Feeling of being out of place: A case study of kampung in Bumi Serpong Damai, Indonesia

This paper investigates the spatial experience of indigenous people in light of competing forces in the new urban growth area. It takes the case of urban growth in BSD City, Indonesia, which lies about 27km to the western part of Jakarta. Within this new urban area, the capital forces of giant government-backed developer provide heavy pressure to kampung – the indigenous settlement. Several kampungs were displaced, while others exist after a series of struggles. However, those kampungs are spatially marginalized: access is limited and bounded by fences and walls from its surrounding. This study focuses on how kampung dwellers are experiencing their marginalized lived space in the transforming environment. The combined, the separation and the antagonism of dominated and appropriated space are investigated from the lenses of local people using cognitive mapping procedures. In order to reveal dweller experience, 17 out of 128 household head of a small kampung were taken as respondent. This study shows that although the indigenous people succeed in shaping urban spaces, qualitatively they were alienated from their new surroundings. This new city does not belong to their life. The feeling of being out of place becomes real as it has been constructed by new city developers.