‘We Are Here Alone’: The Ironic Potentials and Vulnerabilities of Mixed (Up) Districts in Central Jakarta

Abstract

The durability of central city districts in large metropolitan systems of the majority world has largely been attained through intricate intersections of physical, infrastructural, human and discursive materials, as these intersections are continuously remade through shifting constellations of the incremental initiatives of residents. Residents have learned to use the city as a place to continuously explore new relationships among things and extract a wide range of unanticipated capacities from them. This is a collective resourcefulness from which there might be much to draw in terms of using the carbon-driven exigencies of infrastructural transformation as the occasion to reanimate more egalitarian political projects. Although many collective efforts are increasingly being disassembled, the reflections of a single resident of one of Jakarta's most heterogeneous residential districts points to how the revitalization of such efforts might be conceived. The efficacy of political efforts to address intensified vulnerability partly entails replenishing intense mixtures of built and physical environments as provocations and platforms for complex social maneuvers.

From Kampungs to Condos? Contested accumulations through displacement in Jakarta

“…Kampung governance is a complex hybrid of formal state administrative structures (e.g. Kelurahan), locally elected neighborhood representatives (RTs and RWs), village committees (dekel) serving as a 'a conduit between the district and larger administration venues and programs' (Simone, 2014b: 133), and local political fixers (preman) embodying contradictory roles (for further details see Simone, 2014b).…”

Worlding Water Supply: Thinking Beyond the Network in Jakarta

“…Reminiscent of Latour’s alliances , following Simone (2004; 2006), Roy (2009: 827) states that infrastructure ‘must be understood not as steel and concrete but rather as fields of action and social networks’. This requires ‘spatial literacy’ developed through the ‘intricate intersections of physical, infrastructural, human and discursive materials’, forming a ‘collective resourcefulness’ which sustains neighbourhoods (Simone, 2014: 1509). With increasing urban segregation, moreover, the spaces of ‘relative wealth and impoverishment’ must be understood in interaction (Simone, 2014: 1512).…”

“…This requires ‘spatial literacy’ developed through the ‘intricate intersections of physical, infrastructural, human and discursive materials’, forming a ‘collective resourcefulness’ which sustains neighbourhoods (Simone, 2014: 1509). With increasing urban segregation, moreover, the spaces of ‘relative wealth and impoverishment’ must be understood in interaction (Simone, 2014: 1512). For water, these insights are reflected in recent work showing that where and when water flows is a result of ‘pressure’ applied––socially, technically and above all differentially––affecting the relative flows of water between neighbourhoods.…”

Eating in the city

“…From a social standpoint, kampungs function as closed community platforms that facilitate access and circulation of material and social resources for the poorest city dwellers (Jellinek, 2005). They are neighbourhoods where living spaces evolve at the initiative of their inhabitants, thus fostering a sense of cohesion and social belonging (Jellinek, 1991;Simone, 2014). Rural outmigration to the city has gradually increased the density of these neighbourhoods, which accommodate migrants seeking employment, following relatives or acquaintances (Ezeh et al, 2017).…”