Structurally Heightenestructurally Heightened Mobility of Population and Community: Case Studies from the Suburbs in an Indonesian Metropolitan City

Based on both qualitative and quantitative data of Indonesia, this paper is trying to accomplish two goals. First, the author grasps the current condition in the suburbs of Asian metropolitan cities whose mobility of population is structurally heightened. Second, the author examines the community in detail whose members are changing dramatically and whose old community it has replaced.

                 The rapid development process of Asian metropolitan cities is one of the most important issues in recent urban studies. Industrial products for global markets are produced in these areas. It turns out that the driving force of this development is deeply embedded in suburban areas which have newly developed towns and industrial estates established by local and foreign investment. These industrial estates require a large pool of low-paid workers who are inevitably employed on a very short-term basis. Thus they are constantly forced to move to the new areas and new workplaces due to the effects of new practices governing the international division of labor.

                 Although previous community research has focused on community structure and participation rate, it has not grasped the fact that currently, community members are constantly changing. This paper explains the mechanism of heightened mobility of community members, and describes the community around Jakarta mainly based on my own door-to-door survey of 659 suburban residents.

This data revealed that almost all of the residents (83.9%) are newcomers. The people who had lived there before building the industrial estates have already moved, so the activities of the old neighborhood associations (called Rukun-Tetangga /Rukun-Warga) have almost stopped. Nevertheless, 62.3% of newcomers still join Gotong-Royong (traditional mutual assistance activities) and 32.6% of them are involved in religious (Islamic) activities. This implies that people are trying to search for new ways to enhance social unity, away from the old community structure.