Problems of Rural Development in Central Java: An Ethnomethodological Perspective

Abstract

Rural development, when it has been conceived of as a science at all, has generally been conceived of as a quantitative science. Numbers are used to establish the baseline of the population at issue, to plan changes in the population, and to measure the impact or success of these changes. It is the argument of this paper that this confident quantification led to critical weaknesses in much of the past and pre sent work in development. More specifically, it will be argued here that developmental studies suffer from a false appreciation of quantitative data and an equally false misappreciation of qualitative data, based on an erroneous epistemological distinction between the two. This argument will be advanced beginning with a discussion of the historical roots of quantitative analysis in social science, followed by a critique of these methods, including a critique of their use in the development of Indonesian agriculture. An alternative research methodology supported by case material from a study of rural development in the regencies of Sleman and Jepara in Central Java is then proposed.