With nearly 590 km of waterfront along the main rivers of Jakarta, a significant proportion of po... more With nearly 590 km of waterfront along the main rivers of Jakarta, a significant proportion of population is exposed to frequent flooding. Further, extensive engineering works on these systems are changing the nature and magnitude of risk. 2D hydrodynamic modelling can play a central role to plan and manage short and long term interventions for Jakarta and cities in similar circumstances in South and South-east Asia but require detailed description of terrain as input. Further, the dense urban fabric of these cities and its interaction with flows adds an additional source of complexity in modelling flood propagation patterns. This paper examines the developments in the field of collecting cost-effective high resolution terrain data that can contribute in the growing area of urban hydrodynamic modelling. These are aerial and ground based methods that can generate high resolution point clouds of coarse and fine grain respectively. We have applied these technologies on a case study along a 7 km stretch of the River Ciliwung in central Jakarta and we have evaluated the scope of providing coverage for large segments of the city. In the context of this urban and densely settled river corridor, the challenge of obtaining “hydraulically representative” ground description and influence of representation of structures in hydrodynamic models is explored, alongside identifying the future work required to allow scaling of the methods and acquired datasets beyond the limits of the test site.
(By Kashif Shaad, Yazid Ninsalam, Rita Padawangi, Paolo Burlando)
Dense, self-built settlements along riverbanks within Asian cities are often excluded from the pl... more Dense, self-built settlements along riverbanks within Asian cities are often excluded from the planning realm, which ensures governments lack knowledge of how particular communities function. The magnitude of land area and population, dynamic local economies, organic policy making processes, and scarcity and consistency of data challenge research on flood impacts and possible solutions in Asian cities. Resultantly, a deeper understanding of alternative and more dynamic forms of environmental management is necessary. The focus of this paper is to analyze the usefulness and challenges of participatory mapping in relation to urban floods, particularly community mapping and crowdsourced mapping. This analysis is based on the assumption of participatory mapping discourse that participatory mapping increases communities’ negotiation power to improve their livelihood. This paper employs participant observation and ethnographic interviews within the Ciliwung River corridor in Jakarta. Specifically it focuses on activists and residents in river communities in relation to participatory community mapping exercises conducted since 2012 and a new crowd-sourced flood mapping system launched in December 2014. Participatory community mapping and crowd-sourced flood mapping, as two forms of community-based mapping approaches to floods, are viewed as potential tools to overcome urban flood hazards while raising disaster awareness among city residents. Community mapping is a method of visualizing a neighborhood's communal memories and embedded power relations, while a crowd-sourced flood map visualizes vulnerabilities and may become a tool for information sharing for the betterment of the spatially and socially fragmented city.
What are the possible humanistic approaches to urban flood disaster governance? Several largest c... more What are the possible humanistic approaches to urban flood disaster governance? Several largest cities in Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok, Jakarta, and Metro Manila have been affected by relatively severe and paralyzing floods in recent years. In reality, floods are not new to these cities. Cities are often located along riverbanks and lakefronts, due to the importance of water in the history of cities as sources of livelihoods and the role of rivers in trades. Post-1945 economic growth in Southeast Asian cities had resulted in rapid urban development. Inadequate sewage system and lack of control in urban master plans resulted in the deterioration of urban water bodies, especially in terms of water quality and the surrounding environment. Various technical solutions have been offered to prevent floods to disturb socio-economic dynamics of the city, although there have never been 100% protection against floods. This paper will begin by an overview of humanistic planning perspective and hegemony in social and political trajectories of floods. It would then question these principles in Southeast Asian cities, especially in terms of community participation and the presence of large-scale interventions in flood risk mitigation projects. Focusing on the role of communities and people’s participation in the planning process, this paper looks at the pattern of urban flood mitigation projects, environmental improvement and riverfront redevelopment trajectories in Southeast Asian cities to obtain in-depth understanding of community roles in socially constructing and redefining urban landscapes in relation to floods. Existing involvements of riverbank communities in flood disaster governance are gathered through interviews and ethnographic field observations. Finally, the paper will conclude with the usefulness and limitations of humanistic planning in returning the priority of urban flood disaster governance to people’s lives.
