims. The typology provides practitioners with diagnostic tools to assess power imbalances and offers scholars a systematic approach to analyze mediation as a dynamic process of interest negotiation and structural adaptation.

Keywords: Actor-centered power mediation; Land-use conflict mediation; Mediator typology; Hybrid governance; Power integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934125001182
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:178:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125001182

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103539

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().