Under Construction The Politics of Urban Space and Housing During the Decolonization of Indonesia, 1930 1960 1st Edition by Freek Colombijn,Martine Barwegen ISBN 9067182915 978-9067182911

This book examines the social changes in Indonesian cities during the process of decolonization. The political upheavals of the Japanese occupation and Indonesian revolution, and the first steps to build a sovereign nation, had major repercussions for urban society. These social changes are studied from the angle of urban space in general, and the provision of housing in particular. This focus on the everyday matter of housing, in combination with a local level of analysis, provides fresh insight into how people experienced decolonization. In the first half of the book, the author challenges the idea that a shift from ethnic to class differences was the overriding social change during decolonization, and argues instead that class differences already formed the predominant dividing lines in colonial urban society. The second half of the book focuses on the shifting balance of power between the main agents in the urban arena. Topics dealt with are: the tension between civil and military authorities; the growing irritation among urban dwellers about residential permit requirements, public building programmes, and corrupt, self-serving civil servants; the cat-and-mouse games between the kampong population and the urban administration; and the shifting balance of power between landlords and tenants. Through the use of hitherto unused historical sources, the book presents a wealth of new data about both the Indonesian city and the decolonization process during the understudied decades of the 1940’s and 1950’s.