JEMBER — A new study conducted by a research team from Universitas Jember and Universitas PGRI Banyuwangi reveals that coastal power operates not merely through land ownership or resource extraction, but through governing the circulation of commodities, labor, sea routes, and infrastructure. This comparative research analyzes Royyan Julian's Tiang Garam and Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Arus Balik to examine how coastal worlds are sustained, captured, disrupted, and reopened through circulatory processes. The study was led by Heru S.P. Saputra alongside L. Dyah Purwita Wardani, Wiwin Indiarti, Titik Maslikatin, Edy Hariyadi, Gio Pramanda Galaxi, Dinda Rahma Antika, and Carenina Putri, with findings published in 2026.
Coastal environments are frequently treated narrowly as static spaces or extractable economic assets, obscuring the mobile networks that sustain coastal livelihoods. Coastal life relies fundamentally on movements connecting land and sea, ranging from salt fields, ports, and shipping lines to ancestral memories and local ecosystems. When these circulatory pathways are monopolized or disrupted by political and economic forces, coastal communities face severe relational dispossession and ecological vulnerability.
To analyze these mechanisms, the researchers utilized comparative qualitative literary analysis combining close reading, relational ecological textual analysis, and thematic coding. A total of 80 textual units across both novels were systematically examined to trace connections among humans, nonhuman life, material infrastructure, and authority. This methodology allowed the team to evaluate how literary narratives reconstruct coastal ecological relations across local and archipelagic scales.
The findings reveal four core patterns characterizing coastal ecologies of circulation. First, coastal settings function as relational infrastructures where livability depends on continuous connections between human labor, sea, land, and nonhuman entities. Second, coastal power is exercised by controlling access routes and market pathways, illustrated by salt brokerage monopolies in Tiang Garam and strategic maritime route control in Arus Balik. Third, the disruption of circulation causes relational dispossession, leading to livelihood losses, land conversion, and port collapse. Fourth, efforts to restore damaged circulations remain inherently ambivalent, as economic recovery may coexist with ecological harm, coercion, or militarization.
These insights carry significant implications for coastal zone management, environmental education, and modern maritime governance. The study emphasizes that marine and coastal policies must extend beyond physical infrastructure or commercial extraction to protect the relational mobility of local communities. Policy makers are urged to safeguard public access to markets, coastal spaces, and marine resources against monopolistic control and ecological disruption.
Heru S.P. Saputra, Universitas Jember L. Dyah Purwita Wardani, Universitas Jember Wiwin Indiarti, Universitas PGRI Banyuwangi Titik Maslikatin, Universitas Jember Edy Hariyadi, Universitas Jember Gio Pramanda Galaxi, Universitas Jember Dinda Rahma Antika, Universitas Jember Carenina Putri, Universitas Jember
Source: Ecologies of Circulation: Coastal Power and Relational Worlds in Royyan Julian's Tiang Garam and Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Arus Balik,
International Journal of Scientific Multidisciplinary Research, 2026.
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