Invisible Housing-“housing” as envisioned by the urban poor in Jakarta

Abstract

This paper seeks to challenge the dominant paradigm on housing only as an standarized object for living. For the urban poor, urbanity is conceived as petromax that attracts them to come to the city striving for fortune. What really matters is how they could get access to space or “a piece of land” (lahan) in the city,which may not mean it housing let alone home. A house is imagined as a shelter that lets them engage with economic activities within. It does not have all the basic facilities needed to raise a healthy family as understood and believed by politicians, bureaucrats and those in the property business. The research method used in this projects in order to discover the metaphysical phenomena of invisible housing is a grounded method. The idea of invisible housing is uncovered through an emic approach of investigations to the respondents. Findings have shown that the urban poor perceive urbanity as space of existence. Open lahan or open urban land (such as on river bank) perceived as “no man’s land” for them to utilize.