Above: Padlet as The Discussion Tools

Please change your website translation to English if you want to read the Padlet result in English!

On June 2025, I initially asked Mrs. Asla Laila, the village secretary of Cipadu, about my initiative to do collective imagination with Cipadu residents because I live closely and grow up near this area which is known for its identity as the ‘flood village’. Luckily, she agreed about my idea because she felt like there is an urgent need to have bigger impact to engaged the residents to be more aware about their area, and then she referred me to Mr. Azi and Mr. Ade; the youth community leaders in Cipadu.

I contacted Mr. Azi and Mr. Ade through WhatsApp first, asking them about what is their view about their kampung. And they mostly said that their area is actually developing with a lot of placemaking activities that are still running such as; sunatan massal or mass circumcision, nightwatch shift, and local gathering during important dates such as Independence Day. But apparently these efforts are not really enough to empowered the people and the youth, especially, to make their village a better habitat–ecologically, economically and socially.

According to Tomoki Fujii (2016), floods are common in Indonesia, exacerbated by rapid population growth, land-use change, and clogged waterways. Jakarta, for instance, has a long history of severe floods with significant casualties and evacuees. And he also added in his journal, flood disaster and drought can lead to or deepen poverty especially those in the vulnerable group because it might affect their consumption and livelihoods.

People who lives in urban kampungs like Cipadu, are considered as vulnerable groups—especially when its condition reflects a form of communal residential life. They are vulnerable to threats against their housing security amid the arbitrariness of power. (Rujak Center for Urban Studies, 2019, p. 11)

After connected with Mrs. Asla, Mr. Azi, and Mr. Ade, they are very much open to guests who might be able to help them raise their voices so they will not get drown in the sea of unheard opinions (sadly this is what is happening in our politic right now).

And finally, on July 20th 2025, the locals in Cipadu agreed to do Online Participatory Action Research with me to discovering their aspiration about their urban village or urban kampung.

Initially, I only invited 10 people from different range of demographic who lives in Cipadu. I requested Mrs. Asla and Mr. Ade to spread this banner to invite the citizens to join the discussion.

And apparently, more than 10 people showed up so I need to select these people because this is an incentive based dialogue. Thus, I made a registration form as the a way to select the right audiences. I also asked about their consent and agreement to be willing be recorded and all the data will be used for the research in the form and also on the Padlet’s introduction (refer to the Padlet above).

Following what George Clark and Ismal Muntaha from Jatiwangi Art Factory suggested me, I must act like the guests and facilitator so I can engaged to the residents like they are the hosts and the curators. In result, they will decide which issues that are their priorities and unpack their aspirations about their village. And apparently it did really make them comfortable to speak their mind out (stated by Mr. Ade during the meeting).

I introduced myself and my project to the locals on the beginning of the discussion, and they also share their concerns and issues that they were currently facing. Not a lot of people were actually showing their faces on camera, because I was trying to make the discussion as inclusive and as comfortable as possible.

After 15 minutes of introduction, we go straight through to the Padlet activity. The discussion are divided into several section to ease the process of filling in the given questions by giving them instruction one by one (although some of them trying to filled all the sections without instructions).

This is the introduction part where I asked their consent and permission, and also to tell them the how-to-play rules and instruction to do this Padlet activity.

On the second part, the aspirations are being collected using their 5 senses. Because, our senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) are the primary channels through which we gather information about the world, hence, to create our imaginations. Using the 5 senses, I instructed the participants to fill in each of the cards based on what their senses experienced when they are in their neighborhood.

Through these activities, participants shared various observations, feelings, smells, and sounds, providing rich insights into their daily lives and the challenges they face:

What residents see and feel about their environment:

• Positive observations included clean environments, lush trees, comfortable surroundings, and positive community activities. Residents felt happy seeing their community engaging in mutual cooperation or camaraderie (gotong royong) and expressed comfort and safety due to friendly and helpful neighbors.

• Negative observations and concerns highlighted the presence of much trash, dirty and arid areas, and clogged/smelly water channels. A significant concern was the lack of public awareness regarding cleanliness, leading to improper waste disposal. Residents also noted the lack of playing facilities for children, causing them to play in the streets, and some expressed worry about negative social interactions or “pergaulan negatif”. The environment was also described as feeling “sesak” (crowded) by one participant. Persistent flooding led to a sense of frustration and contributed to the area appearing squalid and poorly organized.

Common smells in the environment:

• The most frequently mentioned unpleasant smell was that of trash. This included smell from clogged sewers, decaying trash, and the smell of burning trash. Other specific unpleasant odors mentioned were those of wild cat feces and dead rats/mice. The smell of trash was particularly strong after floods or heavy rain. Some also noted general vehicle exhaust (knalpot) and cooking smells. The underlying issue for many of these smells was identified as poor waste management and minimal culture of maintaining cleanliness.

Common sounds and community identity:

• Residents often heard the sounds of children playing, which one participant considered a sign of a “living village”. Other common sounds included motor vehicles (especially those with noisy exhausts), people selling with speakers, and the ‘azan’ (call to prayer). Some found the loud volumes of street vendors or ‘ondel-ondel’ disturbing, and even complained about neighbors singing karaoke off-key.

