7. Alam Endah: Rural Camelot in West Java—A Case Study of Empowerment and Integrated Rural Development

The chapter highlights the way in which a West Javan village succeeds in creating job opportunities in line with the recent policy initiative of President Jokowi which states that each village should develop an enterprise. The business council in the village, largely patriarchal, and the success of the enterprise are underwritten by the voluntary work of women and young people organized through the local pesantren (A pesantren is a secondary-level Islamic boarding school). The village acts as an example for the region which faces many challenges. The chapter details power dynamics and the important enabling role of the pesantren in the survival strategies of the local community. The disadvantage generated by the local patriarchal and hierarchical social structure is also explored. The chapter analyses the findings from research conducted in West Java as part of transformative research led by the following: Centre for Decentralization and Participatory Development Research, Universitas Padjadjaran (UnPad) led by Widianingsih located in Bandung, West Java, in collaboration with Flinders University (Resilience Institute, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business Government and Law) located in South Australia. The universities in turn collaborate with the Indonesian Diaspora. The Diaspora network is closely supported by Pak Rudolf Wirawan of Wirasoft (Who has been working at IBM full-time for more than 10 years). We use transformative mixed methods praxis to address the problem of land loss, urbanization and vulnerability.