| By A. Bebbington, L. Dharmawan, E. Farmi and S. Guggenheim | Published in Progress in Development Studies 4(3): 1-19 |
Abstract: Local governance arrangements often reflect culturally charged struggles for power as well as culturally motivated efforts to gain access to power. Yet current discussions around community-driven and decentralized development pay little attention to this nexus, at best reducing power to questions of material difference but overlooking the ways in which governance arrangements are contested. On the basis of research across three sites in Indonesia, this paper explores ways in which tensions between different cultural forms at a village level affect local governance arrangements. The conclusions explore implications for so-called community-driven approaches to development.