ARI Working Paper Series

The nature of Asian urbanization has been the object of theoretical attention for almost two decades. A central theme in the discussion revolves around the dissolution of the city and countryside divide; and the question of whether the city is winning (through urbanization) or if the countryside is losing in the development game. Such issues however are much more complex in Asia. For instance, Terry McGee, defines urbanization as “the emergence of (peri-urban) regions of highly-mixed rural and non-rural activity surrounding the large urban cores.” Yet, with studies mostly centered on the processes of urbanization, very little attention has been given to the political formation of the peri-urban. This paper, through a case study of Indonesia, attempts to place the peri-urban in its historical context in order to understand the political processes that have made its formation possible.