8 th Euroseas conference Vienna, 11–14 August 2015

— Making City Islamic: The Production of Islamicised Places in the Suburban of Jakarta
Wai Weng Hew (Zentrum Moderner Orient)
In recent years, religious terms such as ‘Islamic’, ‘Halal’ and ‘Shariah’ have been deployed to describe various places 
such as hotels, restaurants, schools, gated communities, massage parlors and beauty salons in Jakarta and its sur-
roundings. We witness a greater scale of such spatial Islamisation in the suburban regions of Jakarta, especially in 
Depok. Using Depok as a case study, this paper aims to explore how pious middle class Muslim politicians and busi-
ness transform urban landscapes through the processes of place-making. Depok, a university town, located about an 
hour drive from Jakarta, is a stronghold for PKS (Prosperous Justice Party), an Islamist party in Indonesia. Its recent 
mayor is from PKS. While the Islamist party does not outlined a blueprint to Islamise Depok, many activists and busi-
nessmen linked to the party have initiated different place-making projects to make Depok Islamic. Instead of a clear 
top-down city planning policy, the Islamisation of city happens organically from the below.
For many pious middle class Islamists, a ‘good’ and ‘liveable’ city should uphold certain religious values. They view 
urban life in city centre as ‘too secular’, ‘morally corrupted’ and ‘dominated by non-Muslims and non-religious Mus-
lims’, hence, by inserting religious values into urban/ suburban places and lives, they attempt to claim their rights to 
reimagine the city and to offer their own versions of utopia. In other words, they want to make their city ‘Islamic’. 
Who are the actors of the production and the deployment of the places? What make such places ‘Islamic’? What do 
these places tell us about Muslim aspirations and their desirable urban lives? How do these transformations of places 
influence urban landscape, religious diversity and social inclusion in Jakarta? Engaging with theoretical debates about 
cultural politics of urban religiosity and political economy of place making, this paper examines how and under what 
conditions the processes such as neoliberal economic development, expanded democratic space and increasing Is-
lamic religiosity have contributed to religious gentrification in contemporary Jakarta and its surrounding, as well as 
the challenges this development poses.
In particular, this paper looks at the growing numbers of Muslim gated communities (Perumahan Muslim) in Depok. 
Instead of informal neighborhoods (kampung), formal housing complexes (often gated one) are getting more popular 
among middle-class Muslims. As there is a lack of proper housing policy, various property developers have built many 
housing complexes in the suburban of Jakarta since the last few years. In Depok, a few Islamist-oriented property 
developers have promoted the concept of ‘Perumahan Muslim’ (Muslim-only residency), which attract many pious 
middle-class Muslims. Based on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork in the Muslim gated communities, this paper 
explores how the developers and residents justify religion and class-based segregations; as well as how this religious 
gentrification tells us about religious intolerance and economic inequality in urban/ suburban Indonesia.
— Steering and Struggling: Public Transport Actors Facing Urban Modernisation in Jakarta
Rémi Desmoulière (INALCO)
Although transport policies in the Jakarta metropolitan area have long prioritized private vehicles, public transport is 
gaining a new political significance now that the Indonesian capital is expected to appear as a modern, democratic and 
sustainable metropolis. As modern mass transport infrastructures have been built (Transjakarta BRT) or are under 
construction (Jakarta MRT), the existing public transport supply, comprising a wide range of vehicles and organisa-
tional structures developed in a context of poor state involvement in the sector, has to cope with policies aimed at 
“rationalising” its service and use of urban space.
The purpose of this study is to analyse the response of the actors of road-based public transports to such policies. 

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It draws on the hypothesis that the functioning of the public transport system is strongly determined by tactics and 
arrangements elaborated by drivers, conductors, vehicle owners, cooperatives or companies in their practice of trans-
port. The resulting paper will deal with three key aspects, each corresponding to a specific scale of analysis. First, how 
are routes (or operation zones) set and who exactly makes the decision ? Then, what kind of hierarchical relationships 
are transport cooperatives and companies based on and what influence does it have on the spatial characteristics of 
service ? At last, how do drivers and/or conductors manage to carry out their activity within a highly contested urban 
space ?
