Place attachment in the context of displacement and Rusunawa in Jakarta

Abstract

This paper discusses an issue related to place attachment in the context of public housing and displacement. It takes the case studies of Rusunawa in Jakarta, a rent-based vertical public housing built by the government. The residents are predominantly low-income people who were evicted from urban slums and were relocated to Rusunawa. Although relocation was intended to improve the quality of the resident’s living environment, however, there are still less well explored on how displacement may complicate the residents’ attachment to Rusunawa. This study developed a survey to measure functional attachment and emotional attachment using 32 scale items. The survey was tested on a random sample of residents from Rusunawa Pulogebang (n=40) and Rusunawa Marunda (n=40). The preliminary results indicated that Rusunawa Marunda displayed a higher level of place attachment than Rusunawa Pulogebang. This study found that physical and environmental features of Rusunawa Marunda, such as gardens, cleanliness and upkeep environment, and social greetings ‘Salam MarHa Mas’ are among the physical-environmental and social predictors that contribute to the higher level of place attachment. This study may have implications that the understanding of place attachments theory should be more reflective into the future planning and design of Rusunawa.