Speculative Urbanism and Water Crisis in Jakarta
The aim of this project is to understand the role of speculative urban development in generating water crises, and how water crises in turn shape real estate markets in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city. I will use mixed methods, combining remote sensing analysis with interviews, surveys, and participant observation. While the proliferation of large-scale, private real estate developments under conditions of speculative urbanism has been well studied, their environmental implications have been given less academic attention. Furthermore, the literature on financialization and speculation has not sufficiently examined how nature poses barriers to these processes.
This research will elucidate the co-production of transformations in water regimes and land markets and make a valuable contribution to geographical understandings of the impact of speculative development on urban ecologies. While Jakarta’s experience is particularly acute, continued urbanization coupled with climate change will intensify water shortages and flooding in urban metropolitan regions around the world. Consequently, water crises will constitute one of the primary urban planning challenges of the twenty first century. This research will contribute a better understanding of how water crises emerge, and how cities can equitably plan for and mitigate against them.
Outputs
Writing
Colven E (2023) A Political Ecology of Speculative Urbanism: The Role of Financial and Environmental Speculation in Jakarta’s Water Crisis. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 55.2 (2023): 490-510
Colven E (2022) Private Developers and Splintered Ecological Security in North Jakarta (click to download) LSE SEAC Working Paper Series. 2. May 2022.
Colven E. (2022) Water Crisis and Splintered Security in Jakarta. LSE Center for Southeast Asian Studies Blog. February 23. Accessible at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2022/02/23/water-crisis-and-splintered-security-in-jakarta/
Colven E. (2020) The Production of Jakarta’s Water Crisis: A Political Ecology of Speculative Urbanism. LSE Center for Southeast Asian Studies Blog. Nov 7. Accessible at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2020/11/07/the-production-of-jakartas-water-crisis-a-political-ecology-of-speculative-urbanism/
Talks
“Imagining Urban Futures: Adaptation and the Politics of Possibility in Jakarta. London School of Economics. Social Life of Climate Change Series. May 10, 2022.
“Imagining Urban Futures: Adaptation and the Politics of Possibility in Jakarta. University of Oklahoma Resilient Futures Symposium. April 14, 2022. Watch a recording of the talk below:
“Property, Profit & Risk: Jakarta’s Real Estate Industry and the Ongoing Water Crisis.” Research Seminar Talk. LSE Center for Southeast Asian Studies. November 24, 2021.
"The Production of Jakarta’s Water Crisis: A Political Ecology of Speculative Urbanism". Research Seminar Talk hosted by the LSE Center for Southeast Asian Studies." October 14, 2020.