Social Transformation and the Change of Community Capacity of Post-Tsunami Aceh, Indonesia

The matter of community is of growing importance and intensively promoted in the development field through strengthening the concept of capacity. This paper aims to examine the dynamics of social transformation and their meanings for community capacity in Aceh province. The author points out the three phases of major social transformation, namely, the collapse of the social structure of local community under the centralist regime in the late 70s, following the isolation and high-tension period during the armed conflicts, and the post tsunami Aceh autonomy. The author argues that during these periods, community capacity has gradually declined in political-economic and socio-cultural terms. The post-reconstruction processes have raised awareness of living together in the community, providing a basis for institutionalising local governance, even though the capacity still remains weak due to the absence of local institutions and collective mechanisms due to three decades of changes concerning in national-local power relations and the consequent erosion of the social cohesion. In this paper, the author empirically discusses why and how the community has lost its collective mechanisms, especially during the recent social transformation, and how capacity has declined, focusing on gampong as the fundamental socio-spatial organisation at the local level, based on his fieldworks in the districts of Pidie, Aceh Besar and Banda Aceh.