Evaluating Revitalized Public Markets as Economic and Socio-cultural Places in Indonesia

The public market is a phenomenon that shows how socio-cultural relationships are constructed through economic activities. The modern development of Indonesia has marginalized the public market; lack of proper management caused public markets to turn into slums and dirty places that were unable to compete with modern retail businesses. In the 2000s, however, the Indonesian government started a public market revitalization program, recognizing its important role as 'a house of economy and culture' for Indonesian society. This paper evaluates two successfully revitalized public markets and their role as economic and socio-cultural places. Two cities, Surakarta and Bandung, were chosen as cases studies because they use different approaches of revitalization: the one a socio-cultural approach and the other an economic approach. It was found that the role of the public market as an economic place is determined by an intensive and/or extensive increase of its economic activities. Meanwhile, the public market as a socio-cultural place was evaluated by its role as a gathering place and symbolic representation of society. It was found that the role of the public market as an economic place is constituted mutually with its role as a socio-cultural place. The public market is an inclusive economic place because it provides affordable space and goods and is developed by social relationships among traders and consumers. This evaluation can contribute to guiding public market revitalization policy and develop further studies about the mutual relation between built environment and society.