The Yogyakarta International Airport Aerotropolis as a Political Project

This article examines the Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA) aerotropolis as a political project of infrastructure mobility in contemporary Indonesia. Rather than just being a state project for the public interest, the YIA aerotropolis demonstrates how infrastructure is utilised to manifest political aspirations for modernity. Drawing on ethnographic research in Yogyakarta and Jakarta, I explore how bureaucratic infrastructures, planning, and national development narratives converge to construct the aerotropolis as a symbol of national progress. However, these aspirations of a modern moment highlight contradictions between the state’s rhetoric on infrastructural development and mobility and the socio-spatial realities of displacement and exclusion encountered by local communities. Through a critical analysis of planning documents and interviews with policymakers, planners, and regional stakeholders, the article contextualises the YIA aerotropolis within wider discussions about the promises of infrastructure and the politics of aeromobility in the Global South. The YIA aerotropolis embodies a performative vision of infrastructures where future-oriented rhetoric about connectivity legitimises expropriation and uneven development. This study contributes to our understanding of how infrastructures shape the conceptions of mobility, citizenship, and belonging that emerge under contemporary state-led infrastructure modernisation.