When the Red Light Speaks: Sociotechnical Controversies, Spatial Justice, and Temporal Democracy at the Samsat - Kiaracondong Intersection, Bandung
Main Article Content
The Samsat - Kiaracondong (Kircon) intersection in Bandung, Indonesia, reportedly features the longest red-light waiting cycle in the country, reaching peak durations of over 720 seconds. While technocratic discourse frames this signal as a neutral tool for traffic optimization, this article argues that it functions as a contested sociotechnical node where questions of spatial and temporal justice are continuously negotiated. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), particularly Latour's concepts of "matters of concern" and the tracing of associations, the study analyzes four layers of sociotechnical controversy: group formation, the distributed nature of action, the agency of non-human objects, and the construction of truth. Using qualitative secondary data including digital media, institutional documents, and social media discourse the analysis reveals that the intersection generates multiple, often conflicting social groups (e.g., victimized motorists, rule-breakers, informal economy actors, marginalized pedestrians), each constituted through its specific relationship to the signal's temporal rhythm. Action at the intersection is distributed across a heterogeneous network of human and non-human actants, including traffic officers, algorithmic control systems, and CCTV infrastructure. The study further demonstrates how technocratic truth claims are contested by citizen counter-discourses rooted in lived experience. The findings contribute to urban ANT scholarship, mobility justice studies, and infrastructure governance in the Global South by showing that even mundane technical artifacts are sites of vernacular democracy, where competing claims to time and space are enacted daily. The article concludes by calling for more inclusive, democratic approaches to urban infrastructure governance that acknowledge the multiplicity of legitimate interests at stake.
Duarte, F., & Firmino, R. J. (2017). Unplugging the city: The urban phenomenon and its sociotechnical controversies. Routledge.
Farías, I., & Bender, T. (Eds.). (2010). Urban assemblages: How actor-network theory changes urban studies. Routledge.
Hjorth, L., & Pink, S. (2014). New visualities and the digital wayfarer: Reconceptualizing camera phone photography and locative media. Mobile Media & Communication, 2(1), 40–57.
Jon, I. (2026). Temporalizing “justice” in urban regeneration: Thinking with Lockleaze. Urban Geography, 47(1), 108–131.
Lucas, K. (2019). A new evolution for transport-related social exclusion research? Journal of Transport and Land Use, 12(1), 931–948.
Malasan, P. L. (2019). The untold flavour of street food: Social infrastructure as a means of everyday politics for street vendors in Bandung, Indonesia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 60(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12217
Miller, Z. (2021). Temporal governance: The times of transitional justice. International Criminal Law Review, 21(5), 848–877.
Moser, S., & Tzoulas, K. (2020). Mobilities and the right to the city: Integrating transport justice in Bandung, Indonesia. Urban Studies, 57(4), 750–770.
Oviedo, D., & Nieto, M. (2020). Mobility inequities in cities of the Global South: Foundations for a rights-based approach. Cities, 107, 102911.
Padawangi, R. (2019). Urban revolution in Asia: Struggles over urban space in Indonesian cities. Routledge.
Rutherford, J. (2019). Redeploying urban infrastructure: The politics of urban socio-technical futures. Springer.
Setiowati, R., et al. (2022). Actor-network theory approach for urban green spaces planning: Study in Jakarta Capital City, Indonesia. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 43(4), 1075–1084.
Soja, E. W. (2010). Seeking spatial justice. University of Minnesota Press.
Tedeschi, B. (2024). Datafication and urban (in)justice: Towards a digital spatial justice. Geography Compass, 18(6), e12763. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12763
