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Article
Introduction
Current descriptions of radical planning fail to explain how social transformation occurs in authoritarian contexts because they do not address how
citizens in these environments acquire the skills, experience, and political
consciousness necessary to bring about significant social and political
change.1 This results in an inadequate theorization of the process of
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Sandercock, like Friedmann, suggests that the focus of radical planning will
depend, in any given context, on the character of oppression being endured
and on the accompanying critique of the circumstances that maintain that
oppression (1998a: 98). Despite the diverse range of oppressions that radical
planning might address, much of Sandercocks theorizing focuses on injustices related to difference.
In theoretically positioning radical planning vis-a-vis alternative modes
of planning practice, Sandercock (1998a: 99) stipulates that it does not lie
on a logical continuum with rational planning for societal guidance. Her
view is that radical planning requires an epistemological break with what
planners thought and did in the past (Sandercock, 1998a: 99). Yet in another
statement she acknowledges a relationship between planning for societal
guidance and planning for social transformation . . . there is an unresolved,
and unresolvable tension between the transformative and repressive powers
of state-directed planning practices, and their mirror image, the transformative and also repressive potential of the local, the grassroots, the insurgent (Sandercock, 1998a: 102). That acknowledgement implies that
planning as societal guidance and planning as social transformation do lie
at opposite ends of a continuum. However, as Sandercock notes, both state
and local actors have the potential to engage in planning as societal
guidance and/or planning as social transformation.
Sandercock argues that radical planning does not necessarily begin with
grand, overt acts, but instead with smaller actions or what she calls a
thousand tiny empowerments. However, her work never addresses how a
group or community moves from being oppressed, lacking resources, and a
general state of powerlessness to becoming empowered. Even more
perplexing is how a community in an authoritarian context would move
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river were developed outside (and sometimes in spite of) formal planning
and regulatory frameworks, and their high-density unregulated housing,
combined with their lack of official land tenure status and periodic flooding,
created limited social and political spaces available for residents to engage
in planning for social transformation. Data for this study were collected in
a series of three intervals, 1994, 1997, and 2001, thus spanning what is
considered the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis periods in Indonesia.9 In
total, approximately 27 months were spent in the field. Research methods
included direct observation, in-depth interviews (n=200), oral histories
(n=50), and community meetings (between 5 and 10 meetings per month).
A household census (N=275) was conducted of a single community to
gather information on household structure, education, employment,
consumption, land tenure, access to services, and participation in
community-level organizations.
It is important to note that when the researcher began this study she set
out to answer questions related to the capacity of community-based
organizations to alleviate poverty and not to address the question of how
residents learn radical planning in an authoritarian context. Serendipitously
the research spanned both periods of economic prosperity and crisis, as well
as a period of tremendous social and political change in Indonesia. As a
result, much of the data analyzed in this article came from field observations
and informal conversations that emerged from relationships of trust
between the researcher and respondents. These relationships allowed
respondents to discuss the fear and repression they felt when the Suharto
regime was in power and how this climate was slowly changing in the postSuharto period.10 In many ways the longitudinal research strategy and use
of ethnographic methods facilitated the telling of a different story, and,
possibly, a more interesting and important story than the researcher initially
sought.
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In RWs and RTs, men and women usually conduct separate monthly
meetings, in which they select their leaders, carry on routine dialogue, and
identify community-level problems as well as strategies for action. Despite
the transformative potential of these fora, their vertical organization and
the unidirectional, top-to-bottom flow of information effectively precludes
spaces in which public dialogue with neighboring communities (e.g.
geographically adjacent RWs) might take place (let alone radical planning).
During the New Order period this vertical administrative structure served
a number of important functions.13 Specifically, it was extremely effective
in marshalling volunteer labor to implement the States development programs, providing surveillance of community-level activities, and preventing
geographically adjoining communities from mobilizing in support of collective demands on the State. This study will show how residents learned to
manipulate this state-imposed structure, and how they ultimately used the
limited spaces permitted for public dialogue and collective action, to pursue
increasingly radical action for transformative ends.
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The clinic provides the elderly with services, such as information about
their weight, blood pressure, preventive health care, which they had previously lacked because of prohibitive costs and (for some elderly) a lack of
mobility. The clinic is conducted once a month in a WFWO volunteers
home. Here a hot meal is served and volunteers record attendees weight
and blood pressure, fill prescriptions, distribute vitamin supplements, and
occasionally a doctor participates to answer questions and make referrals.
While the program is a community-based planning effort, since it is modeled
after the national Mother and Child Health Care Clinic, it is considered
complementary, not oppositional, to state policy. Its success is due to several
factors: Ibu Watis formal training as a nurse as well as her knowledge of
politicaladministrative protocol, the volunteers skills and experience from
working at the Mother and Child Health Care Clinic, and support from the
local government as well as the community. The Mother and Child Health
Care Clinic had given the participants in the WFWO a wide range of invaluable experiences and skills that later helped them mobilize and realize their
plan.
