A special issue in Southeast Asia Research about village politics in Indonesia, which KITLV researcher Ward Berenschot edited with Linda Savirani, Arie Ruhyani (both UGM), and Edward Aspinall (ANU).

Introduction

Together with 23 researchers from across Indonesia, they studied how villages are run, and whether and in what way residents participate in village affairs. In this special issue, the researchers analyse different aspects of village politics, and explore why they find such extreme variation across the 18 villages they studied.

This special issue examines whether and how village politics in Indonesia have changed after the passage of a new Village Law in 2014. Written by researchers who participated in a collaborative study of eighteen villages across Indonesia carried out at the start of 2022, the special issue takes stock of the nature of village politics and explores its variation across Indonesia.

In the introduction to the special issue, we outline the research project that led to this special issue, position our research in the context of previous studies of village government and development in Indonesia and internationally, and highlight common themes and findings advanced in the special issue.

Guest editors

Ward Berenschot (KITLV), Linda Savirani (UGM), Arie Ruhyani (UGM), and Edward Aspinall (ANU).

Journal

Southeast Asia Research 33-1.

24-06-2025

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