These issues will be explored using the first results of an on going field work in the Jakarta metropolitan area, concen-
trating on two case studies: the minibus (angkot) supply in Bogor (in the southern fringes of Jakarta and frequently 
depicted in the media as being overcrowded with angkot), and the attempts to integrate public and private bus routes 
into the Transjakarta BRT network (within the APTB scheme - Angkutan Perbatasan Terintegrasi Busway). The com-
parison of these two case studies will underline the role of field and intermediate actors, beyond the usual formal/in-
formal and corporate/non-corporate dichotomies. The analysis thus shifts from a vertical vision of transport policies 
to a wider understanding of the “politics of transport”.
— Claiming Space in Jakarta: Megaprojects, City Planning and Incrementalism
Roanne van Voorst (Universtiy of Amsterdam), Jörgen Hellman (Gothenburg University)
The paper focuses on claims for urban space made by residents living in Jakarta kampungs and puts that in contrast 
to megaprojects and urban planning. In the paper we discuss these as three different ways of claiming space: through 
megaprojects (claims by the private sector), through policy (claims on space through city planning by the local govern-
ment) and by way of incrementalism (local, kampung, resident’s way of step by step claiming small fractions of space). 
These three forms of claims have their different actors, constituencies and politics, often with conflicting interests. In 
the analysis we build on the term incrementalism which we borrow from Simone (2014). In short, incrementalism 
means small, step by step, claims on urban space. It can be through occupying land, building and rebuilding houses, 
or claiming presence through a mobile street cart (kaki lima), for example. Although being rather effective as a local 
strategy to increase income and to create a sustainable livelihood, Simone concludes that “… municipal governments 
do not learn from the incremental practices of residents …” (Simone 2014:256). This means that the claims are not ac-
knowledged as legitimate political actions but only tolerated (to a certain degree and as long as the authorities decide 
to) as small scale, illegal socio-economic alterations of urban space. Simone suggests that a guaranteed basic income 
for kampung residents would help them to “ … win the opportunity of space and time to pursue concrete transforma-
tions of the efforts they have already been making” (Simone 2014:259). In the paper we argue that if an income raise 
is to be effective in terms of resulting in sustainable social change it is necessary to combine economic reforms with 
an analysis of the political (power) landscape and let the residents of the kampungs become part of the decision mak-
ing processes and establish themselves as “partners of a disagreement” (Iveson 2013). In short, this means to position 
themselves as acknowledged political subjects.
In the paper we add to Simones’ analysis by combining it with theories of DIY (Do It Yourself) urbanism. DIY urban-
ism is a concept that tries to delineate the numerous ways people constitute themselves as political subjects in relation 
to city planning by “illegal or unauthorized alterations to urban space” (Douglas 2014:5). In the concluding discussion 
we pick up the question from Simone (2014) on how to combine formal, top-down policy planning with the reality 
‘on the ground’: Jakarta to a large extent consists of spaces (Simone uses the term trenches) claimed through kampung 
resident’s incremental practices. The incremental urbanism in Jakarta has thrived on the fact that city planning is ad 
hoc and erratic. Although living under extreme uncertainty civil societies in kampungs have shown a strong endur-
ance. The majority of land and houses in Jakarta are unregistered, nevertheless, thousands of people live in them, pay 
taxes, use electricity and the kampungs have grown and remained where they were even though being ‘illegal’. How-
ever, a threat to these achievements is the actual implementation of planning policies as well as private megaprojects, 
which often lead to wide-scale evictions of informal settlements.
There are three reasons for taking notice of kampung incrementalism as a form of DIY urbanism. First, the notion of 
DIY urbanism can help transforming incrementalism to a useful political tool for vulnerable groups. DIY urbanism in 
form of incrementalism seems to be core of Jakarta cityness (Simone 2010) and more (social) sustainable than mega 
development investments. Not taking it into account, therefore, would mean overlooking crucial social dynamics that 
are currently shaping the city. Thirdly, connecting to the latter reason, studying incrementalism as DIY urbanism may 
open up new theoretical understandings of urbanization and its current dynamics.

