When Trust Coexists with Mistrust: An Ethnographic Account of the Consequences of Digitalization Project

ABSTRACT

Recently, local governments utilize digital technology to improve transparency and achieve public trust. Drawing from the e-retribusi project, a digitalization enabling small-scale merchants to pay their levies in a cashless manner, this study investigates how the digitalization project shapes trust (and mistrust) between actors. My ethnographic fieldwork in Kebon Polo traditional market, Magelang City, Indonesia, reveals dual trust-building realities. Civil servants and auditors perceived greater trust, while small-scale merchants encountered diminished trust. This finding suggests the importance of transparency for all actors and critically reflects the exaggerated expectation of digitalization in enhancing transparency and public trust.

KEYWORDS:

• Digitalization
• transparency
• panopticon
• trust
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In this study, auditors have a status as civil servant. They are often posted at the audit unit and agencies within the government bodies.

2. Si-retro is the abbreviation for Sistem Retribusi Daerah Online (in English: Online Local Levies Information System). It processes all levies managed by the local government in which e-retribusi is included in the system.

3. Authorized personnel who hold username and password can enter the system and have an access to the levies financial database. As an intern in the UPT Kebon Polo office during my fieldwork, I was showed by a civil servant how to accessed the e-retribusi system using her username and password.

4. Between October 15, 2020 and January 30, 2021, I witnessed the system struggled and failed to work on six occasions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst).