From effective to affective brokers: Rethinking development brokers in the implementation of community development in Indonesia

The end of Indonesia’s authoritarian New Order regime in 1998 marked a new era of democratisation and decentralised governance. This process was parallel with development interventions from international donor agencies such as the World Bank that introduced new development approach as community-driven development (CDD). This shift in development and mode of governance allowed for the proliferation of new social actors who situated themselves at the interface between village communities, state, and donor agencies. These new social actors has been recognised by scholars within the discipline of anthropology and development studies as development brokers (Bierschenk et al. 2000; Lewis & Mosse, 2006; Olivier de Sardan, 2005). In such accounts, the brokers’ role are described as either distorting the system or enabling the system to work but somehow overlook actors subjectivity regarding their involvement in development. Using the case study from the implementation of community development in Manggarai village, this paper will discuss the role of development brokers such as project facilitators, interface bureaucrats, and village development cadres within current development scheme. In doing so, I will pay attention to actors’ subjectivity as an important locus to understand complexities of social practices in development, power relations, and potential for social transformation. Additionally, I will explore the role of affect and emotion in mediating these complexities.