The Conflicted City

As a megacity, Jakarta has enjoyed mixed forms of residential neighbourhoods, in which the kampungs used to prevail. After a period of kampung rehabilitation, relocation programmes intensified in Jakarta in the 1980s, influenced by the Singaporean model and paradigmatic shifts in international policies for housing for the poor. As a reaction, various local NGO s have proposed alternative solutions to what can seem a hegemonic international trend. Starting from the imposition of international models for housing for the poor, this paper studies how local NGO s in Jakarta have tried to negotiate these hegemonic global shifts and to propose other types of solutions. It first analyses the context of urban transformation in the central zones and the eradication of several kampungs. It then addresses the NGO s’ alternative visions of the city and its future, before showing how these visions are deeply rooted in formal and informal networks specific to the Indonesian context.