International Journal of Qualitative Research

Social-ecological transformation of former illegal gold miners through the Cisangku conservation village model

Nur Azisyah Mukmin, Yudianto, Sultrayansa — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Illegal Gold Mining (IGM) represents a complex social-ecological issue that contributes to environmental degradation, social vulnerability, and unsustainable community livelihoods. This study aims to analyze the process of social-ecological transformation among former illegal gold miners through the Cisangku Conservation Village Model (CVM) in the buffer zone of Gunung Halimun Salak National Park. A qualitative approach with a descriptive research design was employed. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field observations, and document analysis. Data analysis involved data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing, with validity ensured through source, method, and time triangulation. The findings indicate that the Cisangku Conservation Village Model has facilitated social-ecological transformation by shifting community livelihoods from illegal gold mining to conservation-based economic activities, including traditional ground coffee production, endemic plant seedling nurseries, and conservation-based ecotourism. These livelihood transitions increased the average income of members by 42%, expanded employment opportunities for vulnerable groups, engaged 69% of former illegal miners in conservation activities, and supported environmental rehabilitation through the planting of 356,000 trees. The transformation process was driven by collaboration among government agencies, the private sector, local communities, and the leadership of a local hero, which strengthened community participation and promoted behavioral change. The study concludes that conservation-based community empowerment is an effective strategy for achieving social-ecological transformation, strengthening sustainable livelihoods, and supporting sustainable development.

Collaboration between NGOs and village governments in the conservation of customary forests in the Datuk Sinaro Putih customary forest, Bungo Regency, Jambi

Ridwan, Siti Maryam, Nanda Kurniadi — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This study aims to obtain a clear picture of the forms of collaboration and identify the barriers and challenges experienced by the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) CAPPA, the Ecological Justice Foundation, and the village government in preserving the Datuk Sinaro Putih Customary Forest in Batu Kerbau Hamlet, Pelepat District, Bungo Regency. Based on the description, identification, and analysis of the research problem, this study used a descriptive qualitative approach. Data were collected through desk research, field research, observation, interviews, and documentation. The Datuk Sinaro Putih Indigenous Community is a community that is wise in protecting its forest and environment. They possess local wisdom values in preserving the natural environment, including customary philosophy and rules as guidelines for forest and environmental protection. The establishment of customary forests and forbidden areas is an effort to preserve the environment and protect the remaining forest. Furthermore, customary oaths are held to maintain community unity in protecting the natural environment. Inhibiting factors include limited human resource capacity, individual/group interests within the institution, and weak coordination and interaction between NGOs and related institutions (stakeholders).

Building public value in hybrid e-government services: lessons from Indonesian passport service delivery

Rasona Sunara Akbar, Triyuni Soemartono, Pandji Sukmana, T. Herry Rachmatsyah — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

The digitalization of travel documents through the M-Paspor application has transformed Indonesian immigration administration. However, the hybrid nature of passport services, which combines digital registration with face-to-face verification, requires an evaluation that goes beyond technical performance toward substantive public value creation. This descriptive-exploratory qualitative study analyzes how information quality, system quality, and face-to-face service quality interact with user satisfaction to shape public value in travel document services across five Immigration Offices in Jakarta. Informants were selected purposively and consisted of 20 participants, including immigration policymakers, frontline officers, and citizen users. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, structured observations, and document review, and were analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. The findings show that accurate information and reliable systems provide administrative certainty, but public value is weakened when upload instructions, quota information, and server performance are inconsistent. In hybrid service delivery, responsive and empathetic frontline officers function as a corrective layer that converts technical convenience into satisfaction, trust, compliance legitimacy, and operational capacity. The study concludes that public value in digital immigration services is produced through the integration of reliable digital infrastructure and human-centered service quality.

The role of indigenous farming knowledge in strengthening climate resilience among smallholder farmers: a case study of rural Zimbabwe

Shingirai Mugambiwa — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Indigenous farming knowledge remains central to the climate resilience of smallholder agriculture in rural Zimbabwe. This study examined how smallholder farmers in Mutoko and Gweru districts use indigenous knowledge to respond to rainfall variability, prolonged dry spells, rising temperatures and declining water availability. A qualitative method and exploratory design were employed. Purposive sampling was used to select 60 smallholder farmers, comprising 30 participants from each district. Data were collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, and were analysed thematically. The findings show that farmers rely on crop diversification, crop rotation, drought-tolerant crops, early land preparation, mulching, local seed preservation, water harvesting and riverside-well irrigation to reduce climatic risks and sustain production. Indigenous knowledge was also transmitted through intergenerational learning, farmer networks and community institutions. The study concludes that indigenous farming knowledge is a dynamic resource that should be integrated equitably into agricultural extension, climate adaptation policy and rural development planning frameworks.

A critical analysis of the cybersex phenomenon from the perspective of John Paul II's theology of the body

Hastuti H. Anak Ampun, Carolus Borromeus Mulyatno — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

The development of digital technology has fundamentally transformed the ontology of human sexual experience as embodied in the body. The phenomenon of cybersex as a form of digitally mediated sexual activity is commonly adopted by the younger generation under the assumption that the absence of physical contact guarantees the safety of such activities. However, this perception implicitly perpetuates an anthropological reduction that separates the body from the person as a relational subject. This study aims to examine the phenomenon of cybersex through the lens of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body by applying a critical-analytical literature review method encompassing descriptive, evaluative, and synthetic stages. The findings indicate that cybersex represents a significant anthropological-theological crisis in the “Onlife” era, where the blurring of boundaries between physical and digital realities distorts the meaning of the body as a medium of “self-gift.” Within John Paul II’s theological framework, the body is a “personal sacrament” that carries spousal meaning toward authentic relational love. Conversely, cybersex constitutes a distortion that reduces the body to a visual object of consumption, fragmented from genuine personal relationships. This study argues that an adequate pastoral response must go beyond mere normative prohibitions, toward an integrative anthropological approach capable of reclaiming the dignity of the body as the locus of authentic love amidst the complexities of the digital age.

