Comparing village politics across time and space

This special issue examines whether and how village politics in Indonesia have changed after the passage of a new Village Law in 2014. Written by researchers who participated in a collaborative study of eighteen villages across Indonesia carried out at the start of 2022, the special issue takes stock of the nature of village politics and explores its variation across Indonesia. In this introduction to the special issue, we outline the research project that led to this special issue, position our research in the context of previous studies of village government and development in Indonesia and internationally, and highlight common themes and findings advanced in the special issue.