UNRAVELLED HOMES: Forced Evictions and Home Remaking in Jakarta

Abstract

This article explores the contours of modernization in the unmaking and remaking of homes among evicted and resettled families in highrise housing. We examine the trajectories of forced eviction by drawing upon interviews with 17 individuals from nine evicted families who have transitioned from living in informal settlements to highrise social housing ( rusunawa ) in Jakarta. Drawing on two strands of literature-'developmental idealism and the family' from population studies and the critical geographies of 'homemaking'we argue that the demolition of houses is but an initial event in a long, quiet and subtle, yet profoundly defi ning, process of 'upgrading' families as part of 'improving' society, according to developmental logic. The disciplining of the urban poor does not end with the demolition of their houses, but rather continues as part of the fulfi lment of shelter. This article attends to the slow unravelling of home hidden and embedded in post-eviction everyday lives, which are often overlooked because of the overt and violent brutality of forced eviction. While eviction can be seen as the violent visual expression of developmentalism, we argue that the relocation in rusunawa is where this ideal permeates into daily domestic life, making mundane activities a battleground for diff erent ideals of 'home'.

AGENCY AND POWER OF COASTAL COMMUNITIES: Assembling Micro Infrastructures as Everyday Resistance and Resilience in North Jakarta's Port

“…In mega urban contexts, such as Jakarta specifically, scholars have explored many forms of resistance and resilience—from insisting on staying put to remaking life in a new place—and how these became possible (Tilley et al ., 2017; Betteridge and Webber, 2019; Padawangi, 2019; Leitner et al ., 2022; Siagian et al , 2023). Padawangi (2019) argues that communities’ decisions to conform to government agendas of beautification of informal settlements on riverbanks offered an alternative case.…”

“…Simultaneously, community is not a homogenous entity (Cleaver, 2001; Cooke and Kothari, 2001; Padawangi, 2012; Sultana, 2020; Siagian et al , 2023). Among the households I interviewed, some had better social capital, because they were from the same ethnic groups or grew up together from childhood, or simply had male family members in the household (the direct implication being that there were more labourers in the family).…”