Jakarta – Sink or Swim together?

April 27, 2025

Conference Presentatıon: “Organizing in the Capitalocene”, 24-27 April 2025, Athens

Murat Arsel and Fikret Adaman presented the paper entitled “Class Politics of Climate Change: Political Economy of Climate Adaptation in Jakarta, Indonesia” at the conference “Organizing in the Capitalocene”, organized by Historical Materialism.

Abstract: This paper answers this question by focusing on climate adaptation policies in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta’s relationship with climate change and sea-level rise makes it a particularly important site to unpack the class dynamics of climate change adaptation. The city has long been ‘sinking’ due to land subsidence linked to the geology of the area and its political economy of urbanization. More recently, rising sea levels and intensified precipitation have aggravated the problem, making Jakarta emblematic of megacities whose long-term future is threatened by climate change. In response, the Indonesian government has developed – and partially implemented – an adaptation project commonly known as the ‘Great Garuda’. This multi-billion euro Dutch-designed project aims to defend Jakarta from inundation by, among others, sea walls and artificial islands. While the former would likely restrict the livelihood options of Jakarta’s poor and marginalized coastal communities dependent on fishing, the latter aim to galvanize the development of luxury housing and commercial developments on the reclaimed land. While the project is controversial, there has been little systematic analysis of how the Great Garuda project is being politicized and contested. This paper addresses this important research gap by analysing the environmental conflicts surrounding the Great Garuda project by analysing the results of a 1350-respondent representative survey of Jakarta that was completed in December 2024.

Programme HMAthens2025