ABSTRACT
This chapter investigated the correlation between urbanisation and poverty. The study framed urbanisation as a process instead of an outcome by carefully documenting the transformations during the urbanisation of Salatiga Municipality, a formerly agricultural region in Central Java Province, Indonesia. As part of the transformation, the previously rural area went through administrative and geographic changes, where previously community-owned agricultural land became government-controlled urban industrial complexes. The shift in land-use allocation, coupled with the local municipality’s ambition for industrialisation and urban development, affected many local farmers and agricultural households. To complement interviews and focus group discussions, statistical analysis was performed on Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) data. It was found that households who lost access to community-owned agricultural land as a result of the urban transformation were worse off and falling into poverty, indicated by the significantly lower annual income than those who maintained access. This study illuminated the double-edged sword dilemma of the urbanisation-industrialisation nexus: while many proponents promoted urbanisation and industrialisation as a pathway to general welfare, if not executed properly to protect existing livelihoods, it would impoverish those who are economically marginalised.
