History and Institutions in the Rebuilding of Social Capital after Forced Resettlement in the Philippines and Indonesia

Abstract

Resettlement results in the loss of social capital from which poor households can draw resources for sustenance, survival and wellbeing. While Putnam deems social capital formation as pre-determined by a community’s history of civic engagement, the institutional view argues that social capital is generated through the institutions’ interventions. Utilising a comparative approach involving two resettlement sites, one in the Philippines and one in Indonesia, this article presents findings on the explanatory power of these two perspectives. The Philippine case is greatly influenced by the institutional interventions while the Indonesian case testifies to the validity of the theoretical perspective of Putnam.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the households and leaders in Kasiglahan Village Community and the Bantarpanjang Translok for their participation in the research, Abeth Matipo of the National Housing Authority, Mr. Candra Musi and Mr. Narso of Perum Perhutani for logistical assistance, Dr. Ana Marie Karaos and Ms. Vangie Serrano of Action Group for assistance at the community level in the Philippines, Dr. Sri Sunarti Purwaningsih and Dr. Herry Yogoswara of Indonesian Institute for Sciences (LIPI), Dr. Tyas Wulan and Dr. Suliyanto Jayakrama of Universitas Jenderal Soedirman, Yayasan Kusuma Buana led by the late Dr. Firman Lubis, Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor-Relocation and Resettlement Monitoring and Development Division, Dennis Sorino and Dulce Joy Sorino for database design and data processing, the Philippine Research Team Elizabeth Avila, Rosario Mancile, Merlina Retardo, Ma. Clarissa Perez, Grace de Polonia and Annie Nacianceno, the Indonesian Research Team led by Fanny Dwipoyanthi, Victor Allan C. Ilagan, Alicia S. Diaz, Martina Robles and Daniel Vincent. Also, we welcome researchers requesting access to our data and coding used.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Sundanese form an ethnic group with a language of their own who live in the western part of Java. BT is located at the eastern border of the area predominantly inhabited by Sundanese.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Neys Van Hoogstraten Foundation [IN230]; and Netherlands Fellowship Programme [CF6698/2010 – Navarra].