ABSTRACT

This chapter suggests that the informal settlements so common in cities of the postcolony are not simply being transformed by neoliberal global urbanism but are places from which it can be challenged. Proponents of global urbanism see informal settlements as spaces of arrested development: as an obstacle preventing ‘modernizing’ southern cities from realizing global city aspirations. The chapter draws on multi-year and multi-sited research on urban land transformations in the Jakarta metropolitan area to advocate for taking kampung alternatives seriously. It examines how global urbanist discourses dismiss kampung living as not fit for purpose in a global city, legitimizing the eviction and displacement of kampungs and their residents. The chapter discusses how kampung livelihoods can be seen as distinct and valuable alternatives to global urbanism. It highlights kampung agency and its potential for preventing the global homogenization of urban life.