• A recurring theme was that the village’s identity is strongly associated with “banjir” (flooding). When the name of their environment is mentioned, people immediately think of flooding. Despite this challenge, residents describe their community as friendly and sociable, with frequent conversations and discussions.

The 5 senses activities revealed a community with a strong sense of camaraderie or Gotong Royong, and positive social interaction, yet deeply troubled by pervasive environmental issues, particularly flooding and mismanagement of trash, which are rooted by a perceived lack of community awareness regarding cleanliness.

In this section, because of the prompt said that they can choose from one to all of the priorities, a lot of people commenting more on the social and edutech, apparently. However, less people commenting about environment, even though the environment seemed to be the no 1 priority during the primary research using Google Form.

Social Priorities:

• A significant social concern is the lack of public awareness regarding cleanliness, leading to improper waste disposal. This results in dirty public areas, scattered trash, and increased pollution due to irresponsible behavior.
• Persistent flooding is also listed as a social issue for them, causing a sense of prolonged frustration and contributing to a squalid and poorly organized environment. The village’s identity is often linked to flooding. I suspect, that their environmental issues has far more become social issue to them due to negative perspective they gained.
• Worries about negative social interactions or “pergaulan negatif” and “pergaulan bebas” (free association) were expressed.
• Other social issues mentioned include poverty, stunted children, and a lack of green open spaces for children and residents to play and gather.

As a summary, social identity, eco-awareness and children’s safety has become their primary concern in social priorities.

Technology/Education Priorities:

• A primary concern is the lack of parental control over children’s gadget usage.
• This leads to misuse of gadgets for online gambling (“judol”) and online games, causing children to be lazy in studying.
• They assumed that gadget misuse is also linked to social issues like teenage brawls or gangs starting from WhatsApp groups.
• Participants noted the excessive use of social media by underage individuals and the general misuse of technology, hindering children’s optimal development.
• Parents preferring children to play with phones without time limits was also a point of concern.

The need of public space is often being subtly mentioned by how these people are worry about the gadget misuse among their children. The social interaction must be built with mindful and positive institution, therefore this is still linked to the social issues they have been addressing.

Economy Priorities:

• A significant economic issue is the difficulty in finding jobs, with many productive-age individuals unemployed. This includes the specific challenge for fresh graduates to find employment.
• There is an imbalance between young job seekers and job availability.
• Concerns were raised about the rising cost of living and poverty.
• A need was identified for social networks to expand insights into people’s economy and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UMKM).

Opportunities and access to jobs are the biggest factors among people especially the youth in their situation. This was assumed by the locals as one of the causes the youth lack of activities and therefore were trapped in negative social circle.

• Environment Priorities:

• The most dominant environmental priority is flooding (“banjir”).
• Inadequate waste management and the minimal public awareness about environmental cleanliness are major issues.
• This includes the lack of waste sorting management in the area.
• Other related environmental problems are unhealthy air, polluted water, and accumulated trash, which can also lead to contagious diseases

Environmental problem appear to be the most visible issues that they can trace. Think of these priorities as a tangled knot: each strand—social, economic, edutech, and environmental—represents a challenge, but the environmental issues, particularly flooding and waste management, are often the tightest and most central knots, impacting and intertwining with the others, making the whole system difficult to unravel without addressing them first.

And after going back to the 2 main priorities, environment hold the main priority among the citizens, while the other two–economy and social– are equal or draw. So instead of two, we include the issues as three main priorities:

1. Environment
2. Economy
3. Social

And after that, we go to the Kill/Improve/Keep Section to make the residents curate the words, the issues and the important things based on their prioritized categories.

Flood is the main concern to be fix immediately, because all of them chose to have it fix and voted it as the main priority in environmental problems.  Followed by trash and air quality/pollution

Job opportunity is the main priority and wanted to be fix or change immediately. (most people voted using likes). Access to financing follows after with demand on improving the access. And lastly the issues in high grocery prices.

 People voted “environmental awareness” as the main priority to be fix/change. Followed by fixing and changing the youth problems/uncontrollable promiscuity. And also, s lot of them wanted child-friendly environment and gotong royong behaviour to be improved.

To close the conversation, I allowed them to share their wildest and craziest imagination for their kampung. But apparently, they keeping it precise and iterated the same concern like they have been saying over and over; eco-awareness, flood, child’s friendly and friendly neighborhood.

After 2 hours of conversation, the discussion ended. But I asked them to keep me posted, and share their “artefacts” that meant so much to them in the WhatsApp group. And yes, they did sent me!

It is about waste, jobs, identity and children again. And it kept on being iterated throughout the discussion. And it seems that the local library has just been exposed by them post online discussion.

Some of the participant told me that this forum is really helpful, because sometimes they can’t comprehend a face-to-face discussion. Padlet does ease them to synthesis their mind to discuss and imagining their own neighborhood.

I am still gathering a feedback form from the participant to ask them how they feel about the discussion. So I will keep you guys posted on my Miro.

Well, this going to be a looooooongggg writing. I am gonna have the second part in the next post!

Ciao~