Deconstructing Urban Space: Sahlul Fuad’s Subaltern Epistemology in the Study of Indonesian Urbanization
ABSTRACT
This article presents a critical analysis of Sahlul Fuad’s reflective essay, "Orang Kampung Mendefinisikan Kota," examining its theoretical contributions to urban studies, particularly within the context of Indonesia and the Global South. Employing a hermeneutic approach and comparative analysis with existing literature, the study identifies Fuad’s work as a significant form of subaltern epistemology that challenges dominant, often Western-centric, urban theories. The analysis reveals that Fuad organically synthesizes Henri Lefebvre's production of space, Pierre Bourdieu's habitus and capital, and Clifford Geertz's interpretive anthropology to deconstruct the urban experience from the perspective of rural migrants. Key theoretical contributions include the original concepts of "urban stimuli" and the "production of lapak" (informal economic space), which offer nuanced understandings of informal economies and the psychological impact of urban environments. By bridging critical European theory with indigenous Indonesian perspectives, Fuad’s work not only fills a methodological gap in urban studies but also advocates for the development of theory from the Global South. The article concludes that his autoethnographic approach provides a vital framework for understanding the complex socio-spatial dynamics of urbanization in Indonesia and similar contexts.
Keywords: Urban Epistemology, Subaltern Studies, Production of Space, Habitus, Informal Economy
ABSTRAK
Artikel ini menyajikan analisis kritis terhadap esai reflektif Sahlul Fuad, "Orang Kampung Mendefinisikan Kota," dengan menelaah kontribusi teoretisnya dalam studi perkotaan, khususnya dalam konteks Indonesia dan Global South. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan hermeneutika dan analisis komparatif terhadap literatur yang ada, penelitian ini mengidentifikasi karya Fuad sebagai suatu bentuk epistemologi subaltern yang signifikan untuk menantang teori-teori perkotaan dominan yang sering kali Eropasentris. Analisis menunjukkan bahwa Fuad mensintesiskan teori produksi ruang Henri Lefebvre, habitus dan modal Pierre Bourdieu, serta antropologi interpretatif Clifford Geertz secara organis untuk mendekonstruksi pengalaman urban dari perspektif migran perdesaan. Kontribusi teoretis kunci mencakup konsep orisinal "rangsangan urban" dan "produksi lapak," yang menawarkan pemahaman bernuansa tentang ekonomi informal dan dampak psikologis lingkungan perkotaan. Dengan menjembatani teori kritis Eropa dan perspektif indigenous Indonesia, karya Fuad tidak hanya mengisi celah metodologis dalam studi perkotaan tetapi juga mengadvokasi pengembangan teori dari Global South. Artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa pendekatan autoetnografinya memberikan kerangka kerja penting untuk memahami dinamika sosio-spasial urbanisasi yang kompleks di Indonesia dan konteks serupa.
Kata kunci: Epistemologi Urban, Kajian Subaltern, Produksi Ruang, Habitus, Ekonomi Informal
INTRODUCTION
The study of urbanization in Indonesia has long been dominated by developmentalist and modernization paradigms, often overlooking the nuanced, lived experiences of those who navigate the rural-urban transition.¹ While significant scholarly contributions have been made in understanding the demographic, economic, and environmental dimensions of this phenomenon, the subjective, cultural, and psychological dimensions remain underexplored.² This gap is particularly evident in the limited application of critical urban theory rooted in the specific socio-cultural context of Indonesia.³ It is within this academic lacuna that Sahlul Fuad’s reflective essay, "Orang Kampung Mendefinisikan Kota" (Villagers Defining the City), emerges as a significant textual artifact. This article argues that Fuad’s work constitutes a form of subaltern urban epistemology—a critical knowledge production about the city from the marginalized perspective of the rural migrant—that organically synthesizes major theoretical traditions to deconstruct the Indonesian urban experience.
