1. Urban Parks for People in Megacities: Green Spaces as social spaces in 21st Century Jakarta, Indonesia
Najah Md Alwi 1, Dr Nicole Porter 2, Dik Jarman 3
Abstract
Methodology
Inhabited with over 9 million people in 2015, Jakarta has high significant rate of slums and informal living quarters amidst the skyscrapers and luxury malls. Ironically, despite the rapid infrastructure growth and landscape change, the spatial planning law dictates for the urban agenda to always “maintain their traditional identity as emerging nation” or better known as “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” in Indonesian, which resulted in spatial dichotomy reflecting their current semi urban-rural lifestyle. This study examines historic and contemporary relationships between urban planning and everyday uses of green space in urban Jakarta to find out how current parks and green spaces contributed to livelihood and conviviality among urban dwellers in an Asian megacity context. Evidence from onsite questionnaires and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and local park users highlights the diversity and complexity of everyday relationships between urban planning and the use of green space, and shows that changing notions of nature and everyday life can be mapped to show associated urban, social and spatial inequalities.
To understand the ways the current urbans parks are used and managed, several qualitative methods including data triangulation and participant observations were applied in the fieldwork which engages with local culture, climate and different level of stakeholders in Jakarta City. The research structure are as the following:
Data Analysis
Literature Review
Conclusion/
recommendations
Participant Observation
Onsite Questionnaires
On-site
Focus Groups
Park users
Documentations and Archival data
In-depth Interviews
In-depth Interviews
Discussion of finding in emergent themes
Local governance
Local communities (NGOS)
Professionals (Private Developer,
Urban Planner)
Findings from field work (case study sites)
324 respondents
Ethnicity of Respondents
Categories of Respondents on site based on age and gender
Context
Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia covering over 650-kilometre square of land with 44 districts and 267 sub-districts. The two selected case study area are locally known parks of Taman Suropati and Taman Menteng. Both located in Menteng province, within the Special District of Jakarta Central, hub of business district and historic old Batavia that was once part of the urban design developed in the 1910s along time when Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City movement.
Business/commercial
Public Green Space
Residential
Industrial Area
Protected Green Zone
Morning
Evening
Between 5 am to 8 am
Between 11 am to 1 pm
Between 2pm to 5pm
6pm onwards
Between 8am am to 10 am
Activity observed and recorded in n Taman Menteng and Suropati
During fieldwork (March-April 2016 )
Taman Menteng
Taman Suropati
1 Najah Alwi, University of Nottingham,
2 Dr Nicole Porter, University of Nottingham,
3 Dik Jarman, University of Nottingham,