Cars, Conduits and Kampongs offers a wide panorama of the modernization of Indonesian cities between 1920 and 1960. In examining the multiple responses to innovations introduced by Western colonialism, the contributors demonstrate how modernization, urbanization, and decolonization were intrinsically linked.

Freek Colombijn is an anthropologist and historian, currently working at VU University Amsterdam. He has published about urban development, pre-colonial state formation, environmental history, and violence in Indonesia. His current research is about environmental awareness and solid waste in cities.
Joost Coté is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, (History) at Monash University. His research focuses on colonial and nationalist discourses in late colonial Indonesia. He is currently researching the biography of colonial town planner Thomas Karsten and his vision of Indonesian modernity.