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Joanne Sharpe

Joanne first travelled to Indonesia in 2000 as an exchange student, and has lived and worked there on and off for the past decade. During a three-year stint at the World Bank in Jakarta, she published on community conflict dynamics and access to information in post-disaster situations. She speaks fluent Indonesian and holds a BA from the University of New South Wales and an MA from the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, UK. Joanne currently works in development cooperation for the Australian Government. All views expressed here are her own.

Articles by Joanne Sharpe (4)

  • Joanne Sharpe 24 Feb 2014 16:52

    Meet Indonesia's middle class (part 4): Where fashion meets religion

    This is the final post in a four-part series on Indonesia's growing middle class. Part 1 is here, part 2 is here and part 3 is here.  At 26, Restu Anggriani is a Muslim fashion mogul in the making. Restu started posting pictures of herself wearing modest Muslim garb on her blog in 2010. 'People were always asking me where I got my clothes', she says, so she started to manufacture her own. Business is good for her eponymous label.
  • Joanne Sharpe 21 Feb 2014 08:14

    Meet Indonesia's middle class (part 3): Votes and voices

    This is the third in a four-part series on Indonesia's growing middle class. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. In Indonesia, the word for 'vote' is the same as the word for 'voice'. The urban middle class is vocal on Twitter but said to be apathetic at the ballot box, until the right candidate comes along.
  • Joanne Sharpe 20 Feb 2014 08:12

    Meet Indonesia's middle class (part 2): Jakarta's two cities

    This is the second in a four-part series on Indonesia's growing middle class. Part 1 is here. The middle class increasingly inhabits an alternative Jakarta of suburban housing complexes, high rise offices and malls, all stitched together by air conditioning. But brutal commutes remain the great leveller. Money can buy green spaces and functioning utilities, but public investment and better options for urban living are needed to resolve dysfunctional transportation systems.
  • Joanne Sharpe 19 Feb 2014 08:14

    Meet Indonesia's middle class

    This is the first post in a four-part series on Indonesia's growing middle class. It's 6:15am on a Sunday morning, and waves of people are breaking over the Sudirman traffic artery in central Jakarta. Hundreds of thousands of cars traverse Sudirman through the week, slowing almost to standstill during peak hours.