Politicising land subsidence in Jakarta: How land subsidence is the outcome of uneven sociospatial and socionatural processes of capitalist urbanization

Bosman Batubara; Michelle  Kooy; Margreet Zwarteveen

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103689

Politicising land subsidence in Jakarta: How land subsidence is the outcome of uneven sociospatial and socionatural processes of capitalist urbanization

Bosman Batubara^*
, Michelle Kooy
, Margreet Zwarteveen

^*Corresponding author for this work

International Development Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Jakarta is sinking dramatically because of land subsidence, which in turn increases its vulnerability to tidal flooding. The explanation of land subsidence’s causes and the design of solutions is led by geoscientists and engineers, who tend to treat it as largely a technical problem. This paper takes issue with this. It sets out to contribute to politicizing land subsidence by analysing it as part of the sociospatial and socionatural transformations that characterize processes of urbanization. We propose an approach that allows showing how subsidence happens through urbanization’s interconnected moments of horizontal concentration, vertical extension, and differentiation – the weight of the built environment, the expansion of deep groundwater wells, and the remaking of the city (and beyond). By investigating the sociospatial correlation between land subsidence and the development of buildings, and the temporal correlation between land subsidence and the increase of groundwater wells we illustrate how land subsidence is intrinsic to (post-) New Order capitalism (1965–1998 and 1998-now). We also show that it proceeds in uneven ways: those who cause subsidence are not the ones who suffer most from it. Through a serious treatment of soil–water dynamics, our socionatural theorization also helps appreciate how urbanization is always co-shaped by interactions between human and non-human processes.

Original language	English
Article number	103689
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Number of pages	9
Journal	Geoforum
Volume	139
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103689
Publication status	Published - 11 Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council’s funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies.

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council's funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

Funding

We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council’s funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies. We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council's funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies.

Funders	Funder number
Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation
LBH Jakarta
Netherlands Research Council	W07.50.1806
Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia

Keywords

Land subsidence
Urbanization
Sociospatial
Socionatural
Jakarta

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103689Licence: CC BY

1-s2.0-S0016718523000155-mainFinal published version, 5.13 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Politicising land subsidence in Jakarta: How land subsidence is the outcome of uneven sociospatial and socionatural processes of capitalist urbanization",

abstract = "Jakarta is sinking dramatically because of land subsidence, which in turn increases its vulnerability to tidal flooding. The explanation of land subsidence{\textquoteright}s causes and the design of solutions is led by geoscientists and engineers, who tend to treat it as largely a technical problem. This paper takes issue with this. It sets out to contribute to politicizing land subsidence by analysing it as part of the sociospatial and socionatural transformations that characterize processes of urbanization. We propose an approach that allows showing how subsidence happens through urbanization{\textquoteright}s interconnected moments of horizontal concentration, vertical extension, and differentiation – the weight of the built environment, the expansion of deep groundwater wells, and the remaking of the city (and beyond). By investigating the sociospatial correlation between land subsidence and the development of buildings, and the temporal correlation between land subsidence and the increase of groundwater wells we illustrate how land subsidence is intrinsic to (post-) New Order capitalism (1965–1998 and 1998-now). We also show that it proceeds in uneven ways: those who cause subsidence are not the ones who suffer most from it. Through a serious treatment of soil–water dynamics, our socionatural theorization also helps appreciate how urbanization is always co-shaped by interactions between human and non-human processes.",

keywords = "Land subsidence, Urbanization, Sociospatial, Socionatural, Jakarta",

author = "Bosman Batubara and Michelle Kooy and Margreet Zwarteveen",

note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council{\textquoteright}s funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies. Funding Information: We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council's funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Author(s)",

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N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council’s funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies. Funding Information: We would like to thank the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) for the doctoral scholarship of the first author, and the Netherlands Research Council's funding programme on Indonesian-Netherlands Research Cooperation (project number: W07.50.1806) for funding our research in Semarang. We are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI/BRIN), Rujak Centre for Urban Studies, 2018 IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education PhD symposium, 2020 Coastal People Assembly, and Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) for providing space to discuss our early ideas. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped us to improve the article. The responsibility of authors for the final version applies. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)

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N2 - Jakarta is sinking dramatically because of land subsidence, which in turn increases its vulnerability to tidal flooding. The explanation of land subsidence’s causes and the design of solutions is led by geoscientists and engineers, who tend to treat it as largely a technical problem. This paper takes issue with this. It sets out to contribute to politicizing land subsidence by analysing it as part of the sociospatial and socionatural transformations that characterize processes of urbanization. We propose an approach that allows showing how subsidence happens through urbanization’s interconnected moments of horizontal concentration, vertical extension, and differentiation – the weight of the built environment, the expansion of deep groundwater wells, and the remaking of the city (and beyond). By investigating the sociospatial correlation between land subsidence and the development of buildings, and the temporal correlation between land subsidence and the increase of groundwater wells we illustrate how land subsidence is intrinsic to (post-) New Order capitalism (1965–1998 and 1998-now). We also show that it proceeds in uneven ways: those who cause subsidence are not the ones who suffer most from it. Through a serious treatment of soil–water dynamics, our socionatural theorization also helps appreciate how urbanization is always co-shaped by interactions between human and non-human processes.

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Politicising land subsidence in Jakarta: How land subsidence is the outcome of uneven sociospatial and socionatural processes of capitalist urbanization

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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