From Farming to Franchising: Current aspects of transformation in post-crisis Metro-Jakarta

Abstract

The rapid urbanization in Java is primarily based on the development of its metropolitan region Jabotabek, the mega-urban agglomeration around Indonesia's capital Jakarta. This article deals with the interdependence' of economic, political, and demographic change within Metro-Jakarta, Southeast Asia's most densely populated urban region. Having been politically pushed since the beginning of former president Suharto's pro-western 'New Order'-policy in the late 1960s, the deregulation packages of the past decade have resulted in enormous international capital influx, the creation of new towns, a general deterioration of living conditions and an increasing transformation of employment, which can not be controlled successfully by regional and local authorities. Indonesia's present economic and political turmoil in the aftermath of the Southeast Asian crisis seems likely to further reduce international interest in sustainable investment within Western Java.