De l’informalité à l’incertitude dans une ville dissuasive - le cas de Jakarta (Indonésie)

Abstract

The article questions informality in the social and political construction of spaces of poverty, by highlighting the ways in which the tension between acceptance and rejection is expressed in the metropolis of Jakarta. Doing so, it shows how the process of categorizing poverty can be a producer of Otherness in the city, particularly by relying on the criterion of informality. I argue that informality can act as a stigma [Goffman, 1963], and therefore as a vector of alteration for the groups and populations concerned, thus making poverty a social relation, and questioning the actual assistance’s target. By analyzing the links between political action, representations and the probability of displacement, the paper points out the (lowly) prospects of anchoring for the populations considered as poor in the metropolis, and demonstrates the political dimension of the uncertainty suffered and experienced by the people concerned.

Keywords

• informality
• uncertainty
• Jakarta
• poverty
• deterring city
• vulnerability