Improvement Approach

Incremental Development

Kampung is by default, and indirectly forced by the Dutch, characterised by its selforganisation. Due to its independency, it has limited resources thus the development has been piecemeal. This way of life in kampung is called incremental development, a small scale adaptation through step-by-step process. It is a form of adaptive capacity that is extremely important in a complex system (Kamalipour, 2016).

Incremental development is not always about physical aspect, but the gotong royong value that represents the spirit of collectivism portrays small-scale activity multiplied throughout the kampung (Simone, 2014). It is important to have the activity becomes redundant in a complex system, thus they can still be resilient during and continue to sustain after the disturbance (Dovey, 2014). The multiplication best comes from the activity that the residents have had thus it can adjust easily when the system is changing (Simone, 2014). Therefore, incremental approach is the key values that the residents must keep and the policymakers must undertake for kampung improvement.

Resilience

In a complex system prone to disturbance, including eviction, being adaptive and connected can help the community bounces back and continue to retain its function (Walker & Salt, 2006). Not just about the magnitude of disturbance that the system can absorb, but the speed to recover after the shocks are crucial (Adger, 2000). Resilience needs community-based approach because it is context specific, meets the local needs, experiences, and resources. It is against the top-down approach where the framework is often one-size-fits-all and does not meet the local needs. (Longstaff et al., 2010).

The uncertain condition after the disturbance is heavily reliant on self-organising capacity because it allows faster speed of recovery. The idea of adaptation needs to be strengthened and nurtured by learning capability, knowledge building, and multilevel collaboration (Folke, 2006). To achieve that, transformational approach is needed. Torabi et al. (2016) classify resilience into three stages: coping, incremental, and transformational. The latter has the longterm effect and the most resilient approach. Transformational approach needs to invest to the communities to promote flexibility by introducing innovative strategies. Multistakeholder collaboration, paradigm shift, and knowledge sharing are believed to generate transformational change.

Governance Reform

Another approach that needs to be taken for slum improvement is from governance structure. Attempts for slum improvement have been too centralised making the process complicated. Simplifying the complex institutional arrangements and communication channels from the grassroot level might have impact over the longer term (Minnery, 2013).

The foremost action that can be done is by acknowledging the kampung by having community-based participation while also reforming the policy framework. Incorporating the kampung into larger scale planning system will generate greater impact in acknowledging and protecting the kampung (Anindito et al., 2018).

Upscaling

The theory of upscaling from Moore, Riddell, and Vocisano (2015) is used as an overarching approach to increase the social innovation, an innovative approach to make a longer-term impact and transformational change. Larger change has always involved change of rules, paradigm, and cultural beliefs and not only physical change. The approach is divided into three levels: scale out, scale up, and scale deep.

Scale Out

This simplest but less significant aims to reach larger participant by multiplication or replication through two approaches: Deliberate replication focuses on enlarging the geographic scale of the program to reach more participants. Spreading principles fills in the geographical limitations by letting the local community adapt the core principles based on what they need and what they have.

Scale Up

Challenging the current institutional administrations, or even policy or law, will create greater system changes. By having this, it can avoid business-as-usual result. Policy or legal change to tackle the root of the problem and envision a regime shift for instance the policy or regulatory frameworks. This is more radical approach thus it needs local adaptive capacity to adjust with the change. Another strategy is to integrate community-level policy interventions to support the larger institutional reform.

Scale Deep

This approach is similar to the transformational approach from Torabi et al. (2016) by changing the social and cultural practice for more durable effect. It needs the quality of connectedness within the community to sustain. Generating big cultural ideas involves the creation of shared vision from the whole targeted communities. This approach could shift the existing norms and turn them into strategic directions. Invest in transformative learning is a form of cultivating the innovations to be deeply entrenched into daily practices. The strategy ranges from, but not limited to, mentorship, peer-learning, and to knowledge sharing.

(Moore, Riddell, & Vocisano, 2015)

It is imperative to integrate the three upscaling approaches because it could create changes in multiple layers and scales. The key challenge is the leadership and organisational collaboration. As the process to achieve longer-term approach is time consuming, energy draining, and resource demanding, a collaborative working group comprises of different stakeholders with strong leadership from local community is essential from the initiation process to project evaluation and monitoring.