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ABSTRACT
As megacities are rising in developing countries, Indonesia in the 2010s shifts attention toward marginalized urban and rural villages. This paper observes cultural movements arising from kampung as locus of critical engagement with the complexities of the Global South in the twenty-first century. Examining three kampungs in Java, I reveal how the community-driven act of cultural commoning reactivates local practices to correct unwanted effects of neoliberal urbanism. I argue that through the double strategy of containing and working within neoliberal capitalism, kampung communities create culturally sustainable environment as an alternative model for the Global South.
Notes
1 UNDP, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Key Facts, 2018, https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-KeyFacts.pdf (accessed July 15, 2019).
2 Blane D. Lewis, “Urbanization and Economic Growth in Indonesia: Good News, Bad News and (Possible) Local Government Mitigation,” Regional Studies 48, no. 1 (2013): 192–207. doi:10.1080/00343404.2012.748980.
3 Evita Devega, “Langkah menuju’ 100 smart city,’” Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika, November 28, 2017, https://kominfo.go.id/content/detail/11656/langkah-menuju-100-smart-city/0/sorotan_media (accessed July 15, 2019).
4 In 2014, the government initiated the drafting of the village law designed to invigorate rural areas. See the discussion on issues and implementation in Jacqueline Vel, Ward Berenschot, and Rebakah D. Minarchek, 2016. Report of the Workshop “New Law, New Villages? Changing Rural Indonesia,” KITLV, Leiden, http://www.kitlv.nl/workshop-new-law-new-villages-changing-rural-indonesia (accessed July 15, 2019). Following this, in 2015 the government launched the village fund. See a case study on its implementation by Mohamad Thahir Haning and Mashuri H. Tahili. “Strengthening the Capacity of Village Government in the Implementation of Village Fund Policy at Maros Regency of South Sulawesi Province,” Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research 191: 383–390, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
5 Village-based initiatives sprung up earlier, in 2010s, such as the Gerakan Desa Membangun (Village Development Movement), which was first initiated in Melung village Banyumas, with the idea that making sustainable and strong village will build the nation, thus reversing the State top-down approach. Other village-based activism ensued in various urban and rural villages in Indonesia, creating network of village activist network such as the Jaringan Kampung Nusantara (Nusantara Kampung Network). While this phenomenon is widely captured in the digital and print media, there are, however, limited studies, such as the electronic thesis by Taryono. Kemandirian Desa: Studi Kasus Desa Melung Kecamatan Kedungbanteng Kabupaten Banyumas, Universitas Gajah Mada: 2014, http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/index.php?mod=penelitian_detail&sub=PenelitianDetail&act=view&typ=html&buku_id=77070 (accessed July 22, 2019); See also Melani Budianta and Dhita Hapsarani, Meniti Arus Lokal-Global: Jejaring Budaya Kampung (Yogyakarta: Infermia Publishing, 2018).
6 Nor Zarifah Maliki, Aldrin Abdullah, and Azizi Bahauddin, “Recalling the Transitional Space: City Home and Kampung Home,” Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences 170 (2015): 605–12, doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.062; Patrick Guinness. Kampung, Islam and State in Urban Java (NUS Press, 2009).
7 Fausto Barlocco, “The Village as a ‘Community of Practice’ Constitution of Village Belonging Through Leisure Sociality,” Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania 166, no. 4 (2010): 404–25. doi:10.1163/22134379-90003609. The term kampung can be used to name urban or peri-urban settlements, or a village with mixed urban and rural economies. Terry McGee coined the term desakota to refer to the latter. For futher discussion on desakota as a middle zone that alters the dichotomy of urban and rural see Terry McGee, “The Emergence of Desakota Regions in Asia, Expanding a Hypothesis,” in The Extended Metropolis, Settlement Transition in Asia, ed. Norton Ginsburg, Bruce Koppel, and T. G. McGee (University of Hawaii Press, 1991), 3–26. Terry McGee, “The Spatiality of Urbanization: The Policy Challenges of Mega-Urban and Desakota Regions of Southeast Asia,” UNU-IAS Working Paper 161 (2009): 1–38. http://archive.ias.unu.edu/resource_centre/161%20Terry%20McGee.pdf.
8 Anne G. Mahler, “What/Where is the Global South,” Global South Studies, 2017, https://globalsouthstudies.as.virginia.edu/what-is-global-south (accessed 23 July, 2019); Marlea Clarke, “Global South: What Does It Mean and Why Use the Term?” Global South Political Commentaries, August 8, 2018, https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/globalsouthpolitics/2018/08/08/global-south-what-does-it-mean-and-why-use-the-term/ (accessed 23 July, 2019).
9 Mahler, “What/Where is the Global South.”
10 Rainer Wehrhahn and Dominik Haubrich, “Megacities in the Global South. Dynamics and Complexity of Mega-Urban Regions with the Case Studies of Lima and Guangzhou,” Geographische Rundschau 62, no. 10 (2010): 30–7.