For the reader to fully understand the significance of the health care
clinic for the elderly, it needs to be considered in conjunction with the two
stories that follow. It is also important for the reader to understand that
most of the residents involved in these efforts were cognizant of each others
work. Not only must these three stories be understood together, but the
reader must never lose sight of the sense of fear and repression community
members felt when they began to mobilize and engage in collective action.
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States repeated denial of requests for legal land tenure. The group also
discussed how the Jumat Kliwon groups project had transformed the
appearance of the poorest segment of the community to that of a formal
settlement. It was ultimately decided that this community effort was too
important to be abandoned. The paving plan was scaled back, and a subtle
strategy toward gaining official land tenure was salvaged. Since these two
projects were completed: small numbers of residents continue to receive
legal land tenure on an ad hoc basis; there has been discussion that the State
might provide a retaining wall for flood protection; and no effort has been
made to relocate the community.
The example of the RW and Jumat Kliwon group illustrates how residents moved, over time, from community-based planning to covert
planning. The repaving project can be understood as an example of covert
planning because while it superficially complies with the States development agenda, in actuality it represents a gentle yet deliberate challenge of
the States policy and authority. For the time being, the community
succeeded in creating the aura of legal residential settlement and thus
reduced the propensity of the State to force relocation. In addition, through
their joint effort, residents have become increasingly united in their resolve
to remain in the community that they built together, thus making relocation
an increasingly unsavory political option.
In an authoritarian context, covert planning is an important intermediary
step between mobilizing in response to community needs that are
compatible with the states agenda and radical planning for more transformative purposes. Such planning exists intentionally beyond the purview
of the state, yet it provides residents experience in community organizing
and collective action, problem-solving skills, and a palpable sense of collective agency that might be used for more overtly radical action in the future.
The transition from covert to radical planning is illustrated in the next
example.
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knew that the communitys strict social hierarchy would require that
support be withheld from an idea that had not been sanctioned by the
formal leadership.23 Because the Youth Group demonstrated respect for
this hierarchy, the plan for the library was never perceived as potentially
insurgent, either by the community leadership or the State. As a result, even
in a period when state control over local organizing was particularly
restrictive, the crucial first steps in planning the library were allowed to
proceed.
The next step in getting the library established involved the community
leadership officially notifying the sub-district and district offices. The way
in which Mas Sigit, the youth groups leader, amassed community and State
support exemplifies the concept of covert planning: he was assertive at the
community level about achieving the means for establishing the library, yet
he was prudent and savvy in interactions with the State. On the surface the
library was compatible with the States development agenda and the
eradication of illiteracy. Therefore the State never became cognizant of
the degree of social learning, political consciousness, and potential for
political praxis that resulted from planning, organizing, and maintaining the
library as well as access to the reading materials and opportunities for
discussions.24
In planning and setting up the library, the Youth Group met no opposition from State authorities because the library was never considered radical
or insurgent. On the contrary, it was considered compatible with the States
campaign to eradicate illiteracy. Herein lies a key to planning for social
transformation in an authoritarian context: the community-initiated plan
that ultimately empowered the Youth Group was conceived and executed
with a discursive strategy that intentionally emphasized its compatibility
with the States development agenda. When, however, the economic crisis
occurred in Indonesia in 1997 and the States control was weakened, the
Youth Group used the library to organize its members in public demonstrations demanding significant social and political reform. At that moment,
the Youth Group moved from covert to an incipient stage of radical
planning.
Some might find this seeming subtle shift to demonstrations in opposition to the State not to be particularly significant; however, that interpretation would miss the point. One needs to imagine hundreds of thousands
of community-based and covert planning efforts going on across Indonesia
for decades, to understand how a citizenry learns the skills and gains the
political consciousness to protest en masse against a punitive and authoritarian regime once a window of opportunity opens. To better understand
how planning for social transformation occurs in the context of an authoritarian state that wields extreme measures of control and maintains a sense
of fear among its populace, we must begin to recognize how, cumulatively,
modest efforts are capable of creating a sense of collective agency and the
social and political spaces for radical action.
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank John Friedmann, Jack Huddleston, Ragui
Assaad, Jamie Peck and the three anonymous referees for their comments
on earlier versions of this article.
Notes
1. The foundational work on radical planning referred to here includes: Castells
(1983), Clavel (1983), Friedmann (1987, 1989), Grabow and Heskin (1973),
Heskin (1991), Leavitt (1994), and Leavitt and Saegert (1990). Importantly, all
of these authors discuss radical planning and/or radical action with the
assumption that democratic institutions are in place. As a result, they assume a
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