Research in Urban Sociology vol. 12 (Urban Areas and Climate Change), 2012
Jakarta’s geographical location on the north coast of Java Island in Indonesia was a strategic pl... more Jakarta’s geographical location on the north coast of Java Island in Indonesia was a strategic place for one of the busiest colonial trade ports and fisheries in Southeast Asia. In 2010, the city issued Jakarta Master Plan 2010-2030 that featured plans to mitigate climate change and environmental risks for the coastal area, especially sea level rise, land subsidence, and pollution. The impact of sea level rise was exacerbated by salt water intrusion and land subsidence due to over-extraction of groundwater. Land subsidence from 1974 to 1993 reaches more than 50 cm for some areas in the north and west of Jakarta. The north coast was also prone to floods from high rainfall as well as from high tides. North Jakarta has been home for more than 48,000 poor households, most of which live in houses less than 50 square meters in informal settlements with lack of basic needs infrastructures. This chapter addresses the question, “How are poor communities in the north coast of Jakarta affected by extreme weather events, and how are their everyday experiences addressed in master plan Jakarta 2010-2030?” The chapter focuses on two main issues: 1) the making of place-based communities of the urban poor in the north coast of Jakarta compared to the master plan, and 2) the impact of climate change to the urban poor’s livelihoods in the north coast. Analysis is based on community profiles, census information, and a workshop with representatives of these communities. The study reveals that communities were unaware of what the city planners have drafted, but most of them realized climate challenges based on their everyday experience. They aspired to be involved in the planning process, but their informal status hampered their opportunity to be heard.
The quest for the public city needs to be situated within the debate about the people’s ability t... more The quest for the public city needs to be situated within the debate about the people’s ability to exert agency over the use and design of physical urban spaces. Building on the public city concept and insurgent actions in the previous chapters, this chapter identifies the public city as 1) an inclusive urban society with regards to decision making in the public sphere; 2) a city with public spaces that are relatively free from state and corporate control. However, with the design and planning of the urban built environment in the hands of typically elite professionals, there is the hegemonic notion of retaining or designing the built environment as a historic, economic, and financial exercise, and the space itself potentially retains the ideological hegemony of those involved in its building and design.
Given the inequality within power relations in the city and within localities, this chapter features Jakarta and Singapore to integrate theoretical and empirical insights to understand how, when, and why urban residents can potentially construct their own spaces and reframe the built environment in their own counter-hegemonic ways. Both cities have different urban governance regimes and state-society relations, but similarly experiencing ever-expanding corporatization of space that pressurizes the public city and insurgent urbanism. The analysis highlights that counter-hegemonic spaces of hope is more than calling residents to build their own neighborhood spaces, but also involves breaking down the elitism of the design profession to be accessible by residents.
Global Visions: Risks and Opportunities for the Urban Planet, 2011
As a coastal city in a low-lying area, the city of Jakarta, Indonesia had been prone to floods in... more As a coastal city in a low-lying area, the city of Jakarta, Indonesia had been prone to floods in the wet season, but the expansion pattern of the urban development had been a key factor in the worsening of massive flooding that culminated in 2007. This paper reviews the differential impact of flood in Jakarta on various levels of economic class and the mobilization by disadvantaged groups to claim their rights to flood-free homes. Two approaches will be used in the discussion: 1) spatial analysis of poverty and flood impact in Jakarta; 2) ethnographic interviews of leaders and members of social groups involved in social movements of flood victims. The paper touches on the social impacts of flooding and people’s efforts in adapting, mitigating, to pushing for legal actions. Findings will contribute to the spatial justice discourse, the extent of bottom-up approach to demand rights and the political context that allows people to do so. The paper adds to the discussion on the relationship among people, the built environment, and the natural environment in the city.
