Powers on Community-Level Deliberation: A Power Cube Approach

Abstract

There is a limited understanding of the power relations between the actors in village-level planning deliberation. Various powers influence the planning result, and asymmetrical power can distort the consensus. The actors involved in planning deliberation have different power characteristics. This study attempted to explain the different actors’ positions and power sources through the power cube approach. Village planning deliberation in Pematang Jaya, Langkat district, Indonesia, was used as a case study. Ethnography and autoethnography were used as research methods. Primary data were obtained from interviews with twenty-one respondents, document analysis, and observation from 2018 to 2020, analyzed through data reduction, initial interpretation, and focused interpretation. The result showed that the specific power characteristics of the different actors drive their influence on the planning result. It reveals the way power holders create domination of the deliberation process. It is suggested that deliberation is not a space for transferring knowledge or information but for power domination.