Growth of a Megacity : Planning Jakarta in the Post-suburban Era

Jakarta, one of the largest metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia, has grown from 150,000 residents in the first half of the twentieth century to more than 31 million in 2024. This explosive growth has reshaped the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA), also known as Jabodetabek, presenting complex challenges and highlighting the critical role of urban planning. This edited volume explores Jakarta’s evolving urban landscape through the lens of post-suburbanization. While the city exhibits traits of post-suburban development, its central areas continue to attract population and investment, suggesting a unique, early-stage form of post-suburban growth. Across the inner city and surrounding suburbs, physical, social, and economic transformations are underway―marked by uneven patterns of inclusion, displacement, and redevelopment.

The book adopts a multi-dimensional perspective, examining changes in residential, industrial, and commercial development, alongside impacts on employment, infrastructure, environmental degradation, and social dynamics such as segregation and gentrification. As the first comprehensive study of Jakarta’s post-suburbanization, this volume brings together twenty-two contributors, including academics, planners, urban designers, and architects, to assess planning practices and policy responses. Organized into four thematic sections―economic development, environmental challenges, housing and public space, and gentrification and displacement―it offers critical insights and forward-looking strategies for shaping the JMA over the next twenty years.

A vital contribution to urban planning literature in Indonesia, Growth of a Megacity provides a timely and accessible analysis for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners navigating Jakarta’s complex urban future.

Deden Rukmana is professor and director of the Master of City and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Sonia Roitman is associate professor in development planning at the University of Queensland, Australia.