The increasing role of cyberspace in recent urban insurgencies calls for urban scholars to rethin... more The increasing role of cyberspace in recent urban insurgencies calls for urban scholars to rethink notions of spatialities, public space and the public sphere. However, social movements in cyberspace cannot be the ends of insurgent actions. Hopes for reclaiming public space extend beyond demonstrations
and mobilisations to include rebuilding a public city with long-term social impacts. Three themes that emerged in the midst of new media proliferation and Asia’s rapid urbanisation include (1) corporatisation of urban space, (2) social media and the city and (3) insurgencies and the public city. Along these three themes, this Special Issue proposes three main issues for a research agenda aimed at analysing urban insurgencies: (1) the relationship between the power of digital media in insurgent mobilisation and the physical spaces of the city, (2) the materialisation of resistance movements in cyberspace and on the ground in the form of an authentic public city and (3) recognition of modest forms of change as results of everyday insurgencies.
The spectacle of demonstrations in urban streets and squares often captures more attention than t... more The spectacle of demonstrations in urban streets and squares often captures more attention than the actual changes that follow. How do social movements construct public spaces that are coherent with the public sphere? What kind of physical spaces are needed to sustain spaces of resistance? This paper revisits Castells' city and the grassroots, along with the notions of the right to the city and alternative development. Three cases in Jakarta will be featured to demonstrate how grassroots activism in the city transforms along with urban spaces. The activists' retreat from protests to micro-activities within communities such as neighbourhood improvements and socio-economic training reflects the consciousness to improve material conditions, without which the reform would be incomplete. Spaces of resistance require continuous grassroots activism that directly impacts the human condition, beyond post-revolution abstract notions of social and political reform.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Discussions on social movements in Asian cities are inseparable from the abundance of public rall... more Discussions on social movements in Asian cities are inseparable from the abundance of public rallies in the region. In this article, I look at the case of Thamrin-Sudirman, the main thoroughfare in Jakarta, Indonesia, to uncover how physical urban spaces constituting part of the city as living systems broaden the reach of social movements' agendas. The study involved continuous observation at rallies, interviews with social movement leaders and participants, and a look at simultaneous public rallies in various cities. This article analyzes the sites of public rallies as ‘megaphones’, based on the patterns of issues featured in the rallies, the groups participating, and the nodes and paths that they constructed. Two key dimensions of the megaphone are: (1) the symbolic and historical significance of the sites of rallies; (2) the relationship between the space and the media. Particular sites in cities become places where information is gathered, distributed and transferred through the media, facilitating a network among cities. This article concludes that cities are agents of political actions that amplify ideas and spread them across the globe. The urban centers' megaphonic function results from the synergy between the public space in the built environment and the public sphere, and is reflective of the recentering of the city.
... Productive time saved 25 Interview with Raza Farrukh, Pakistan Resident Mission, Asian Develo... more ... Productive time saved 25 Interview with Raza Farrukh, Pakistan Resident Mission, Asian Development Bank, February 2009. 13 Page 15. ... 32 . 28 Naseem Kausar, a community-based mobilizer, as interviewed by Gender and Water Partnership, 2005. ...
The city is a site where the meaning of buildings, monuments, open spaces and behaviour interweav... more The city is a site where the meaning of buildings, monuments, open spaces and behaviour interweave, and where ideologies and power relations between three agents (the state, civil society and the market) are inscribed in the urban iconography and everyday life, forming interlacing triangles of relationships. This article studies the networks of actors involved in the transformation of the Masjid Raya (Grand Mosque) and alun-alun (the traditional Javanese central urban square) in Bandung, Indonesia. It explores the complexity and the shifting nexus of power relations, and examines the merging and distancing practices between agents, and the blurring of boundaries. Civil society is of central importance in placemaking, yet it is diverse and plural. Thus a particular group's identity politics can dominate the production of space with ideologies influencing interactions and the social construction of space. Individual actors and their social relations play important roles in producing and appropriating urban spaces, as well as constructing and reconstructing spatial meanings.
