The Roots of Resilience: Strengthening Agricultural Sustainability in Tengger, Indonesia Through Social Capital

The fact that many mountain communities, including Tengger in Indonesia, face multiple socioecological vulnerabilities, has become a particularly important concept in the context of sustainable development. This paper attempts to analyze how bonding, bridging, and linking forms of social capital support agricultural sustainability in the Tengger region. The data were collected with a qualitative descriptive approach through a case study method, including in-depth interviews with 52 informants, observations, and document analysis across two villages within the region of the Tengger Mountains. Data analysis was facilitated using nVivo software 12 to analyze interactions between social capital dimensions and agricultural sustainability. The results indicate that bonding social capital has the strongest interactions across all aspects (26–29 interactions or 24.6–27.4%), particularly in relation to economic aspects. Bridging social capital shows dominance in socio-economic aspects (24–26 interactions or 22.6–24.6%), while linking social capital has the strongest influence on economic aspects (22 interactions or 20.8%). The findings contribute to the literature on how social capital contributes to agricultural sustainability in mountain communities and provide insights into the development of more effective interventions. This work generally contributes significantly to an in-depth understanding of how social capital works within the resilience and sustainability of farming communities in mountainous areas.