Fuad’s narrative charts the evolution of his understanding of the city, beginning from a simplistic, childlike perception of "a highway with many cars" to a complex conceptualization of the city as a "field of battle" for production and a space that incessantly produces desire.⁴ His account is not merely a personal memoir but a critical autoethnography that uses subjective experience as ethnographic data to unpack the broader symbolic, economic, and social logics governing urban life. This approach aligns with the growing recognition in urban studies of the importance of "everyday urbanism" and the need to center the perspectives of ordinary city dwellers.⁵
Prior research on Indonesian urbanization has provided invaluable insights. Demographic and economic studies, such as those by Firman and Hudalah, have meticulously documented the patterns and drivers of urban growth.⁶ Others, like Evers and Korff, have analyzed the role of social capital and informal networks in urban adaptation.⁷ However, these studies, often reliant on quantitative data or formal theoretical frameworks, can sometimes miss the deeply personal, phenomenological dimension of becoming urban. Fuad’s work fills this gap by offering a thick description of this process, making a novel contribution by prioritizing the internal world of the migrant—their hopes, anxieties, and the transformation of their very habitus.
This article employs a hermeneutic-critical methodology to analyze Fuad's text, situating it in dialogue with three key theoretical traditions: Henri Lefebvre's production of space, Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice, and the subaltern studies framework, particularly as articulated by Gayatri Spivak.⁸ Through a comparative analysis with existing empirical studies on Indonesian urbanization, this article will elucidate the unique theoretical contributions of Fuad’s thought. The central problem this article addresses is the gap between macro-structural analyses of urban Indonesia and the micro-level, lived experiences of its inhabitants. Fuad’s work provides a crucial bridge, and this article aims to systematize and critically evaluate the theoretical framework he implicitly constructs. The following sections will detail the methodological approach, present a comparative analysis of Fuad’s ideas against existing literature, discuss his unique theoretical contributions, and explore the implications for future research in urban studies, particularly within the Global South.
METHOD
This study utilizes a qualitative design centered on a critical hermeneutic analysis of Sahlul Fuad’s essay, "Orang Kampung Mendefinisikan Kota." The primary "research site" is the text itself, treated as a rich source of ethnographic and theoretical insight. The unit of analysis is the constellation of concepts, metaphors, and theoretical propositions embedded within Fuad’s narrative.
Data collection involved a close, repeated reading of the primary text to identify key themes, narrative structures, and implicit theoretical frameworks. This was complemented by a comprehensive review of secondary literature in critical urban theory, sociology of practice, and Indonesian urban studies. The selection of secondary sources was guided by the need to contextualize Fuad's ideas within broader academic discourses, prioritizing peer-reviewed journal articles and scholarly books published within the last decade to ensure relevance.
The data analysis process followed a two-stage approach. First, an internal textual analysis was conducted to extract Fuad's core concepts, such as "urban stimuli," "production of lapak," and the dialectic between "alon-alon kecantol" (slow but sure) and "cepet-cepet keserimpet" (rushing and stumbling). Second, a comparative and contextualizing analysis was performed, placing these concepts in dialogue with established theories. This involved:
Thematic Coding: Identifying recurring themes in Fuad's text related to space, power, habitus, and economy.
Theoretical Triangulation: Mapping the identified themes onto the theoretical frameworks of Lefebvre (production of space), Bourdieu (habitus, capital, field), and Geertz (interpretive anthropology).
Comparative Analysis: Contrasting Fuad's findings with empirical studies on Indonesian urbanization (e.g., by Firman, Hudalah, Silvey) to identify points of convergence and divergence, thereby highlighting the originality of his contributions.⁹
This methodological approach allows for a systematic excavation of the sophisticated theoretical model that Fuad develops organically through his reflective narrative. It treats his essay not just as a story, but as a serious intellectual engagement with the phenomenon of urbanism, worthy of scholarly analysis and theoretical development.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Theoretical Synthesis in Fuad's Urban Epistemology
Fuad’s narrative demonstrates a remarkable, if implicit, synthesis of several major theoretical traditions. His work does not merely describe a personal journey; it constructs a theoretical lens through which the urban experience of the subaltern can be understood.
