The Roles of Heterarchy and Social Network for Rural and Agriculture Development

The roles of institutions, either formal or informal, for rural and agriculture development in Indonesia are important. Yet, these institutions in most cases are not integrated for the advancement of rural and agricultural development. Many ministries and NGOs have programs which have common goals, such as poverty alleviat ion through rural development; community empowerment by means of increasing their role and income; increasing health status including food sufficiency. However, these formal approaches mostly are top-down, executed in hierarchy manner following bureaucracy structure in which isolated among each other. Though development may have long lasting effect when social network and social capital are included into account, both are mostly neglected. When social change are expected to have long lasting effect and should occurred in more rapid change, heterarchy is more appropriate than hierarchy. Since heterarchy is closely related to social network and social capital, hence, this paper evaluated the role of social network and heterarchy in social capital. This paper also evaluated the form of heterarchy for rural and agricultural development based on case of Posdaya movement. The study was conducted in Bantul and Kulon Progo Districts in Yogyakarta Special Region, Indonesia. The results indicate that heterarchy may tightening and improving social networks and reducing social gap as well as the role of formal leader became more effective in advancing rural and agricultural development.