Between community and the state: The role of village facilitators in the implementation of community development in Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

The demise of Indonesia’s authoritarian New Order regime in 1998 marked a new era of democratisation and decentralised governance. The international development/aid agencies such as the World Bank involved in the process by introducing a new development framework known as community-driven development (CDD). In 2014, the Indonesian government enacted a new law on village governance, namely Law No. 6/2014, which granted all 74,960 villages in Indonesia relative autonomy and greater resources to design and manage their own development projects. The role of political actors such as elected village heads became central to the implementation of development projects. In addition, technical facilitators were hired to assist village governments in the execution of development projects and to ensure that mechanisms of ‘good’ governance are followed. Based on six months ethnographic fieldwork in Manggarai District, Indonesia, this thesis examines the role of village facilitators and their experiences as technical agents in the implementation of village development projects. An ethnographic film titled Lako ko toe? (Does it work?) accompanies this thesis. The film is part of my methodological manoeuvre to capture the affective dimension of development practices. Drawing upon the anthropological literature on development, brokerage, and affect, I contend that portraying village development as merely technocratic is a cruel simplification and, more importantly, leaves unnoticed elements beyond the technical such as moral atmosphere and affective intensities that suffuse development practices. Paying attention to the affective and moral dimensions of development practice allows for a more nuanced understanding of how power operates in Indonesian villages, such as how audits came to be regarded as important governing tools in the implementation of community-driven development. As my ethnography shows, development actors (such as village facilitators and village heads) participate in audit activities as a form of self-cultivation and to imagine the kind of social order that development projects can bring about. As a result, these actors’ investments in auditing practices may disrupt as well as potentially transform village development outcomes and implementations.