With nearly 590 km of waterfront along the main rivers of Jakarta, a significant proportion of po... more With nearly 590 km of waterfront along the main rivers of Jakarta, a significant proportion of population is exposed to frequent flooding. Further, extensive engineering works on these systems are changing the nature and magnitude of risk. 2D hydrodynamic modelling can play a central role to plan and manage short and long term interventions for Jakarta and cities in similar circumstances in South and South-east Asia but require detailed description of terrain as input. Further, the dense urban fabric of these cities and its interaction with flows adds an additional source of complexity in modelling flood propagation patterns. This paper examines the developments in the field of collecting cost-effective high resolution terrain data that can contribute in the growing area of urban hydrodynamic modelling. These are aerial and ground based methods that can generate high resolution point clouds of coarse and fine grain respectively. We have applied these technologies on a case study along a 7 km stretch of the River Ciliwung in central Jakarta and we have evaluated the scope of providing coverage for large segments of the city. In the context of this urban and densely settled river corridor, the challenge of obtaining “hydraulically representative” ground description and influence of representation of structures in hydrodynamic models is explored, alongside identifying the future work required to allow scaling of the methods and acquired datasets beyond the limits of the test site.
(By Kashif Shaad, Yazid Ninsalam, Rita Padawangi, Paolo Burlando)
Dense, self-built settlements along riverbanks within Asian cities are often excluded from the pl... more Dense, self-built settlements along riverbanks within Asian cities are often excluded from the planning realm, which ensures governments lack knowledge of how particular communities function. The magnitude of land area and population, dynamic local economies, organic policy making processes, and scarcity and consistency of data challenge research on flood impacts and possible solutions in Asian cities. Resultantly, a deeper understanding of alternative and more dynamic forms of environmental management is necessary. The focus of this paper is to analyze the usefulness and challenges of participatory mapping in relation to urban floods, particularly community mapping and crowdsourced mapping. This analysis is based on the assumption of participatory mapping discourse that participatory mapping increases communities’ negotiation power to improve their livelihood. This paper employs participant observation and ethnographic interviews within the Ciliwung River corridor in Jakarta. Specifically it focuses on activists and residents in river communities in relation to participatory community mapping exercises conducted since 2012 and a new crowd-sourced flood mapping system launched in December 2014. Participatory community mapping and crowd-sourced flood mapping, as two forms of community-based mapping approaches to floods, are viewed as potential tools to overcome urban flood hazards while raising disaster awareness among city residents. Community mapping is a method of visualizing a neighborhood's communal memories and embedded power relations, while a crowd-sourced flood map visualizes vulnerabilities and may become a tool for information sharing for the betterment of the spatially and socially fragmented city.
What are the possible humanistic approaches to urban flood disaster governance? Several largest c... more What are the possible humanistic approaches to urban flood disaster governance? Several largest cities in Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok, Jakarta, and Metro Manila have been affected by relatively severe and paralyzing floods in recent years. In reality, floods are not new to these cities. Cities are often located along riverbanks and lakefronts, due to the importance of water in the history of cities as sources of livelihoods and the role of rivers in trades. Post-1945 economic growth in Southeast Asian cities had resulted in rapid urban development. Inadequate sewage system and lack of control in urban master plans resulted in the deterioration of urban water bodies, especially in terms of water quality and the surrounding environment. Various technical solutions have been offered to prevent floods to disturb socio-economic dynamics of the city, although there have never been 100% protection against floods. This paper will begin by an overview of humanistic planning perspective and hegemony in social and political trajectories of floods. It would then question these principles in Southeast Asian cities, especially in terms of community participation and the presence of large-scale interventions in flood risk mitigation projects. Focusing on the role of communities and people’s participation in the planning process, this paper looks at the pattern of urban flood mitigation projects, environmental improvement and riverfront redevelopment trajectories in Southeast Asian cities to obtain in-depth understanding of community roles in socially constructing and redefining urban landscapes in relation to floods. Existing involvements of riverbank communities in flood disaster governance are gathered through interviews and ethnographic field observations. Finally, the paper will conclude with the usefulness and limitations of humanistic planning in returning the priority of urban flood disaster governance to people’s lives.
