Infrastructure -based community development: Theory and practice of sustainable development at the local level with a participant-observation of three pilot projects in rural villages of Java, Indonesia

Past local development practices in developing countries have relied heavily on government and external assistance, producing projects that are unsustainable locally and creating a cycle of dependence. Financial crises in the developing world have worsened the situation by limiting government's ability to respond to local needs. Additionally, trends toward liberalization and globalization are shifting many decisions from government to individual market players. In these circumstances local communities often feel abandoned and hopeless. Alternative approaches emphasizing sustainable development and local capacity-building have been widely discussed, but implementation has been limited. This study develops and tests an approach for sustainable local development that increases local capacity through community-based infrastructure planning and implementation. I begin by examining the idea of sustainable development, the nature of community, and critical aspects of community development. I argue that communitarian philosophy is resonant with an understanding of sustainability as having environmental, economic and social dimensions, and therefore a strategy for sustainable development is best approached through processes of participation, communication and consensus-building that are the core of communitarianism. This understanding becomes the basis for a local development approach that is highly participatory, aiming to build long-term local capacity while delivering physical improvement. Infrastructure is not merely provided as a support system, as in conventional “community-based infrastructure development. ” Instead, in this “infrastructure-based community development” approach, the planning and implementation process is deliberately used as an instrument for social learning and local capacity building. The approach is tested in three community development projects in rural villages of Java. Each case involved consultation with interested parties, joint exploration of community problems and potentials, and participatory design, funding, and construction of an infrastructure project. Pre-project interviews and a post-project survey gauge residents' responses to the process and measure changes in perspectives. I found that the infrastructure-based community development approach was an effective means of sustainable local development. In addition to producing tangible infrastructure, the approach fostered a local sense of ownership of the public facility and produced social learning: residents became more confident of their capacity to develop and maintain their own environment.