THE URBAN METABOLISM OF FLOOD PROTECTION INFRASTRUCTURE IN JAKARTA, INDONESIA

Abstract Investments in large‐scale climate infrastructures are central to emerging forms of climate urbanism. In Jakarta, flood protection infrastructures seek to protect the city from devastating flood events in anticipation of future catastrophes. In this article we chart the material and labour politics of this transformation of the climate infrastructure of Jakarta and its peri‐urban hinterlands. To do this, we develop the urban metabolic imperative of urban political ecology to excavate the socio‐spatial relations which produce and sustain flood protection. We follow flood protection infrastructure to the regional outskirts of the city where its concrete—cement, sand and aggregates—is sourced and produced. We then follow this concrete back into Jakarta, where a new ‘Blue Troops’ workforce constructs and maintains flood protection infrastructure. Thus, we map socio‐spatial relations of climate urbanism to show how extractive and exploited materials and labour metabolically sustain flood protection.