Understanding Participatory Budgeting in Village Fiscal Planning: An Ethnomethodology Study from Kalike Aimatan, Eastern Indonesia

This study analyzes the implementation of participatory budgeting (PB) in the planning of Village Revenue and Expenditure Budgets in Kalike Aimatan Village, Indonesia, using an ethnomethodological approach. This approach was used to understand the everyday social practices of residents and village officials in the budgeting process. Employing qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, participatory observation, and documentation, this study finds that PB in Kalike Aimatan Village involves the active participation of villagers in every stage of budget planning. This process is carried out with the principle of deliberation, where the community has a space to express its aspirations and determine budget priorities according to its needs. Ethnomethodological findings show that PB is socially produced through contextualized deliberation, the formation of local meanings, representative mediation, and the ongoing negotiation of priorities and fiscal feasibility. This study contributes to the PB literature by demonstrating that village budgeting should be understood as a socially constructed and context-bound practice rather than merely as an institutional or procedural mechanism. The implications of this research indicate that PB can enhance implementation, accountability, and community participation in village governance, making an original contribution to the PB literature by introducing an ethnomethodological perspective that has yet to be widely explored, especially in the Indonesian context.