Talking Indonesia Podcast: The Urban Poor
With rapid urbanization and rising inequality in Indonesia, levels of urban poverty have also increased, and people living and working in informal circumstances face the ongoing threat of eviction. Periodically, the urban poor’s activism to defend and advance their interests has taken center stage in Indonesian politics, never more so than in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections, when the issue of evictions became entwined with Islamist opposition to the incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok, in the massive mobilization against him.
What is the lived experience of urban poverty in Indonesia, and what forms of activism do the urban poor engage in? How have various Indonesian governments responded, and what prospects do the urban poor have to carve out a place for themselves in Indonesia’s cities?
In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr. Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr. Ian Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Terrorism and Count-terrorism Studies at Murdoch University and the author of The Politics of Protection Rackets in Post-New Order Indonesia: Coercive Capital, Authority and Street Politics.
Click here to listen.
