2009 Urban Geography Plenary Lecture—on Intersections, Anticipations, and Provisional Publics: Remaking District Life in Jakarta

Abstract

Primary attention to cities in the Global South tends to focus on how fast they are changing in terms of spectacular new projects, the remaking of city centers, the pushing out of large numbers of urban residents of all social classes, and the extent to which cities are becoming more alike through these major development projects. Alternately, the focus is placed on the poor, on massive slums, insalubrious environmental and social conditions, and the potential threats posed by impoverished and unsettled urban populations. What lags behind is attention to the continued small and medium-level developments of residential and commercial districts that have occupied specific territories within cities for a long time. The article examines scales and domains through which it is possible for residents to provisionally configure ways in which they can recognize collective action and its impact on the making of space and time that raises unforeseen implications for present efforts to govern the city. Additionally, it looks at how urban districts provisionally consolidate unanticipated articulations among different territories and economies across the city.

Keywords:

• Global South
• urban poor
• Jakarta
• urban districts
• intersection