City and the Temptation to Overlook: Critical Reflections from Indonesia on Urban Development and Methods of Counter-overlooking in the Field

The concept of ‘overlooked cities’ calls for a research agenda to critically examine the actors and processes involved in power relations, analyse the production of knowledge on cities and increase collaboration with grassroots organisations in studying cities, with the intention to reshape urban policies and planning practices. This research agenda warrants further inquiry into how the concept can help when researchers face urban conditions in the field, especially when the continuing trend of managerial city leadership encourages the production of urban spaces that enable overlooking. What is the relationship between managerial city leadership and ‘overlookedness’? What are the methods of ‘counter-overlooking’ that researchers need to deploy in observing the field? In this article, I discuss the complexity of applying the overlooked cities research agenda in the field and propose methodological approaches to counter-overlooking. I rely on findings from my research on public spaces, notes from experiences in engaging with grassroots organisations and the Southeast Asia Neighbourhoods Network (SEANNET), as well as observations from Taman Film and its surroundings in Tamansari, a city district in Bandung, Indonesia. To overcome the under-representation of overlooked cities in urban studies, it is imperative to revisit methods and contextualise theories, concepts and perspectives.