ABSTRACT
This chapter critically examines the roles of three small and intermediate cities – Bandar Lampung, Semarang and Bontang city – in Indonesia. This chapter evaluates and examines the potentialities of these neglected “middle cities” in the context of the global South. This chapter’s central concern is around the politics of urban knowledge and relational power of middle cities, also known as secondary cities, to encounter the global circuit of ideas and practices of urban climate experiments that flow nationally and internationally. This chapter exemplifies the geographical scale as a network power that is initiated, conducted and negotiated by these cities in Indonesia. There are three different politics of intermediary interplay in these middle cities: (1) A politics of navigating in between circuits of dominance, (2) a politics of negotiating with urban knowledge and (3) a politics of resisting against marginal attendance. This chapter contributes to debate and discussions on how secondary cities – often overlooked and underrepresented in the global literature on urban and climate change – have been involved in productive and critical engagements that challenge the dominant discourse by the mega- and capital cities.
