The shaping of an extractive sector in South Sulawesi, Indonesia: sand and stone extraction from the Jeneberang river

This paper attempts to emphasize the potential paying attention to materiality has for making our studies of the configuration and dynamics of mining and quarrying sectors even more complex. It explores how both the particularities of river sand and stones and the specificities of the geographical space where they are extracted from shape the sector that extracts them in terms of the actors who participate and the relationships these actors have with each other. The analysis in this paper is based on the case study of sand and stones extraction from the Jeneberang river in Gowa regency, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The rapid urbanization of Makassar -capital city of the province and the main urban hub in Eastern Indonesia- and its increasing demand for construction aggregates are the main drivers for the development and dynamism of a thriving extractive sector in Gowa whose proximity to Makassar makes it an ideal supplier of river sand and stone materials.