11 Peter Evans, “Is an Alternative Globalization Possible?” Politics & Society 36, no. 2 (2008): 271–305. doi:10.1177/0032329208316570.
12 This article is based on a research sponsored by the PUDPT research grant (Indonesian Minister of Research, Technology, and Higher Education).
13 Zaheer Allam and Peter Newman, “Redefining the Smart City: Culture, Metabolism and Governance,” Smart Cities 1, no. 1 (2018): 4–25, doi:10.3390/smartcities1010002.
14 Redy Eko Prastyo, “Jaringan Kampung Nusantara,” in Meniti Arus Lokal-Global: Jejaring Budaya Kampung, ed. Melani Budianta and Dhita Hapsarani (Yogyakarta: Infermia Publishing, 2018), 37–49.
15 Ibid.
16 Budianta and Hapsarani, Meniti Arus Lokal-Global. I am indebted to my research team: Dhita Hapsarani, Adriana Rahajeng Mintarsih and Ari Anggari Harapan, who did fieldwork for the Jaringan Kampung Nusantara research project.
17 Donald M Nonini, The Global Idea of ‘The Commons’ (New York, Berghahn Books, 2007); Lawrence Liang, Prashant Iyengar, and Jitu Nichani, “How Does an Asian Commons Mean?” Alternative Law Forum (Lalitpur, South Asia Partnership International, 2008); Lu Pan and Hyunjoon Shin, “Uncommon Commons: Rethinking Affects, Practices, and Spaces of Urban Activism in Asia,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 19, no. 3 (2018): 355–8, doi: 10.1080/14649373.2018.1497893.
18 Valerie Fournier, “Commoning: on the Social Organisation of the Commons,” M@n@gement 16 no. 4 (2013): 433–53, doi:10.3917/mana.164.0433.
19 The special issue of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Journal (vol 19, no 3, September 2018) is dedicated to “Uncommon Commons: Rethinking Affects, Practices, and Spaces of Urban Activism in Asia.” See also earlier works by Nonini, “The Global Idea.”
20 Nonini, “The Global Idea.”
21 Ibid., 3.
22 Ibid.
23 “What Is A Kampong?” World Atlas, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-a-kampong-and-where-are-they-found.html (accessed July 6, 2019).
24 Kah Seng Loh, Squatters into Citizens: The 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern Singapore (Singapore: NUS Press, 2013). This book discusses the way kampong fires in Singapore justified the gentrification into Housing Development Board (HDB) apartments built by the Singaporean government.
25 Freek Colombijn and Joost Coté, “Modernization of the Indonesian City, 1920–1960,” in Cars, Conduits, and Kampongs: The Modernization of the Indonesian City, 1920–1960, ed. by Colombijn Freek and Coté Joost (Leiden: Boston: Brill, 2015), 1–26.
26 Ibid.
27 James L Cobban, “Uncontrolled Urban Settlement: The Kampong Question in Semarang (1905–1940),” Bijdragen Tot De Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 130, no. 4 (1974): 403–27. doi:10.1163/22134379-90002687.
28 Hasan M. Djajadiningrat, “Sustainable Urban Development in the Kampung Improvement Programme: A Case Study of Jakarta—Indonesia” (PhD diss., University of Sheffield, 1994).
29 Ibid., 85–8.
30 Helga Leitner and Eric Sheppard, “From Kampungs to Condos? Contested Accumulations through Displacement in Jakarta,” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 50, no. 2 (2018): 437–56, doi:10.1177/0308518X17709279.
31 Lisa Tilley, Juanita Elias, and Lena Rethel, “Urban Evictions, Public Housing and the Gendered Rationalisation of Kampung Life in Jakarta,” Asia Pacific Viewpoint 60, no. 1 (2019): 80–93, doi:10.1111/apv.12209.
32 Riza Roidila Mufti, “Government to Boost Sustainable Tourism in Small Villages,” The Jakarta Post, February 1, 2019, https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/01/government-to-boost-sustainable-tourism-in-small-villages.html (accessed July 15, 2019).
33 Narayanan Ganesan, “Chinese Infrastructure Investments in Southeast Asia and their Implications for the Region,” Blickwechsel, May, 2018: 1–6, https://www.euchina.net/uploads/tx_news/Blickwechsel_Chinese_infrastructure_investments_Ganesan_Mai2018_01.pdf (accessed 23 July, 2019).
34 Dhita Hapsarani, “Kampung Cempluk di Tengah Kepungan Real Estat,” in Meniti Arus Global dan Lokal: Jejaring Budaya Kampung, ed. Melani Budianta and Dhita Hapsarani (Yogyakarta: Infermia Publishing, 2018), 115–27. Other details are from field notes and interviews conducted in 2018.
35 Ibid.
36 Adriana Rahajeng Mintarsih, Farha Ciciek, and Sisillia Velayati, “Kisah Egrang dan Pengasuhan Gotong Royong,” in Meniti Arus Lokal-Global: Jejaring Budaya Kampung, ed. Melani Budianta and Dhita Hapsarani (Yogyakarta: Infermia Publishing, 2018), 128–35.
