This learning sequence provides students with the opportunity to examine the causes and consequences of urbanisation, using a case study from Indonesia.
Activity 1: Indonesia and its megacity Jakarta
A considerable amount of reference and professional material exists online including documentaries, social media sites such as YouTube and major newspapers such as The Jakarta Post.
About Jakarta
When talking about Jakarta it is important to understand that the area consists of a central Jakarta City called Jakarta Daerah Khusus Ibukota (Jakarta DKI), the Special Capital City District of Jakarta and the greater metropolitan area often called Jabodetabek (a name formed by combining the initial syllables of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi).
Jakarta DKI contains close to 10 million people, but Jabodetabek can increase the total to over 28 million. Jakarta DKI is a fully urbanised area and more recent growth tends to be suburbanised in outer areas such as Bumi Serpong Damai City (BSD), Bekasi and Bogor.
Historically, Jakarta has always performed a central role in the region. The Dutch arrived in the 16th century, building the Port of Batavia, transport systems and infrastructure. Products and resources were the mainstay of the harbour area including the important spice trade. Even today this area is a focus of activity including for importing food. The port, Tanjung Priok, is a very developed area with many industries in the region using it as an import and export base. Many old buildings, canals, roads and historical areas remain that reflect this past. The growth of secondary activities and trade has placed further pressure on the city to expand.
However, not all Indonesians have benefited from this development. Housing is one of the most serious problems in Jakarta. Jakarta requires 200,000 housing units per year and the government has introduced strategies such as the Kampung Improvement Program to address this and other issues including water, hygiene and infrastructure. Private developers have built massive high-rise apartments, but the poor have had access to less fortunate options, including slums and street living.
Consequently, in 1970, the Governor of Jakarta declared the 'city closed'. All migrants into the city are required to produce identification, disclose their destination and guarantee their departure from the city. During the annual Muslim festival of Idul Fitri, government officials carry out routine identity checks and detain illegal non-residents who attempt to sneak into the city to take up residence.
Urbanisation is more than just population growth. It has implications for all aspects of Jakartans' lifestyles. The issues that arise from this process are investigated in this module with respect to housing and daily life.
Activity 2: Urbanisation and the city of Jakarta
Students can make use of Google Earth imagery, which provides a study of the Jakarta area, land use, land-use change and development. Google Earth enables students to examine pristine residential development in areas like Ancol, and slums near the old port of Sunda Kelapa, and compare transport patterns, housing characteristics and urban growth.
Activity 3: The faces of Jakarta
Student activities support the use of online tools such as wikis, blogs and social networking sites, and provide the potential to engage students in cooperative learning, problem solving, creativity, presenting findings, developing values and initiating discussions.
Activity 4: Reflection
It is important that students have the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned about Jakarta and discuss how to best plan for future mega-cities.
Glossary
- Cost of living: a calculation based upon the average cost of necessary expenses for a person living in an area.
- Jabodetabek: this area includes DKI Jakarta and surrounding areas. The name is based upon the first two or three letters of included city names: Jabodetabek from Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.
- Jakarta DKI: the Special Capital City District of Jakarta (Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta in Indonesian).
- Kampung: a community in an area; traditionally a village.
- Population density: a calculation for any one area that shows how many people live there, usually expressed as per square kilometre (Number of people divided by number of square kilometre).
- Population distribution: the way people are located over an area.
- Rural: an area of land where the uses are orientated to the provision of resources and/or food supplies.
- Urban: an area containing more than 1000 people and whose functions serve the needs of the people in the settlement, as opposed to those living on surrounding land; an area of land where the uses are orientated to serving a non-agricultural population.
- Urban growth: an increase in the number of people living in urban areas.
- Urbanisation: the process whereby a greater proportion of people in an area reside in urban as opposed to rural areas.