From agriculture to new town: land conversion towards new-build gentrification in the southwest of Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Located in the southwest of Jakarta, Pagedangan has been known as one of the hotspots for large-scale residential complexes or ‘new town’ in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area, Indonesia. By using a diachronic approach, we aim to examine spatial transformations of rural Pagedangan at micro-scale from 1901 to 2022 which shows the trajectory of new-build gentrification in the study area. This study thoroughly examines how land conversion transforms the rural Pagedangan into gentrifying urban landscape using historical maps and multitemporal imageries. During the last decade, Pagedangan has experienced massive agricultural land conversion which increased land price in the area. It has become gentrified seen by the rise of new town’s urban economy. Meanwhile, pre-existing irregular settlements, or kampungs, have remained as an assemblage of enclaves in a new town, a realm that completely differs from their previous rural environment. Despite displacement has not yet been the main issue in Pagedangan, kampungs are still possibly at risk of disappearance. This study delivers a comprehensive empirical study on physical gentrification process to provide insights into urban studies discourse, especially in urban Asia. This study proposes kampung as an important spatial entity which government should consider in Indonesian land use planning and urban policy making.

KEYWORDS:

• Kampung
• land conversion
• new-build gentrification
• new town development
• Pagedangan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In Indonesia, the term new town (Alonso, 1964, 1970) is usually referred to as ‘kota mandiri’ which literally means self-sufficient city. New towns, particularly those located in the JMA, are mostly built by private developers and socioeconomically still heavily dependent on Jakarta as the urban core (Firman, 2004). Many new towns remain ‘satellite’ and are unable to become self-sufficient cities as many visions of the developers. The development of new towns has occurred sporadically which then triggers uncontrolled urban development in suburban areas.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dwiyanti Kusumaningrum

Dwiyanti Kusumaningrum is a researcher at the Research Center for Population, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). She is engaged in human geography, especially topics related to gentrifications, geohistorical studies of settlements, and socio-cultural dynamics of Indonesian urban kampung.

Muhamad Khairul Rosyidy

Muhamad Khairul Rosyidy obtained his Bachelor of Science in 2021 from the Department of Geography, Universitas Indonesia. Currently, he works as a GIS Analyst with a focus on land cover change and vegetation health analysis. His research interests include remote sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), geocomputation, and vegetation mapping analysis.