37 Ibid.
38 Paryati, “Cerita dari Karanggeneng Jamuskauman,” in Meniti Arus okal-Global: Jejaring Budaya Kampung, ed. Melani Budianta and Dhita Hapsarani (Jakarta: Infermia, 2018), 136–40. Other details and observation about this village are taken from author field notes and interviews with Supriyadi conducted in August 2018.
39 Ibid.
40 Based on interviews with kampung residents by Dhita Hapsarani, See Hapsarani, “Kampung Cempluk di Tengah Kepungan.”
41 From author field notes and interactions with school children in Ledokombo, February, 2018.
42 Author field note observation in Ledokombo, February 2018.
43 Author field note observation on returning migrant workers in Ledokombo, February, 2018.
44 Farha Ciciek, in discussion with the author, 2018.
45 Supriyadi, in discussion with the author, 2018.
46 Author interview with Supriyadi and other informal leaders of the village.
47 Clarke. “Global South: What Does It Mean?”
48 Stuart Hall, “Culture, Community, Nation,” Cultural Studies 7, no. 3 (1993): 349–63. doi:10.1080/09502389300490251.
49 Based on author interviews with Redy Eko Prastyo, June, 2018. See also Hapsarani, “Kampung Cempluk di Tengah Kepungan.”
50 Hapsarani, “Kampung Cempluk di Tengah Kepungan.”
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid.,
54 Adriana Rahajeng Mintarsih, Farha Ciciek, and Sisillia Velayati, “Kisah Egrang dan Pengasuhan Gotong Royong.”
55 Farha Ciciek, in discussion with the Author, 2018.
56 Enik Jumiati, Siti Latifah, Farha Ciciek, Sisillia Velayati, and Wivaqussaniyyah, Modul Pengasuhan Gotong Royong Sekolah Bok-Ebok Pengalaman dari Ledokombo (Jember, Asia Foundation, Tanoker, LPKP, 2018).
57 The discussion about Karanggreneng was based on author fieldwork in the village in August 2018, and from Paryati, “Cerita dari Karanggeneng Jamuskauman,” 136–40.
58 Based on ethnographic observation when the author was carrying out fieldwork in the subvillage Karanggreneng, Central Java, in August 2018.
59 Supriyadi, in discussion with the Author, 2018.
60 Ralph Richter. “Rural Social Enterprises as Embedded Intermediaries: The Innovative Power of Connecting Rural Communities with Supra-Regional Networks,” Journal of Rural Studies (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.12.005.
61 John R. Bowen, “On the Political Construction of Tradition: Gotong Royong in Indonesia,” The Journal of Asian Studies 45, no. 3 (1986): 545–61, doi:10.2307/2056530.
62 Ibid., 545.
63 Bowen, “On the Political Construction of Tradition.”
64 Ibid., 546.
65 Vinay Gidwani and Amita Baviskar, “Urban Commons,” Economic and Political Weekly 46, no. 50 (2011): 42–3.
66 Based on the authors ethnographic observation during fieldwork in five kampungs in Karawaci, Jakarta, July 2018.
67 Fournier, “Commoning.”
68 Terakota, “Japung Nusantara Mengetuk Pintu Peradaban,” KRMT Indro Kimpling Suseno, January 23, 2017, https://www.terakota.id/japung-nusantara-mengetuk-pintu-peradaban/ (accessed July 15, 2019).
69 Trie Utami and Melani Budianta, “Etika Pembakti,” in Meniti Arus Global dan Lokal: Jejaring Budaya Kampung, ed. Melani Budianta and Dhita Hapsarani (Yogyakarta: Infermina Publishing, 2018), 88–103.
70 Ibid., 88.
71 Samuel O Idowu, “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Capitalist Ideology?” International Journal of Social Enterpreneurship and Innovation 1, no. 3 (2012): 239–54, doi: 10.1504/IJSEI.2012.047628.
72 Garrett Hardin. “The Tragedy of The Commons,” Science, New Series 162, no. 3859 (1968): 1243–8.
73 Ibid.
74 Indonesia is the fifth largest Internet user in the world, with 56 percent of population actively using social media. WhatsApp is the second most popular social media network in Indonesia (83% penetration). Information take from https://www.statista.com/statistics/284437/indonesia-social-network-penetration/.
75 T. M. Vinod Kumar and Dahiya Bharat, “Smart Economy in Smart Cities,” in Smart Economy in Smart Cities Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements, ed. T. M. Vinod Kumar (Springer, Singapore, 2016), 3–76, doi:10.1007/978-981-10-1610-3_1.
76 Lawrence Liang, Prashant, Iyengar, and, Jitu Nichani, “How does an Asian Commons Mean?” Alternative Law Forum (Lalitpur: South Asia Partnership International, 2008).