Research in Urban Sociology vol. 12 (Urban Areas and Climate Change), 2012
Jakarta’s geographical location on the north coast of Java Island in Indonesia was a strategic pl... more Jakarta’s geographical location on the north coast of Java Island in Indonesia was a strategic place for one of the busiest colonial trade ports and fisheries in Southeast Asia. In 2010, the city issued Jakarta Master Plan 2010-2030 that featured plans to mitigate climate change and environmental risks for the coastal area, especially sea level rise, land subsidence, and pollution. The impact of sea level rise was exacerbated by salt water intrusion and land subsidence due to over-extraction of groundwater. Land subsidence from 1974 to 1993 reaches more than 50 cm for some areas in the north and west of Jakarta. The north coast was also prone to floods from high rainfall as well as from high tides. North Jakarta has been home for more than 48,000 poor households, most of which live in houses less than 50 square meters in informal settlements with lack of basic needs infrastructures. This chapter addresses the question, “How are poor communities in the north coast of Jakarta affected by extreme weather events, and how are their everyday experiences addressed in master plan Jakarta 2010-2030?” The chapter focuses on two main issues: 1) the making of place-based communities of the urban poor in the north coast of Jakarta compared to the master plan, and 2) the impact of climate change to the urban poor’s livelihoods in the north coast. Analysis is based on community profiles, census information, and a workshop with representatives of these communities. The study reveals that communities were unaware of what the city planners have drafted, but most of them realized climate challenges based on their everyday experience. They aspired to be involved in the planning process, but their informal status hampered their opportunity to be heard.
The quest for the public city needs to be situated within the debate about the people’s ability t... more The quest for the public city needs to be situated within the debate about the people’s ability to exert agency over the use and design of physical urban spaces. Building on the public city concept and insurgent actions in the previous chapters, this chapter identifies the public city as 1) an inclusive urban society with regards to decision making in the public sphere; 2) a city with public spaces that are relatively free from state and corporate control. However, with the design and planning of the urban built environment in the hands of typically elite professionals, there is the hegemonic notion of retaining or designing the built environment as a historic, economic, and financial exercise, and the space itself potentially retains the ideological hegemony of those involved in its building and design.
Given the inequality within power relations in the city and within localities, this chapter features Jakarta and Singapore to integrate theoretical and empirical insights to understand how, when, and why urban residents can potentially construct their own spaces and reframe the built environment in their own counter-hegemonic ways. Both cities have different urban governance regimes and state-society relations, but similarly experiencing ever-expanding corporatization of space that pressurizes the public city and insurgent urbanism. The analysis highlights that counter-hegemonic spaces of hope is more than calling residents to build their own neighborhood spaces, but also involves breaking down the elitism of the design profession to be accessible by residents.
Global Visions: Risks and Opportunities for the Urban Planet, 2011
As a coastal city in a low-lying area, the city of Jakarta, Indonesia had been prone to floods in... more As a coastal city in a low-lying area, the city of Jakarta, Indonesia had been prone to floods in the wet season, but the expansion pattern of the urban development had been a key factor in the worsening of massive flooding that culminated in 2007. This paper reviews the differential impact of flood in Jakarta on various levels of economic class and the mobilization by disadvantaged groups to claim their rights to flood-free homes. Two approaches will be used in the discussion: 1) spatial analysis of poverty and flood impact in Jakarta; 2) ethnographic interviews of leaders and members of social groups involved in social movements of flood victims. The paper touches on the social impacts of flooding and people’s efforts in adapting, mitigating, to pushing for legal actions. Findings will contribute to the spatial justice discourse, the extent of bottom-up approach to demand rights and the political context that allows people to do so. The paper adds to the discussion on the relationship among people, the built environment, and the natural environment in the city.
The increasing role of cyberspace in recent urban insurgencies calls for urban scholars to rethin... more The increasing role of cyberspace in recent urban insurgencies calls for urban scholars to rethink notions of spatialities, public space and the public sphere. However, social movements in cyberspace cannot be the ends of insurgent actions. Hopes for reclaiming public space extend beyond demonstrations
and mobilisations to include rebuilding a public city with long-term social impacts. Three themes that emerged in the midst of new media proliferation and Asia’s rapid urbanisation include (1) corporatisation of urban space, (2) social media and the city and (3) insurgencies and the public city. Along these three themes, this Special Issue proposes three main issues for a research agenda aimed at analysing urban insurgencies: (1) the relationship between the power of digital media in insurgent mobilisation and the physical spaces of the city, (2) the materialisation of resistance movements in cyberspace and on the ground in the form of an authentic public city and (3) recognition of modest forms of change as results of everyday insurgencies.
