Rivering lives: displacements and urban water infrastructure in Jakarta, Indonesia

Supervised by Dr Michele Lancione and Professor AbdouMaliq Simone 

My research aims to understand the displacement process of the riverbank settlements by flood-risk mitigation policy in Jakarta, Indonesia, under ‘river normalisation’ project. In specific, it investigates the social process in the displacements, differentiated water infrastructures, and temporality of spatial politics. I propose the term 'rivering lives' as a position to look at the entanglements in everyday river inhabitation that shapes the lives of the river that is overlooked by flood policy. In doing so, my research evolves from mapping historiography of river and displacements, interviews with policy-makers, local authorities, and participant observation in riverbank settlements along Ciliwung River in Jakarta and Bogor.

I was graduated from Architecture in Institute Technology of Bandung (ITB) and Building and Urban Design in University College London. My work experience ranges from urban design consultant, community-based NGO, and now lecturer in Architecture ITB. Under National Geographic Society grant and ITB research grant, I investigated the intersections between riverbank settlements and water infrastructure practices in Ciliwung River in Jakarta, and how infrastructure design mediates multiple narratives of seeing a river.