Negotiating Health Communication and Cultural Logics in Geographically Isolated Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33822/jep.v9i1.13181Keywords:
Vernacular bureaucracy, health communication, cultural logics, geographic isolation, COVID-19, indonesiaAbstract
Existing scholarship on health crisis governance often centers on urban infrastructures, overlooking the distinct communication dynamics of peripheral regions. This study investigates how COVID-19 health directives were organized, negotiated, and enacted within the geographically isolated community of Ulu Ogan, Indonesia. Adopting a qualitative approach, we analyzed in-depth interviews with six participants, ranging from district officials to health workers and community members. The findings reveal that pandemic communication did not function as a linear bureaucratic cascade but emerged as a process of “vernacular bureaucracy.” In this system, meso-level actors such as village heads and frontline health workersacted as discretionary intermediaries who translated rigid state protocols into local cultural logics. These actors navigated structural scarcity by reframing biomedical directives through indigenous practices of vigilance (Getage) and agrarian rhythms to maintain legitimacy. We argue that in geographically isolated settings, effective health governance relies less on command-and-control structures and more on the adaptive capacity of local institutions to hybridize formal mandates with community values. This study contributes to global health communication theory by conceptualizing vernacular bureaucracy as a critical mechanism for bridging administrative distance in the Global South.
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