Compare Indonesia’s new capital with Xi Jinping’s “pet project” and you’ll see striking resonances in the nationalist–developmentalist visions these planned cities embody.
Aug 26, 2024
Unveiling the Complexities of Land Use Transition in Indonesia’s New Capital City IKN Nusantara: A Multidimensional Conflict Analysis
Syaban, A. S. N., & Appiah-Opoku, S.
Land 2024, 13(5), 606
The relocation of Indonesia’s capital to the IKN (Ibu Kota Negara) Nusantara in East Kalimantan is leading to significant changes in land use, shifting from natural vegetation and agriculture to urban infrastructure. This transition brings about economic diversification and urban expansion, but it also raises concerns about its impact on society, the economy, and the environment. The rapid development affects biodiversity conservation, food security, and the livelihoods of rural and Indigenous communities, leading to conflicts across social and economic dimensions. This research uses qualitative and quantitative data to examine the socio-economic and environmental changes in the IKN Nusantara area from 2003 to 2023. The findings show a notable increase in built-up areas, indicating urbanization and a decrease in agricultural land. The study discusses the implications for local populations and ecosystems, emphasizing the need for inclusive governance, community participation, and conflict resolution. It also proposes a comprehensive policy framework that promotes sustainable land management, recognizes Indigenous and local rights, and fosters inclusive economic growth to respect Indonesia’s rich environmental and cultural heritage.
Apr 30, 2024
Smart sustainable urban development for the new capital city of Indonesia
Rachmawati, R., Reinhart, H., Rohmah, A. A., Sensuse, D. I., & Sunindyo, W. D.
Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis, 16(1), 85-113
Research on the concept of Smart Sustainable Urban Development and its implementation is critical to support the urban future and urban governance. This research analyses the implementation of the smart sustainable urban development concept to support the urban future through the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, and urban governance in Nusantara Capital City, Indonesia. We collected data through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with the policy stakeholders and agencies relevant to the development plan of the city, supplemented with field surveys. The results show that the urban future from the national government is envisaged through six domain services encapsulating the sustainability and smart city elements. In the regional and local level, challenges are met including the environmental and social impact but through government collaboration and devising Information and Communication Technology, the authority has been able to design the solution. Sustainability, Information and Communication Technology, smart city, and urban governance constitute critical elements in the process of urban development, especially for the development of a new capital city.
Mar 22, 2024
Building Indonesia’s new capital city: an in-depth analysis of prospects and challenges from current capital city of Jakarta to Kalimantan
Syaban, A. S. N., & Appiah-Opoku, S.
Urban, Planning and Transport Research, 11(1)
This paper explores the proposed relocation of Indonesia’s capital city from Jakarta to Kalimantan. With its population of over 10 million, Jakarta faces environmental challenges such as severe traffic congestion and air pollution. This study used mixed methods and triangulation of data collection to investigate the capital’s relocation challenges and the prospects of the nations development. The methods include interviews with key informants in selected government agencies and non-governmental agencies, as well as content analysis of relevant secondary data and information. The results contribute to our understanding of the socioeconomic, political, and environmental impacts of relocating a capital city in an archipelagic country like Indonesia. The paper concludes that the proposed new capital’s location in Kalimantan offers a more sustainable alternative with the potential for economic growth and ecological preservation. It could serve as a symbol of national identity and a representation of the nation’s advancement.
Oct 23, 2023
Negotiating digital urban futures: The limits and possibilities of future-making in Singapore
Yeo, S.J.I.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 49, e12632
This paper brings into dialogue recent critical scholarship on smart cities and geographies of the future by examining how city dwellers encounter normative visions of the future supplied by government actors under smart urbanisation. I focus specifically on the prosaic but significant ways in which people (re)interpret and (re)produce urban futures in and through their everyday affective and material engagements with digital technologies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews, I discuss the extent to which state-promulgated imaginings of digital urban futures projected by electronic payment infrastructures are negotiated by urban inhabitants in Singapore, at both the levels of the individual and the collective. Although there is a tendency in Urban Studies to read the smart city as depoliticising, the findings in this paper suggest that urban dwellers' lived encounters with digital urban futures are characterised and bound up with politics. Furthermore, this paper casts attention on forms of negotiation that emerge not from grassroots movements and/or democratic activism that have so far attracted social and cultural geographers working on the future, but everyday lived practice around the digital. Such a fine-grained, practice-based approach productively foregrounds emancipatory potential for reworking and reimagining normative digital urban futures. Equally importantly, it takes seriously the diverse and uneven future-making capacities of urban inhabitants in the digitally mediated city, contributing to ongoing projects that seek to develop a globally oriented alternative smart urban agenda for cities and urban spaces in the 21st century.
Aug 3, 2023