A new publication by UQ|UP staff Sonia Roitman about urban poverty alleviation in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, published in Asia Pacific Viewpoint (doi.org/10.1111/apv.12229)

The article examines the actions developed by two community organisations in Indonesia to overcome housing and infrastructure needs. The findings show that some communities working on participatory poverty alleviation strategies still face obstacles to becoming more independent and making their own decisions because they remain part of an historical legacy of top-down approaches to poverty, highly dependent on government support and working only within ‘invited spaces’. Conversely, those communities with more limited access to government funding have been more innovative in their strategies and have created ‘invented spaces’ for collective action that allows them to be more independent and empowered.