Participatory or collaborative planning theories has been around for a while concerning western democracies. This article lays on a study conducted in Indonesia, where a real democracy does not exist but some social transformation has occurred despite of the constraints. Covert Planning is described as an incipient and incremental way of planning led by local inhabitants, the process of which starts from the lowest possible level of governance – the people itself. Covert planning still works without overtly challenging power relations in which sense it differs from incidental or radical planning.
–Background & Challenge
The study itself was conducted over a six year period between 1994 - 2000 in certain informal settlements located around Code River in the city of Yogyakarta. The settlements consist of high density unregulated housing. The inhabitants are poor migrants that live on the river banks because of the easy access to the city center where they mostly work. Resident's informal status means that they are very insecure about their future. The land value is supposed to rise because of the near location to the city's central business district and the people are fearing of a land occupation. Other issue is the flooding river. Relocation sites have been offered for the residents but they are reluctant to move because they would lose their easy access to the city centre and their communities and social networks would diminish.
In Indonesia the communities are lead by local residents in groups that are called "Rukun Warga" (RW) and "Rukun Tetangga" (RT) that are responsible to the subdistrict and district levels and finally to the municipality. RT is the lowest level group that consist of about 40 households and a RW can contain about 8 RT's so that means a community of about 200-250 households together. Each RT's and RW's are lead by leaders, who have been chosen amongst the community members. The governmental system is very hierarchical and in practise the RW's and RT's from different districts or subdistricts dont have any mutual collaboration. In other words: the RW's cannot form a larger group of power which would enable social transformation in the communities.
–The Village Library
The study about the library project was conducted in only one of the many subdistrict's Rukun Wargas. The original idea of the library was developed by the leader of the youth group - Mas Sigit in 1994. He introduced his idea to his friends in the youth group and together with Mas Yunus he developed it further without telling it to the RW leaders yet. Mas Sigit's "behind the scenes" lobbying tactic was succesful to archieve more support within the youths. The official process of making decicions in community groups works by discussing and building consensus in the formal meetings.
Mas Sigit and Mas Yunus then introduced their ideas to youth group subcommittee that specializes in education and in that meeting they decided to establish a forum to take the library project further. Mas Sigit had chosen the education subcommittee to his "target" because he thought they would be the right people to tell about it first. The education subcommittee of the youth group had already had different activities concerning education. They had for example tutoring system where older youth group members helped children with their homework etc.
The youth group brought its idea for the library to the adult RW meetings, which were attended by RT leaders. Youth group tried to archieve a community-wide support to their project so they went thru all the steps of the societys hierarchy to avoid conflicts. Due to this kind of approach their library project was never perceived as insurgent or as a threat to power relations inside the community. The youth group managed to gain support and empower themselves. Next the community's leadership officially notified subdistrict and districts offices about the youth's project. On the surface the library seems to bee compatible with the states development agenda which includes fighting the illiteracy. But the state did not detect the process of social learning and political consciousness-raising that resulted from planning, organizing and maintaining the library. The project would not have been succesful if the government would have perceived the library as a space for collective radical action
The key elements to success were the deliberate and sophisticated behaviour of the activists in their strategies and gaining support from the grassroots up. This kind of activism is called covert planning. The library, once founded, got its first books from the state (mainly practical guidebooks about different vocational skills etc.) and after that donations was made by different NGO's .
By 1997 the library and people working there had already used its community organizing skills and political consciousness for more radical action. Large banners were hanging on the library walls saying "The Youth Group Supports the Reform Movement" The library was only a small victory in "giving the power to the people" but the project shows that people can obtain power bit by bit rather than trying to make revolution. They only have to use every possible opportunity they will have to move from societal guidance to social transformation.
–Conclusions
There is a gap between our understanding of planning as societal quidance and planning as social transformation and this have lead to incapability to deal with the planning related problems in countries that have restrictive political environments. The concept of covert planning tries to bridge this gap. It describes a form of planning that tries not to challenge current power relations but still it's "secret" goal is to be a step leading toward mode ambitious social change. The concept of covert planning in Indonesia draws from and extends descriptions of avoidance protest in colonial periods as well as contemporary descriptions of everyday forms of "silent" resistance.
–Notes and the suggestion to the situation in Cambodia
–The Village Library
The study about the library project was conducted in only one of the many subdistrict's Rukun Wargas. The original idea of the library was developed by the leader of the youth group - Mas Sigit in 1994. He introduced his idea to his friends in the youth group and together with Mas Yunus he developed it further without telling it to the RW leaders yet. Mas Sigit's "behind the scenes" lobbying tactic was succesful to archieve more support within the youths. The official process of making decicions in community groups works by discussing and building consensus in the formal meetings.
Mas Sigit and Mas Yunus then introduced their ideas to youth group subcommittee that specializes in education and in that meeting they decided to establish a forum to take the library project further. Mas Sigit had chosen the education subcommittee to his "target" because he thought they would be the right people to tell about it first. The education subcommittee of the youth group had already had different activities concerning education. They had for example tutoring system where older youth group members helped children with their homework etc.
The youth group brought its idea for the library to the adult RW meetings, which were attended by RT leaders. Youth group tried to archieve a community-wide support to their project so they went thru all the steps of the societys hierarchy to avoid conflicts. Due to this kind of approach their library project was never perceived as insurgent or as a threat to power relations inside the community. The youth group managed to gain support and empower themselves. Next the community's leadership officially notified subdistrict and districts offices about the youth's project. On the surface the library seems to bee compatible with the states development agenda which includes fighting the illiteracy. But the state did not detect the process of social learning and political consciousness-raising that resulted from planning, organizing and maintaining the library. The project would not have been succesful if the government would have perceived the library as a space for collective radical action
The key elements to success were the deliberate and sophisticated behaviour of the activists in their strategies and gaining support from the grassroots up. This kind of activism is called covert planning. The library, once founded, got its first books from the state (mainly practical guidebooks about different vocational skills etc.) and after that donations was made by different NGO's .
By 1997 the library and people working there had already used its community organizing skills and political consciousness for more radical action. Large banners were hanging on the library walls saying "The Youth Group Supports the Reform Movement" The library was only a small victory in "giving the power to the people" but the project shows that people can obtain power bit by bit rather than trying to make revolution. They only have to use every possible opportunity they will have to move from societal guidance to social transformation.
–Conclusions
There is a gap between our understanding of planning as societal quidance and planning as social transformation and this have lead to incapability to deal with the planning related problems in countries that have restrictive political environments. The concept of covert planning tries to bridge this gap. It describes a form of planning that tries not to challenge current power relations but still it's "secret" goal is to be a step leading toward mode ambitious social change. The concept of covert planning in Indonesia draws from and extends descriptions of avoidance protest in colonial periods as well as contemporary descriptions of everyday forms of "silent" resistance.
–Notes and the suggestion to the situation in Cambodia
- In both cases the people are living in informal settlements nearby city centre, where they mostly work in
- In both cases the people have insecure tenancy.
- In Indonesia there's more organized system in communities, the RT's and RW's
- The community in this study was at least 30 years old and one generation had grown up and lived in same place.
- In relocation sites there exists in both in Indonesia and in Cambodia the problem of breaking the communities, which at least in Cambodia is partly intentious.
- John Friedmann's (1978) description of transactive planning also represents work that bridges the gap between planning as societal guidance and planning as social transformation
- social transformation is conducted in a process which includes very complicated power relations between individual people, rather than the power relations between different formal social structures.
Victoria A. Beard "Covert Planning for Social Transformation in Indonesia"
Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 22, No. 1, 15-25 (2002)
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