Production of Space and the "Lapak"
Fuad’s conceptualization of the city aligns powerfully with Henri Lefebvre’s triad of spatial production. He intuitively grasps that urban space is not a neutral container but a social product.¹⁰ His description of rural migrants who must "memproduksi lapak sebagai ruang hidup mereka" (produce a lapak as their living space) is a profound illustration of Lefebvre’s spatial practice. The lapak—a stall, kiosk, or informal vending space—is not simply found; it is actively created, a spatial assertion of existence within the urban fabric. This concept of "produksi lapak" enriches Lefebvre’s theory by grounding it in the specific, informal economic practices of the Global South, resonating with Asef Bayat’s observations of "quiet encroachment" in Middle Eastern cities.¹¹
Furthermore, Fuad engages with Lefebvre’s representations of space. The city is planned and built as a space of modernity, consumption, and capital flow, an image that Fuad and his fellow villagers internalize. This is contrasted with his lived space (representational spaces), the experience of which is "sumpek" (cramped) and characterized by the frantic "kebut-kebutan" (rushing) of motorcycles. This lived experience of pressure and congestion confirms findings by Gibert on the psychological strains faced by migrants in Jakarta.¹²
Habitus, Capital, and the Urban Field
Fuad’s narrative is a textbook case of a clash of habitus, a concept central to Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice.¹³ The habitus of the village—embodied in the wearing of the sarung, a slower tempo of life ("alon-alon kecantol"), and communal values—collides violently with the habitus of the city, where trousers are the norm, life is fast-paced ("cepet-cepet keserimpet"), and individualism and competition prevail. Fuad’s account of being questioned for wearing trousers in his village perfectly captures how habitus operates as a system of embodied dispositions that feel natural within their specific field.
The city, for Fuad, is a field in the Bourdieusian sense—a structured social space of positions and a site of struggle for different forms of capital.¹⁴ Migrants, having left behind their traditional forms of capital (agricultural land, kinship networks), must engage in a fierce battle to accumulate urban capital: economic capital (money, goods), cultural capital (education, "good appearance"), and social capital (new networks). His observation that "kecerdasan majemuk" (multiple intelligences) becomes not just capital but a commodity is a sharp Bourdieusian insight into the conversion processes essential for survival in the urban field. This struggle echoes the findings of Rachel Silvey on female migrants in West Java, who also navigated complex conversions of social and cultural capital.¹⁵
Subalternity and Interpretive Anthropology
Fuad’s entire project can be read as an answer to Gayatri Spivak’s seminal question, "Can the subaltern speak?"¹⁶ He demonstrates that the subaltern—here, the rural migrant—can and does speak, offering a powerful definition of the city from below. His methodology is deeply aligned with Clifford Geertz’s interpretive anthropology, seeking to understand the city by unpacking the "webs of significance" that the villagers themselves have spun.¹⁷ He provides a "thick description" of urban symbols, reading the city as a text. The gleaming malls and speeding cars are not just objects; they are powerful symbols in a narrative of modernity and desire, a finding that parallels Tim Bunnell’s work on urban imaginaries in Malaysia.¹⁸
Comparative Analysis with Previous Research
Fuad’s work both confirms and complicates prior findings in Indonesian urban studies. His emphasis on social networks and economic adaptation aligns with the work of Evers and Korff on the importance of social space and capital in Southeast Asian urbanism.¹⁹ However, Fuad adds a crucial psychological and phenomenological layer, detailing the internal cost of this adaptation—the feeling of being "sumpek," the disorientation, and the relentless stimulation.
