ABSTRACT
This chapter compares the way in which residents of Jakarta’s unregulated and impoverished kampongs are claiming urban space with the way in which this space is being shaped by official urban planners and top-down interventions. We discuss three kinds of claim to this contested space: the claims made by the private sector through megaprojects, policy claims made through urban planning by the government, and incrementalism, by which we mean the way that kampong residents gradually lay claim to small areas at a time. Although private megaprojects and government plans often intertwine, different actors are involved and each has their own constituencies and politics, and their interests may sometimes conflict. Most importantly, grass-roots incrementalism is often marginalized by the private sector and by government. We wish to analyse this process with a view to developing a theoretical approach that may inform efforts to alter the situation on the ground.
