Dewi Tan

Collaborative Fellow 2023

Beyond Disasters: The Discourse of Resilience in a Sinking Jakarta

In the last decade, Northern Jakarta sank a staggering 2.5 meters, earning notoriety as the world’s most rapidly sinking city. Many researchers have projected that 90 percent of the coastal area will have subsided below sea level by 2030 or in another scenario by 2050. Anthropogenic factors such as rapid urbanization—with booming economic activity and expanding built-up areas—exacerbate the issue by accelerating subsidence at an unprecedented rate. Responding to this situation, discourses of resilience have arisen in policymaking and the public sphere. At the same time, the issue of subsidence has been approached as a flooding issue, which oversimplifies efforts to mitigate the sinking crisis.

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Areas of interest

Urban Studies Inequality disaster-studies Indonesia Urban Politics Resilience Climate Change Film Visual Arts Southeast Asia

Cohort

CF1

Biography

Dewi Tan studied Anthropology and Environmental Science at the Yale School of Environment, obtaining her MESc in 2019 with a focus on urban inequality, modernity, speculative urbanism, and water-related disasters in Indonesia. Her current research focuses on examining the discourses of the sinking crisis in Jakarta, and the urban politics behind various socio-historical and infrastructure approaches of resilience. Dewi currently works at the Ambasz Institute at MoMA overseeing the research and public programs dedicated to advancing the relationship between the built and natural environment, and at YABB, the GoTo Group Impact Foundation to develop their sustainability and climate resilience programs. As a filmmaker, she is interested in complementing academic research with visual media in hopes of engaging with a wider audience through “multilingual” dialogue across various interrelated mediums. Her recent short film on Bantar Gebang, the largest landfill in Southeast Asia screened at DOC NYC and Jakarta Film Week in 2022. She is currently developing her first narrative feature with themes related to modernity, shopping malls, and urban development.

Biographical details correct as of 18.09.24