Smart kampung: doing cultural studies in the Global South

Abstract

As megacities are rising in developing countries, Indonesia in the 2010s shifts attention toward marginalized urban and rural villages. This paper observes cultural movements arising from kampung as locus of critical engagement with the complexities of the Global South in the twenty-first century. Examining three kampungs in Java, I reveal how the community-driven act of cultural commoning reactivates local practices to correct unwanted effects of neoliberal urbanism. I argue that through the double strategy of containing and working within neoliberal capitalism, kampung communities create culturally sustainable environment as an alternative model for the Global South.