Digitalizing Community Empowerment: A Digital Ethnography of Interaction and Transaction Cost Efficiency in Village-Owned Enterprises
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21274/dinamika.2026.26.2.80-94Keywords:
Community empowerment; digital ethnography; interaction architecture; transaction costs; Village-Owned EnterprisesAbstract
Digital technologies are increasingly embedded in rural development, yet platform adoption alone does not explain how digitalization changes the everyday practice of community empowerment. This study examines how digitally mediated interaction reorganizes coordination and transaction-cost efficiency in Village-Owned Enterprises (Badan Usaha Milik Desa, or BUM Desa) in a predominantly Muslim rural setting. A six-month digital ethnography was conducted in Kediri Regency, Indonesia, from September 2025 to February 2026. Data combined participant observation in a district WhatsApp group with more than 850 members, a seven-day intensive window containing 225 messages, observation of Zoom and digital-reporting practices, 13 semi-structured interviews lasting 60–90 minutes, and documentary records. Analysis identified a layered interaction architecture: hierarchical-formal interaction through Zoom, network-organic interaction through WhatsApp groups, and personal-relational interaction through private messaging. Zoom reduced travel and scheduling costs; WhatsApp lowered information-search costs and accelerated collective problem-solving; and private communication supported lower-cost clarification, monitoring, and conflict management. Internal income statements from one focal enterprise recorded a 41.77% revenue increase and a decline in the operating-cost ratio from 62.10% to 35.24% between 2023 and 2025. These figures are treated as contextual, noncausal evidence. Digitalization also shifted temporal and cognitive burdens onto facilitators through uneven connectivity, digital-literacy support, availability pressure, and fatigue. The study explains digital empowerment as a fit among interaction mode, institutional task, and relational sensitivity.
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