Community Engagement in Ambon: Building Bridging Social Capital and Intercommunal Networks

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_29How to use a DOI?

Keywords

conflict; bridging social capital; intercommunal network

Abstract

Of all the communal conflicts in Indonesia after 1998, the religious conflict in Ambon was among the most severe, resulting in deep social segregation between Christian and Muslim communities. Although the conflict eventually subsided and Ambon entered a peace-building phase, Indonesia’s history demonstrates that horizontal conflicts can re-emerge at any time. In a pluralistic society, this risk must be anticipated by strengthening community engagement through social capital, particularly by revitalizing Maluku’s indigenous traditions of pela and gandong, which emphasize brotherhood and mutual assistance among anak negeri Maluku. This article is based on a literature review analyzed using a qualitative descriptive approach. The literature was systematically collected from journals, books, dissertation accessed through academic databases such as Google Scholar and undergraduate thesis in Pattimura University Library (Ambon), covering publications from the post-conflict period (2002–2024) and selected based on their relevance to social capital, communal conflict, and post-conflict integration in Ambon and comparable contexts. The findings indicate that social capital derived from the traditional institutions of pela and gandong primarily constitutes bonding social capital, which strengthens internal ties among communities bound by these agreements. However, Ambon’s pluralistic society requires bridging social capital, as conceptualized by Robert Putnam (1993), and intercommunal networks, as proposed by Ashutosh Varshney (2002), to integrate citizens across religious boundaries. The development of bridging social capital and intercommunal networks in Ambon’s post-conflict context is driven by interrelated factors, including economic interactions, interfaith cooperation, and the role of local governance, all of which contribute to the gradual rebuilding of trust and social cohesion among previously divided groups.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Oetami Dewi
AU  - Bambang Hendarta Suta Purwana
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/06
TI  - Community Engagement in Ambon: Building Bridging Social Capital and Intercommunal Networks
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Multidisciplinary Studies 2025 (ICOMSI 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 345
EP  - 359
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_29
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_29
ID  - Dewi2026
ER  -