Spatial Perception towards Social Conflicts and the Built Environment in Indonesia

Abstract

Violent conflicts in Indonesia that occurredat the end of the 1990s involved different socio-cultural groups. However, peoplegenerally denied that the conflicts had a strong motive in socio-culturalelements, such as ethnicity and religious differences. On the other hand, theeffect of conflict on the built environment told the opposite. The perceptionof conflicts differs from place to place. This paper aims to explore the spatialpattern of perception towards conflicts and the built environment. It employesboth quantitative data and qualitative data. The research distributed more than500 questioners in 3 different areas that experienced severe violent conflictsduring that time. The questionnaire asked what elements have the mostsignificant contribution to the conflicts. Also, a series of field observationidentifies the social-cultural component of the built environment. The findingconfirms that although people denied the difference in socio-economic-culturalelements is the main causal aspects of conflicts, the pattern demonstrates apotential linkage between them. This information would be useful for thepost-conflict intervention at the urban level.