Runaway city: Jakarta bay, the pioneer and the last frontier
Abidin KUSNO
ABSTRACT This essay deals with the theme of city and nation by looking at the recent history of city branding and the mega waterfront project in the north coast of Jakarta. It offers a political geography of Jakarta and teases out the environmental exhaustion of the city and the critique of ecological movements which begin to constitute a new stage in environmental consciousness for the post-Suharto era.
KEYWORDS: waterfront, environment, global city, nationalism
Author’s biography
Abidin Kusno is Associate Professor at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia where he holds Canada Research Chair in Asian Urbanism and Culture. He is the author of Behind the Postcolonial: Architecture, Urban Space and Political Cultures in Indonesia and The appearances of Memory: Mnemonic Practices of Architecture and Urban Form in Indonesia.