Under construction: the politics of urban space and housing during the decolonization of Indonesia, 1930-1960

In Under construction the social changes in Indonesian cities during the process of decolonization are examined. These social changes are studied from the angle of urban space and the provision of housing. This focus on the everyday worries of space and housing, in combination with a local level of analysis, provides fresh insight into the question how people experienced the Japanese occupation, the Indonesian Revolution, and the early 1950s. In the first half of the book, the author challenges the idea that a shift from ethnic to class differences was the paramount social change during decolonization, and argues instead that social class already formed the predominant principle of stratification in colonial urban society. The second half of the book, through the use of hitherto unused historical sources, presents a wealth of new data about such themes as the competition between self-serving civil and military authorities to appropriate available housing; the exasperation of both tenants and landlords about the residential permits issued by the corrupt Housing Allocation Bureaus; and the shifting balance of power between landlords and tenants. The attention paid to public housing, squatting, and kampong improvement makes this study of the Indonesian city during the understudied decades of the 1940s and 1950s also of great importance for people interested in urban anthropology, and the study of Third World cities.