Growth of a Megacity

Jakarta, one of the largest metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia, has grown from 150,000 residents in the first half of the twentieth century to more than 31 million residents in 2024. This tremendous population growth and the expansion of the urbanized areas have created several challenges as well as exposed the role of planning in shaping and managing the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA), also known as Jabodetabek.

This edited volume argues that Jakarta exhibits several features of “post-suburban” development, but at the same time, the central area continues to attract population and urban growth. Thus, this metropolitan region is featuring a different type of post-suburban development that might also be considered as an “early stage” of post-suburbanization. The inner city and the suburbs (inner and outer suburbs) are all experiencing a massive physical, social, and economic transformation, albeit with different processes of attraction and rejection/eviction of different social groups. Suburban development and post-suburban development need to be considered from a multiperspective, looking at the changes in residential, industrial, and commercial development, as well as the impact of this growth. Impacts range from changes in employment and infrastructure, to impact on the environment, including disasters and land degradation, and the social fabric, such as segregation and gentrification. This is the first book that analyzes the challenges and practices of planning in the post-suburbanization of Jakarta from a wide thematic perspective, in a single volume. It examines spatial, environmental, economic, and social impacts of the post-suburbanization phenomenon and provides evidence to advance the discussion of policies tackling these adverse impacts and looking into the vision of the JMA for the next twenty years. Collective effort of twenty-two contributors, including academics, planners, urban designers, and architects, the chapters are organized into four parts: economic aspects; environmental concerns; housing and public space, and gentrification and displacement. Growth of a Megacity aims to contribute to the literature on urban planning in Indonesia, and Jakarta in particular, and provides an updated view of post-suburban development in Jakarta intending to help inform future policy-making.

Author Biography

Deden Rukmana is a professor and the director of the Master of City and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Sonia Roitman is associate professor in development planning at the University of Queensland, Australia.