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Panel: Chinatowns vs Chinese Towns in Southeast Asia and Europe 
convener: Justine Romolacci (IrAsia)
panel abstract
The Chinatown concept is mostly a Western – initially North American – concept. In Southeast Asia some largest 
towns have been founded by Chinese settlers – i.e. Kuala Lumpur – or have been peopled by a very large Chinese 
population, at time a majority of the whole – i.e. Singapore, Bangkok. In Vietnam, Cholon used to be a twin Chinese 
city of Saigon before being incorporated as Western districts. In Thai towns, historical records mention Chinese 
streets instead of widespread Chinese neighborhoods. The notion of Chinatown has been a recent introduction with 
the objective to put the Yaowarat area on the tourist map. The universal arch is usually raised up to give a materialized 
entrance to Chinatowns.
The objective of this panel is double. Pointing out the differences in Chinese urban settlements in Southeast Asia and 
Western countries; trying to understand the way Chinatowns and other Chinese areas were born all over the world.
— Ampheng in Bangkok: How to Transform a Chinese Settlement of Ill Repute into an Attractive Place 
for Tourists
Jean Baffie (IrAsia)
Sampheng-Yaowarat is the oldest and most famous Chinese settlement in Bangkok. It used to be best known par-
ticularly for gambling and opium dens and brothels, but also for triads, riots, arson and dangerous traffic. Lanes were 
narrow and rather dirty. It was a dangerous and unfriendly place particularly for non-Chinese. On the other hand, it 
sheltered the cheapest markets in Bangkok, notably for imported goods. From the early 1990’s, private and govern-
mental sectors joined in a policy of promoting the Bangkok Chinatown as a major touristic site, particularly for sea-
food restaurants. This is a trend largely represented in Western and Eastern cities (New York, London, Singapore…) 
that certainly will inspire other places in the future.
— Divide and Brand: Public Space, Tourism, and Politics in a Malaysian World Heritage City
Pierpaolo De Giosa (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Since 2000 Jalan Hang Jebat, a street in the historic urban core of the UNESCO World Heritage Property in Melaka 
(West Malaysia), has become popular in the global tourism imaginary as Jonker Walk. The latter refers to the night 
market (pasar malam) held in the weekends’ evenings along this road formerly named Jonker Street. The surround-
ing area once celebrated as a vibrant cosmopolitan entrepôt where different ethnic groups were living side by side is 
more recently labeled in the tourism imaginary as the ‘Chinatown’ of Melaka. This has been followed also by a revived 
amateur interest in what has been indicated as ‘chinatownology’. The making of Jonker Walk has been described by 
some scholars as ‘chinatownification’ (see Imran Bin Tajudeen 2012: 230) whereas others contend that it is meaning-
less to talk about Chinatowns in most Malaysian urban areas (see Tan 2013: 274). In presenting the case of Jonker 
Walk I would rather contextualize it together with broader political uses of urban space and how local government 
re-proposes the classic Malaysian flagship trinity Malay-Chinese-Indian. It represents a sort of ‘divide and brand’ 
approach to public space which is reminiscent of a colonial-derived ‘divide and rule’ policy serving what John Urry 
(1990) would call the ‘tourist gaze’. But attracting more tourists is not the only target. Jonker Walk is also used in order 
to supposedly win over Malaysian Chinese voters.
Following the double objective of the panel the aim of this paper points to two directions. In the first part I will in-
troduce an overview of accounts presenting ‘Chinese’ spaces in Melaka during the pre-colonial, colonial (Portuguese, 
Dutch, and British), as well as post-colonial periods. At the same time I will contextualize some perspectives presented 
by scholars on the Melakan case of ‘Chinatown’ vis-à-vis ‘Chinese Town’. In the second part of the paper I will focus 
on Jonker Walk as a tourism product, its political patronage, and why it is contested.

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— The concept of Chinatown in Europe: A Comparision with two Chinese areas: Prato and Marseille
Justine Romolacci (IrAsia)
Among the 190 000 people living in the Italian city of Prato, more than 45 000 are Chinese. The Chinese community of 
Prato is the most important in Italy and considered being the third of Europe. Most of them have settled in Chinatown 
but their presence is significant in the entire town. Nowadays, in Marseille, the Chinese community is increasingly ac-
tive and has for the major part settled in downtown. Chinese are mainly wholesalers or restaurant owners. If, between 
2005 and 2011, the Chinese entrepreneurs have been more and more numerous every year, since 2012, their number 
seems to have stagnated. These Chinese areas are two examples of Chinese settlements in Europe. With, in one case, 
an emerging Chinese district more important every year and, in a second case, a Chinatown well established and 
well-defined, but which, because of a relatively high number, seems to “spill over” the entire city. In this presentation, 
I try to show how and why such settlements of Chinese people can move from a “Chinatown” (Chinese quarter) to an 
almost “Chinese town”.
