Politics and Urban Development Focus on Jakarta’s Shopping Center Trajectory

"City of consumerism" seems to be an appropriate moniker for Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Over the past few years, Jakarta has transformed from an administrative town where both state and local public authorities exercise policy and development strategy — into an economic empire of the nation. Economic indicators pointed out that the economic development in the metropolitan region is massive; 6 percent economic growth, rising middle-class’ purchasing power, and increasing foreign property investment. Urban scholars have highlighted that this urban transformation is much influenced by modern world-class city aspiration driven by the private sectors who are able to display grandiose modern projects and influence the policy makers. One of the many phenomena that shows this urban revolution is the booming of shopping center development in the metropolitan region. Currently, Jakarta Metropolitan Region has 153 shopping centers, supplying more than 5 million square meter retail spaces to the 30 million metropolitan population.

I argue that the enormous number of shopping center operated in the city comes as the result of the shifting urban development focus towards neoliberalism bounded to an intricate economic, political, and ideological system of the nation. Using urban historical framework and the mapping techniques, I seek to analyze the urban transformation through the shopping center perspective. I further evaluate series of implications — supported by data and facts — that emerge from the shopping center deployment.