Imagining the Future through Global Infrastructure: The Yogyakarta International Airport and Aerotropolis Development in Indonesia

Abstract

The Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA) aerotropolis project in Java, Indonesia promises to generate regional and national economic growth through tourism, increased mobility, logistics, and goods deliveries. The aerotropolis zone will be supported by a vast new system of transportation, electricity and water provided by a new (and controversial) dam constructed near the city. Such projects are always entangled with the state’s political will or future imaginaries of the nation. These projects, however, are antithetical because they seem in fact to have little impact on regional economic development. With or without the airport, Yogyakarta still has the highest inequality index among cities in Indonesia, and the lowest labour wages rate.

Based on ethnographic and document research on urban planning and the promise of infrastructures, this paper provides a critical understanding of the imagined future city through airport and aerotropolis development. It explores the promises and paradoxes of the YIA. To understand how state and non-state actors plan and imagine creating 'a city of the future' through the provision of global infrastructure, I ask: why do these actors claim that Yogyakarta needs a bigger airport and aerotropolis zone further away from urban areas? What are the ideas, desires, and aims behind this project? The claim that global infrastructure will reduce socio-economic inequality, and enhance Yogyakarta city’s global recognition, seems to fall short of expectations. In this paper, I will argue: the ambition beneath the megaproject is derived from the aesthetics of city planning and political agenda, which contradict with the on-the-ground aspirations.