Panel: How Is Migrant Labour Changing Rural Southeast Asia? Translocality, Hybridity, and 
Emerging Categories 
conveners: Roy Huijsmans (Institute of Social Studies), Oliver Tappe (University of Cologne), Minh Nguyen (Max 
Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
panel abstract
As elsewhere, labour migration has become an institution in rural Southeast Asia, internalised in rural life through 
processes of translocal and multi-sited householding and labour mobility. In investigating the impacts of labour mi-
gration on rural life, much work has been done on changes to household organisation and economy, agricultural 
production and rural livelihoods, gender and intergenerational relations, and institutional frameworks. Research, 
however, has not paid much attention to the ways in which mobility has been engendering a great deal of hybridity in 
identity construction and how the boundaries of rurality and urbanity shift as people creatively craft their belonging 
and citizenship across places. This panel aims at exploring such identity processes arising from rural-urban migration 
– processes that entail category construction and emerging axes of social difference. In this panel, we are asking for 
empirical and theoretical contributions that examine labour migration and translocality in rural Southeast Asia with 
one or more of the following focuses:
1.  The dialectic relationship between place, belonging and mobility in identity processes;
2.  The construction of rurality and urbanity in the context of accelerating urbanization and transforming rural 
landscapes;
3.  The intersection of gender, class, and/or ethnicity in labour migration; or how labour mobility produces and 
shapes such categories on different socio-spatial scales;
4.  Wealth accumulation and the relevance of remittances and temporary labour arrangements for socio-economic 
stratification;
5.  Migrant labourers’ negotiation with issues of legal, social and cultural citizenship.
We welcome actor-centred, ethnographic contributions which discuss the emergence of hybrid sociocultural catego-
ries and imaginaries induced by the everyday experience of mobility and migration in Southeast Asia.
— A Borderless Village at the Source of Unceasing Flow: Mobility and Belonging in Thawan Gaw Kraung, Kayin 
State, Myanmar
Indre Balcaite (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
Transnationalisation of seemingly remote villages has to date been mostly researched in the Americas but such grass-
roots process is also recognisable in Southeast Asia, raising questions about what social and cultural citizenship en-
tails, how mass migration reconstitutes attachments to a locality and how communities are reproduced across dis-

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tance. Through individual stories of circular migrants, the paper probes the formation of a transborder Karen village. 
Thawan Gaw Kraung (a pseudonym), a predominantly Phlong Karen village compound in Hpa-an (Pa-an) Township 
of the Kayin (Karen) State of Myanmar, is permeated by migration: in 2012, one third of its villagers were estimated 
to be in Thailand. The main source of subsistence is no longer rice cultivation but remittances from abroad that have 
transformed the built environment of the village as well as its social landscape. As the children of the early migrants 
joined or replaced their parents in Thailand, a generation shift has taken place, with villagers’ life course transformed 
at a younger age and life-cycle events turned into cross-border ‘coming home’ pilgrimages. With considerable num-
bers of Thawan Gaw Kraungians now living in Bangkok, the city has become a branch of the original home village and 
a thriving site of cultural production of Karenness.
