Covert Planning for Social Transformation in Indonesia

Abstract

S ince the Second World War, planning theory and practice has increasingly focused on how local people engage in the planning process. Indeed, this constitutes one of the most interesting theoretical and practical conundrums in planning. This focus is exemplified by work on citizen participation in synoptic planning, collaborative planning, and radical planning, which, taken together, can be understood as representing a continuum of varying degrees of citizen involvement, local power, and social and political consciousness. In broad terms, this continuum ranges from examining how local residents are incorporated into established planning processes to examining how they become empowered to plan for themselves within, outside of, and even in opposition to established planning and societal structures. At the same time, this continuum has expanded our understanding of what constitutes planning. This article is interested in a mode of planning that has not hereto been represented by this continuum-how local residents engage in planning for social transformation within the context of nonliberal, nondemocratic societies.It is argued that a theoretical gap exists regarding our understanding of how local residents engage in planning to achieve social transformation. This gap has occurred because of the close association between our understanding of social transformation and the political expectations created by Western liberal democracies. In other words, we have not begun to theorize about how local residents engage in social transformation in an environment where there are threats of violent repercussions for social activism. 1 This is not to suggest that community agency within limited social and political spaces has not been recognized. For instance, Douglass (1999) observes community agency in the form of "resilience" in the face of economic crisis; and Scheyvens (1998), along with other feminist scholars, documents the "subtle strategies" women use for self-empowerment. However, this work does not make the explicit connection between community agency, the character of social and political spaces for action, and how these activities represent an initial step in planning for broader social transformation.Within restrictive political environments, like those found in Indonesia, planning for social transformation does occur, but it occurs in ways that are not yet represented in our theorization of this process. In many restrictive social and political environments, overt challenges to dominant power configurations are an ineffective and even AbstractPublic engagement in planning can be viewed as a continuum ranging from local inclusion in synoptic planning schemes devised by the state to participation in grassroots social movements that seek broader social transformation. This continuum is incomplete because it does not elucidate how local people plan for social transformation within highly restrictive political environments where responses to social activism encompass real physical and social harm. The article draws on...

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