ABSTRACT
The author's life and work in Bantaran Kali was often as insightful as it was challenging. Living along the riverbanks enabled the author to study people in their own risky living environment. Conducting long-term anthropological fieldwork in the very poor, unregistered and flood-prone neighbourhood of Bantaran Kali had the advantage that it offered the highly qualitative insights. Natives and newcomers also form a rather homogenous group with respect to important vulnerability indicators, such as levels of education or income, citizenship status, and the levels of material vulnerability of their houses towards floods. The author changed strategy, and decided to explore the flood-prone areas in Jakarta without the approval or help of authorities, using public transport and a city map. The illegal' status of inhabitants of Bantaran Kali creates yet another risk: that of eviction.