— “We Are Just Peasants”- Performing Ruralness in Hanoi
Lisa Barthelmes (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
In my paper I will focus on aspects of identity performance among mobile street vendors in Hanoi, Vietnam. Hanoi 
street vendors are predominantly rural-urban migrants who sell a variety of goods ranging from cheap consumer 
items to fresh produce. Many of them have been working in the capital for over fifteen years where they share dor-
mitories with fellow migrant workers. As elsewhere around the globe, mobile street vendors do not hold business 
permits and are not officially registered in the city. Access to public services such as health 
care, education or official employment is not available to them. Hence, mobile street vendors operate semi-legally 
and are paradoxically tolerated by the authorities. This legal framework contributes to their sense of belonging as well 
as their identity claims: Despite spending most of their time working in Hanoi mobile street vendors still consider 
themselves as villagers (nguoi que). Moreover, many Hanoians perceive street vendors as backwards and obstacles 
to traffic. By presenting data from over 12 months of fieldwork conducted between July 2012 and November 2013, 
I argue that mobile street vendors manage their identity in a way that amplifies their victimization, mostly by refer-
ring to themselves as poor women who have to provide for their families. Mobile street vendors perform ‘ruralness’ 
by wearing poor clothing and referring to the necessity of earning a living to evoke pity from both urban customers 
and local officials. I will show that by employing a moral economy discourse and claiming their ‘right to subsistence’ 
mobile street vendors actively claim their stereotypical identity which is mostly ascribed to them externally as their 
own and use it to their advantage.
— Uncertain Wealth, Consumption and Productive Transformations in a Migrant Waste-Trading Community 
of the Red River Delta
Minh Nguyen (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
For people in Spring District of Vietnamese Red River Delta, urban waste has long been a valuable economic resource. 
Since the socialist country formally embraced marketization in the mid-1980s, they have developed a thriving waste 
trade in the capital city of Hanoi and other urban centres. Despite its precarious labour conditions, the trade is highly 
flexible and efficient, capitalizing on the social ambiguity of waste and migrants working with waste while strategi-
cally making use of marginal and transient spaces. The extent of wealth accumulation and the productive impacts of 
waste-generated income become visible when considering the consumption and re-investment of waste-generated 
income by a number of successful traders in their rural village. In seeking to move away from urban waste work and its 
class implications, these waste-traders-turn-rural-entrepreneurs have introduced innovative agricultural production 
initiatives and urban consumption habits in the district. Due to the fragmented nature of their productive initiatives, 
however, these new-generation agricultural producers often run into challenges posed by volatile market conditions 
and an uncertain institutional framework. Some thus opt to return to the urban waste trade, which is also constantly 
evolving with fluctuating waste prices and rapid urban regeneration. These dynamics suggest the ways in which waste 
bridges these rural and urban economies, creating new social aspirations and values at the same time with promoting 
the notion of the self-enterprising individual for market socialism.
— Migration, Class and Gender: A Perspective from Two Southeast Asian Countries 
Maria Platt (National University of Singapore)
Labour migration in Southeast Asia has been characterised as ‘feminised’. Women from key sending countries such as 

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Indonesia outnumber men as migrants, particularly to major cities in Asia and the Middle East. The feminisation of 
temporary labour migration in Indonesia raises challenges about existing gender roles in sending and receiving coun-
tries, and its intersection with class, as migration creates new opportunities for upward social mobility. This paper 
explores the issues of feminised labour from the bottom up through an analysis of gender and class relations in the 
rural area of Ponorogo regency in Indonesia’s East Java province. It draws upon in-depth interviews with international 
(n=45), internal (n=5) and non-migrant (n=5) households in Ponorogo. This rural perspective is complemented by 
the perceptions of Indonesian female domestic workers in Singapore (n=38). This paper critically examines the com-
plex interplay of factors that work to mobilise or immobilise particular household members with regards to engaging 
in labour migration. In particular, it examines the impact of a gendered migration regime and its intersection with 
class that facilitates women’s labour mobility as a critical dynamic which contributes to the ‘in flux nature’ (Huijsmans 
2014) of migrant households in Ponorogo. 
This paper draws upon Anthias’s (2012: 131) notion of a ‘translocational lens’ which provides a means by which to ex-
amine arenas where intersections of social structures and processes are played out, including both in local and trans-
national arenas. By recognising the fluidity of social positions of transnational migration, the “idea of ‘translocation’...
treats lives as being lived across multiple but also fractured and interrelated social spaces of different types”. Through 
this theoretical lens, this paper will consider ideas of gender and class, at both he local and transnational level. Of par-
ticular concern to this paper is how labour mobility is at once shaped by, and is reshaping gender relations, and how 
households’ relative wealth (both prior to and following return) intersects with these issues. By contrasting narratives 
from households in Ponorogo, with those of migrant women in Singapore we seek to examine the negotiation and 
renegotiation of gender roles and notions of class at different scales in the migration process.