Abstract:
It’s hard to hold on to any sort of orientalist idealised rural-peasant stereotype of Indonesia when you’re walking through central Jakarta. On a thirty-minute walk through the typical balmy, low-pressure-cooker heat, you will generally pass at least several gigantic malls filled with Louis Vuitton, Gucci and many other brand names synonymous with metro politan wealth. The exceptionally well-dressed milieu inside is part of a steadily growing middle- and upper-class demographic that for many years has been a source of major change to cities throughout the Indonesian archipelago, primarily by providing a customer base to up-market malls. Just outside the mall car parks, shiny SUVs occasionally rolling in, there is a scattering of people of a different class, offering food, mobile-phone credit and other services in small tarpaulin-covered street stalls.
Details / PDF:
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