Cars, Conduits and Kampongs offers a wide panorama of the modernization of the cities in Indonesia between 1920 and 1960. The contributions present a case for asserting that Indonesian cities were not merely the backdrop to processes of modernization and rising nationalism, but formed a causal factor. Modernization, urbanization, and decolonization were intrinsically linked. The various chapters deal with such innovations as the provision of medical treatments, fresh water and sanitation, the implementation of town planning and housing designs, and policies for coping with increased motorized traffic and industrialization. The contributors share a broad critique of the economic and political dimensions of colonialism, but remain alert to the agency of colonial subjects who respond, often critically, to a European modernity. Contributors include: Freek Colombijn, Joost Cote, Saki Murakami, Michelle Kooy, Karen Bakker, Pauline K.M. van Roosmalen, Hans Versnel, Farabi Fakih, Radjimo Sastro Wijono, Gustaaf Reerink, Arjan Veering, Johny A. Khusyairi, Purnawan Basundoro, Ida Liana Tanjung, and Sarkawi B. Husain.

Colombijn examines the social changes in Indonesian cities during the process of decolonization. That process 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 provides fresh insight into how people experienced decolonization. Published in cooperation with the Netherlands Institute of War Documentation (NIOD). Originally published with imprint KITLV (ISBN 9789067182911).

Jakarta, Sambas, Poso, the Moluccas, West Papua. These simple, geographical names have recently obtained strong associations with mass killing, just as Aceh and East Timor, where large-scale violence has flared up again. Lethal incidents between adjacent villages, or between a petty criminal and the crowd, take place throughout Indonesia. Indonesia is a violent country. Many Indonesia-watchers, both scholars and journalists, explain the violence in terms of the loss of the monopoly on the means of violence by the state since the beginning of the Reformasi in 1998. Others point at the omnipresent remnants of the New Order state (1966-1998), former President Suharto's clan or the army in particular, as the evil genius behind the present bloodshed. The authors in this volume try to explain violence in Indonesia by looking at it in historical perspective.

Too much of what has so far passed for the 'historical background' to Indonesia's environmental problems has consisted of little more than thinly disguised backward projections of modern trends. The writers in this volume report on their own pioneer journeys into the paper landscapes of the colonial literature and archives in search of the real environmental history of Indonesia.

Urban Ehtnic Encounters attempts to answer the two leading questions of how urban space structures the life of ethnic groups and how ethnic diversity helps to shape urban space. A multidisciplinary team of authors searches the various dimensions of the spatial organization of inter-ethnic relations in cities and countries around the globe. Unlike most ethnographies in which authors write about the 'other' in faraway places, the majority of the contributors have studied their own society.
The case studies are from four different continents. Material is presented from diverse locations such as the cities of Toronto, Philadelphia, Vienna, Beirut, Jakarta, Tehran, Osaka and Albuquerque, and the countries of Israel, Brazil and Taiwan, presents a unique opportunity for comparative analysis of ethnicity and spatial patterns. From this wealth of material important inter-cultural conclusions can be made about urban ethnic diversity.

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