Innovation, informality and community: between involution and evolution in kampung-based industries in Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Business and urban informality coincide in global south cities. However, different things have been claimed for the inventiveness of each. In this paper, we examine the extent and nature of innovation by predominantly informal businesses and the connections of such innovation with the embeddedness of businesses in informal urban neighbourhoods or kampungs. Our findings indicate the widespread but modest innovatory aspirations and actions of informal businesses but also lead us to urge caution regarding urban informality as a context nurturing of business innovation. We thus paint a picture of the coming together of business and urban informality that lies somewhere between Schumpeterian invention, on the one hand, and Geertz’s involution, on the other hand. The ‘betweenity’ of business and urban informality as they intersect in processes of innovation raises a series of theoretical and empirical questions that we outline in our conclusion.