| Abstract: | Urban society in colonial and early postcolonial Indonesia was stratified along ethnic and class lines. This stratification was given concrete shape in the urban residential landscape. Our article starts from the working hypothesis that under the impact of decolonization the changing social status system was reflected in a changing residential pattern. We offer empirical evidence to weigh the relative validity of the from-race-to-class-segregation thesis during colonization against the class-segregation-throughout-decolonization thesis. On the basis of our findings, we argue that the second thesis presents the more accurate depiction of urban society. Looking at spatial segregation, decolonization was characterized by continuity. Decolonization by itself was therefore insufficient to alter sociospatial inequality in postcolonial Indonesian cities. |