The spectacle of demonstrations in urban streets and squares often captures more attention than t... more The spectacle of demonstrations in urban streets and squares often captures more attention than the actual changes that follow. How do social movements construct public spaces that are coherent with the public sphere? What kind of physical spaces are needed to sustain spaces of resistance? This paper revisits Castells' city and the grassroots, along with the notions of the right to the city and alternative development. Three cases in Jakarta will be featured to demonstrate how grassroots activism in the city transforms along with urban spaces. The activists' retreat from protests to micro-activities within communities such as neighbourhood improvements and socio-economic training reflects the consciousness to improve material conditions, without which the reform would be incomplete. Spaces of resistance require continuous grassroots activism that directly impacts the human condition, beyond post-revolution abstract notions of social and political reform.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Discussions on social movements in Asian cities are inseparable from the abundance of public rall... more Discussions on social movements in Asian cities are inseparable from the abundance of public rallies in the region. In this article, I look at the case of Thamrin-Sudirman, the main thoroughfare in Jakarta, Indonesia, to uncover how physical urban spaces constituting part of the city as living systems broaden the reach of social movements' agendas. The study involved continuous observation at rallies, interviews with social movement leaders and participants, and a look at simultaneous public rallies in various cities. This article analyzes the sites of public rallies as ‘megaphones’, based on the patterns of issues featured in the rallies, the groups participating, and the nodes and paths that they constructed. Two key dimensions of the megaphone are: (1) the symbolic and historical significance of the sites of rallies; (2) the relationship between the space and the media. Particular sites in cities become places where information is gathered, distributed and transferred through the media, facilitating a network among cities. This article concludes that cities are agents of political actions that amplify ideas and spread them across the globe. The urban centers' megaphonic function results from the synergy between the public space in the built environment and the public sphere, and is reflective of the recentering of the city.
... Productive time saved 25 Interview with Raza Farrukh, Pakistan Resident Mission, Asian Develo... more ... Productive time saved 25 Interview with Raza Farrukh, Pakistan Resident Mission, Asian Development Bank, February 2009. 13 Page 15. ... 32 . 28 Naseem Kausar, a community-based mobilizer, as interviewed by Gender and Water Partnership, 2005. ...
The city is a site where the meaning of buildings, monuments, open spaces and behaviour interweav... more The city is a site where the meaning of buildings, monuments, open spaces and behaviour interweave, and where ideologies and power relations between three agents (the state, civil society and the market) are inscribed in the urban iconography and everyday life, forming interlacing triangles of relationships. This article studies the networks of actors involved in the transformation of the Masjid Raya (Grand Mosque) and alun-alun (the traditional Javanese central urban square) in Bandung, Indonesia. It explores the complexity and the shifting nexus of power relations, and examines the merging and distancing practices between agents, and the blurring of boundaries. Civil society is of central importance in placemaking, yet it is diverse and plural. Thus a particular group's identity politics can dominate the production of space with ideologies influencing interactions and the social construction of space. Individual actors and their social relations play important roles in producing and appropriating urban spaces, as well as constructing and reconstructing spatial meanings.
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Papers by Rita Padawangi
(By Kashif Shaad, Yazid Ninsalam, Rita Padawangi, Paolo Burlando)
population, dynamic local economies, organic policy making processes, and scarcity and consistency of data challenge research on flood impacts and possible solutions in Asian cities. Resultantly, a deeper understanding of alternative
and more dynamic forms of environmental management is necessary. The focus of this paper is to analyze the usefulness and challenges of participatory mapping in relation to urban floods, particularly community mapping and crowdsourced
mapping. This analysis is based on the assumption of participatory mapping discourse that participatory mapping increases communities’ negotiation power to improve their livelihood. This paper employs participant observation
and ethnographic interviews within the Ciliwung River corridor in Jakarta. Specifically it focuses on activists and residents in river communities in relation to participatory community mapping exercises conducted since 2012 and a new
crowd-sourced flood mapping system launched in December 2014. Participatory community mapping and crowd-sourced flood mapping, as two forms of community-based mapping approaches to floods, are viewed as potential tools to
overcome urban flood hazards while raising disaster awareness among city residents. Community mapping is a method of visualizing a neighborhood's communal memories and embedded power relations, while a crowd-sourced flood
map visualizes vulnerabilities and may become a tool for information sharing for the betterment of the spatially and socially fragmented city.
