Harmony Hurts: Participation and Silent Conflict at an Indonesian Fish Pond

Abstract

Participatory environmental and resource management is premised on open communication to reach consensus. However, deliberate and open communication cannot adequately address silent conflict. This begs two questions. First, how is the existence of covert communication and silent conflict to be recognized and addressed? Second, how are the wider social relations and traditions that encompass communication and conflict to be described and explained? These questions revolve around communicative power. Communication of environmental knowledge is deeply embedded in social power structures, with direct implications for participatory resource planning and implementation. Ethnographic research conducted at a failed community-managed fish farming project in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia shows that a culture of harmony and respect for authority can silence environmental conflict in the hierarchical "community." Three propositions are offered. First, communication amnesia and exclusion jeopardize participation. Second, cultures of harmony and silent conflict shape planning processes and outcomes. Third, the weak use manipulation and communication strategy to acquire a "voice" while preserving harmony. These propositions address five unresolved issues in participatory resource management: analysis of groups, contextuality, social relationships, nonparticipants, and informal communication. Power, tradition, and social networks affect the valuing of knowledge relative to the power of different individuals and institutions to communicate priorities, values, and needs. These factors are critical to the inclusion of both participants and nonparticipants.

Evaluating participation in water resource management: A review

“…However, evaluating whether a participation process actually changes or further concretes existing power structures is likely to be highly complex. Tam [2006] revealed power complexities in her evaluation of participation in a pond construction program in Indonesia. She used ethnographic approaches (living with the communities, observing and recording events and conducting interviews) to identify why the pond was never completed.…”

“…This is done through a variety of research tools such as ethnographic approaches involving observation [Moote et al, 1997;Tam, 2006], unstructured and semistructured interviews [Clarke, 2008;McCool and Guthrie, 2001], card sorting [Hare and Pahl-Wostl, 2002] and Q methodology [Chess and Johnson, 2006;Danielson et al, 2010;Tuler and Webler, 2010;Webler et al, 2003]. Q methodology is an approach where interviewees sort a range of statements such as, ''the process should be cost-effective,'' ''a fixed deadline is important,'' according to the weighting the individual gives to each.…”

Timing exclusion and communicating time: A spatial analysis of participation failure in an Indonesian MPA

“…Transformations achieved through participation, such as enhanced knowledge and social capital, are more likely to be realized when human labor and resources are diverted from technical aspects to communicative aspects of planning processes and implementation in adaptive socioecological systems [48]. Where authorities fail to ensure effective participation, the weak communicate covertly and strategically to maintain community harmony in situations where overt conflict is seen as undesirable, ineffective, and potentially harmful to the distribution of benefits from outside benefactors such as government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and foreign donors [49]. Affected communities resort to such tactics as a way to maintain control over their environmental outcomes when open communication is distrusted.…”

“…A spatial approach to communication can inform questions over culture, society and power relations that compromise community participation in resource management, which intrinsically is an endeavor that shapes space by allocating and modifying environmental goods, as demonstrated in the context of fisheries management in Indonesia [49]. Participation intrinsically invites diverse parties to intersect, connect, and communicate in space.…”

Institutional Change, Sustainability and the Sea

“…Local actors are involved in social networks and hierarchies which determine their positions within a society [61]. As a result, their ability to voice and negotiate their interests diverges considerably [62,63]. Clearly, members of social elites with strong networks, greater access to knowledge and sufficient financial resources are far more able to stand up for their interests and to make decisions.…”