Urban Development, Vulnerabilities, and Disasters in Indonesia’s Coastal Land Reclamations

Abstract

Urban development redistributes environmental impacts, shifts disaster vulnerabilities, and transforms socioeconomic landscapes of the city. Does social justice matter in urban development discourse? If so, to whom? And what are the implications to urban development? This chapter examines two case studies in Indonesia—land reclamation projects in Jakarta and Bali—as representations of development pressures with considerable impact on the environment. It reviews social and spatial justice literature and its application to Southeast Asia; analyzes data from interviews, news articles, and policy documents to identify elements of social justice in existing development discourses; and concludes with a discussion of how social justice is used by civil society actors but absent in policy documents and official development practices. Implementation of social justice in policies, which includes the voices of marginalized groups through anti-reclamation social movements, provides possible policy suggestions for a more just future.