Given the inequality within power relations in the city and within localities, this chapter features Jakarta and Singapore to integrate theoretical and empirical insights to understand how, when, and why urban residents can potentially construct their own spaces and reframe the built environment in their own counter-hegemonic ways. Both cities have different urban governance regimes and state-society relations, but similarly experiencing ever-expanding corporatization of space that pressurizes the public city and insurgent urbanism. The analysis highlights that counter-hegemonic spaces of hope is more than calling residents to build their own neighborhood spaces, but also involves breaking down the elitism of the design profession to be accessible by residents.
and mobilisations to include rebuilding a public city with long-term social impacts. Three themes that emerged in the midst of new media proliferation and Asia’s rapid urbanisation include (1) corporatisation of urban space, (2) social media and the city and (3) insurgencies and the public city. Along these three themes, this Special Issue proposes three main issues for a research agenda aimed at analysing urban insurgencies: (1) the relationship between the power of digital media in insurgent mobilisation and the physical spaces of the city, (2) the materialisation of resistance movements in cyberspace and on the ground in the form of an authentic public city and (3) recognition of modest forms of change as results of everyday insurgencies.
(By Kashif Shaad, Yazid Ninsalam, Rita Padawangi, Paolo Burlando)
population, dynamic local economies, organic policy making processes, and scarcity and consistency of data challenge research on flood impacts and possible solutions in Asian cities. Resultantly, a deeper understanding of alternative
and more dynamic forms of environmental management is necessary. The focus of this paper is to analyze the usefulness and challenges of participatory mapping in relation to urban floods, particularly community mapping and crowdsourced
mapping. This analysis is based on the assumption of participatory mapping discourse that participatory mapping increases communities’ negotiation power to improve their livelihood. This paper employs participant observation
and ethnographic interviews within the Ciliwung River corridor in Jakarta. Specifically it focuses on activists and residents in river communities in relation to participatory community mapping exercises conducted since 2012 and a new
crowd-sourced flood mapping system launched in December 2014. Participatory community mapping and crowd-sourced flood mapping, as two forms of community-based mapping approaches to floods, are viewed as potential tools to
overcome urban flood hazards while raising disaster awareness among city residents. Community mapping is a method of visualizing a neighborhood's communal memories and embedded power relations, while a crowd-sourced flood
map visualizes vulnerabilities and may become a tool for information sharing for the betterment of the spatially and socially fragmented city.
Given the inequality within power relations in the city and within localities, this chapter features Jakarta and Singapore to integrate theoretical and empirical insights to understand how, when, and why urban residents can potentially construct their own spaces and reframe the built environment in their own counter-hegemonic ways. Both cities have different urban governance regimes and state-society relations, but similarly experiencing ever-expanding corporatization of space that pressurizes the public city and insurgent urbanism. The analysis highlights that counter-hegemonic spaces of hope is more than calling residents to build their own neighborhood spaces, but also involves breaking down the elitism of the design profession to be accessible by residents.
and mobilisations to include rebuilding a public city with long-term social impacts. Three themes that emerged in the midst of new media proliferation and Asia’s rapid urbanisation include (1) corporatisation of urban space, (2) social media and the city and (3) insurgencies and the public city. Along these three themes, this Special Issue proposes three main issues for a research agenda aimed at analysing urban insurgencies: (1) the relationship between the power of digital media in insurgent mobilisation and the physical spaces of the city, (2) the materialisation of resistance movements in cyberspace and on the ground in the form of an authentic public city and (3) recognition of modest forms of change as results of everyday insurgencies.