Similarly, while Tommy Firman’s demographic work expertly maps the patterns of urbanization, Fuad illuminates the lived experience within those patterns.²⁰ He moves beyond the macro-level analysis of policymakers to the micro-level reality of the individual producing a "lapak." This focus on the informal economy as a spatial practice complements the research of Nazaret Nazaret on peri-urban economies but does so through a narrative, first-person lens.²¹
Table 1. Theoretical Correspondences in Fuad's Essay
| Fuad's Empirical Observation | Corresponding Theoretical Concept | Scholarly Reference |
|---|---|---|
| "Memproduksi lapak" (Producing a stall/space) | Spatial Practice (Lefebvre) | Bayat (2000) on "quiet encroachment" |
| Feeling "sumpek" (cramped/pressured) | Lived Space / Representational Space (Lefebvre) | Gibert (2022) on migrant mental pressure |
| Transition from sarung to trousers | Clash of Habitus (Bourdieu) | Koning (2005) on cultural transformation |
| "Kecerdasan menjadi komoditas" (Intelligence as commodity) | Conversion of Cultural Capital (Bourdieu) | Silvey (2003) on migrant women's strategies |
| City as "ladang pertempuran" (field of battle) | Field and Struggle for Capital (Bourdieu) | Evers & Korff (2000) on social space |
Source: Author's analysis (2024)
Original Theoretical Contributions: "Urban Stimuli" and "Produksi Lapak"
Fuad’s most significant contributions are his original conceptual formulations. The concept of "rangsangan urban" (urban stimuli) captures the city's role as a machine for producing desire. It expands Jean Baudrillard’s theory of consumption by adding a concrete, psychological dimension, describing how the constant exposure to luxury goods and environments actively shapes subjectivities and fuels the cycle of production and consumption.²²
Secondly, the theory of "produksi lapak" (production of lapak) is a major contribution to understanding the informal economies of the Global South. It is a more fluid and agentive concept than standard economic definitions of informality, portraying it as a creative, spatial tactic for claiming a right to the city. This concept aligns with the emerging interest in "assemblage" thinking in urban geography but does so using a locally-grounded term.²³
Finally, the Javanese dialectic of "alon-alon kecantol" versus "cepet-cepet keserimpet" is a masterful indigenous metaphor for theorizing the temporal experience of urbanization. It enriches David Harvey’s concept of time-space compression by framing it within a specific cultural logic that values deliberate pace, thus highlighting the cultural violence of the urban tempo.²⁴
CONCLUSION
This critical analysis demonstrates that Sahlul Fuad’s "Orang Kampung Mendefinisikan Kota" is far more than a personal reflection; it is a significant work of subaltern urban theory that makes three primary contributions. First, it successfully deconstructs dominant, often impersonal, narratives of the city by centering the lived, subjective experience of the rural migrant. Second, it performs an organic and creative synthesis of major theoretical traditions—Lefebvrian spatial production, Bourdieusian practice theory, and Geertzian interpretation—grounding them firmly in the Indonesian context. Third, it generates original, indigenous concepts like "urban stimuli" and "produksi lapak" that offer nuanced tools for understanding the political economy and psychology of urban life in the Global South.
The main implication of Fuad’s work is methodological. It champions a reflexive, autoethnographic approach as a valid and powerful means of producing urban knowledge, particularly from marginalized positions. It shows that critical theory need not always be applied from the top down but can emerge from the bottom up through a critical engagement with one's own lived reality. This provides a model for developing "theory from the South," as advocated by Comaroff and Comaroff.²⁵
However, this study has its limitations. It focuses on a single text, and while Fuad’s experience is insightful, it cannot represent the full diversity of urban migrant experiences across different genders, ethnicities, and regions in Indonesia. Furthermore, the analysis primarily situates Fuad within Western theoretical canons; a deeper engagement with indigenous Indonesian philosophical traditions could be a fruitful avenue for further research.
In conclusion, Fuad’s essay is a compelling call to re-imagine the project of urban studies. It urges scholars to listen to the definitions of the city that emerge from its streets and its most ordinary inhabitants. By demonstrating that the "orang kampung" is not merely an object of study but a sophisticated theorist in his own right, Fuad enriches our understanding of Indonesian urbanization and points the way toward a more inclusive, phenomenological, and critically engaged urban studies.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. This analysis was developed independently without external funding.
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