Securing the Majority: Living through Uncertainty in Jakarta

Drawing on research in Jakarta, this article reconsiders the importance of heterogeneous economic practices in the remaking of central-city districts in ways that provide ongoing platforms of residence and operation for residents from wide-ranging walks of life. The emphasis on good governance and rights-based discourses have sometimes occluded the operations of urban real economies that, even if waning in the face of the proliferation of mega-developments, constitute the critical capacity of the majority of urban residents' efforts to secure a viable place in the city.