Psychosocial interventions for treating depression and self-harm in adolescents: a systematic literature review

Nada Kusuma, Lutfiana Nur Azizah, Ghery Safitrah Fahrun, Dian Puspita Rizki — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Depression and self-harm among adolescents are mental health issues that are on the rise globally and have a serious impact on adolescents’ social functioning, emotional development, and quality of life. Various risk factors such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), domestic violence, trauma, social isolation, attachment disorders, and psychosocial stress contribute to the onset of depression and self-harm among adolescents. This qualitative study aims to identify, analyze, and synthesize effective psychosocial interventions for addressing depression and self-harm in adolescents through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines, and relevant international journal articles published between 2023 and 2026 were searched through Scopus and Google Scholar. A total of 10 articles were selected based on inclusion criteria covering psychosocial interventions, adolescent mental health, childhood trauma, attachment, and psychosocial support from families and communities. The results indicate that psychosocial interventions based on attachment, trauma-informed care, cognitive behavioral therapy, family support, emotion regulation, community-based approaches, and multidisciplinary social support are effective in reducing depressive symptoms, enhancing resilience, improving emotion regulation, and reducing the risk of self-harm among adolescents. The involvement of families, schools, social workers, and the community environment is a critical factor in the success of these interventions. The findings emphasize that holistic, participatory, and trauma-informed psychosocial approaches are essential in social work practice with adolescents. This study recommends strengthening family-, school-, and community-based psychosocial intervention models as strategies for the prevention and management of depression and self-harm among adolescents.

Flipped, refracted, and socratic learning: a triune approach in teaching introduction to philosophy to Indonesian higher students

Dominikus Sukristiono, Ambrosius Lolong Sogen — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Teaching Introduction to Philosophy to Indonesian students faces at least these three challenges: first, the challenge of patchiness: students know philosophy patchy and erratic because they are never introduced properly to philosophical thinking; second, the challenge of digital nativity: students are part of Gen Z that are constrained with digital world; third, the challenge of inequal starting points: students come from different background as they are coming from different part of the Indonesian archipelago. To address these challenges, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of integrating three distinct pedagogical approaches simultaneously: Flipped Classroom, Refracted and Socratic Learning. We will show that from the theoretical framework, these approaches are surprisingly connected to each other, and from the experimental study, students perceive these approaches positively. Utilizing a qualitative case study framework backed by diverse data points, this paper explores the experimental application of these approaches and highlights how favorably students perceived the intervention.

Climbing the academic ladder: collaborative autoethnographic narrative of women academicians in Tanzanian higher education institutions

Joyce Nemes, Neema Kumburu — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

In higher education, few women have managed to climb to senior academic ranks such as Associate Professor and Professor. However, little has been done to document the lived experience of those few women who successfully charted this journey. This collaborative autoethnographic study documents the narratives of two successful women academics in Tanzanian higher education institutions who managed to reach senior academic ranks. The objective was to narrate their personal life experiences of climbing the academic ladder in order to inspire other women academicians with similar aspirations. Guided by feminist theory and resilience theory, the study offers insights that may inspire other women who aspire to advance but face institutional, structural, and social barriers. The study findings revealed that confidence and resilience are fundamental to academic advancement. Additionally, effective time management enables women to balance academic demands and family responsibilities. The findings further revealed that mentorship, collaboration, and professional development are equally critical enablers for women's academic advancement. While resilience theory affirms participants' adaptive capacity in the face of adversity, feminist theory critically reminds us that individual resilience should not substitute for structural responsibility. The implications are that women’s advancement depends on confidence, time management, mentorship, and institutional reform; resilience must not be allowed to replace institutional accountability.

Implementation of the Red and White Village Cooperative program in Bekasi City: opportunities, challenges, and strategies

Muhammad Randi Yudhistira — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Red and White Cooperative Program is a national initiative launched on July 21, 2025, to strengthen the people's economy based on villages and villages. As a buffer city with the highest GDP in West Java (IDR 129.35 trillion in 2024) but facing a spike in poverty (129,540 people as of March 2025), Bekasi City recorded implementation achievements that lag behind the surrounding areas. This paradox is even more prominent considering that KKMP at the village level should have a greater chance of implementation because it does not intersect with Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) as happens at the village level. This research aims to identify the main opportunities and challenges and formulate a strategy for the implementation of the KKMP program in Bekasi City. Using a qualitative approach with a case study method, data was collected through in-depth interviews with six key informants as well as qualitative questionnaires to 10 respondents from six cooperatives. The analysis uses a SWOT framework quantified through the IFAS-EFAS matrix, based on the theory of Rogers' Innovation Diffusion (2003) and the Implementation of the Van Meter & Van Horn Policy. IFAS-EFAS mapping puts KKMP at coordinates (−0.289; −0.151) in the W-T Quadrant, with five recommended integrated strategies: policy advocacy, strengthening legality, cluster-based organizational structuring, operational efficiency, and member market segmentation.

Decision making by physiotherapists in assessing and treating fibromyalgia patients: qualitative interview analysis study

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Introduction: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a multifactorial disease characterized by chronic pain, associated with patient and professional dissatisfaction with the available treatment. Objective: to evaluate perceptions about decision-making for assessment and treatment. Methods: Qualitative study in accordance with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research and Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research. The full interview script contains 43 questions lasting 60 minutes, 2 sections with 7 questions were used in this study. Results: 27 physiotherapists were interviewed, and 7 subcategories were identified. The assessment procedures were physical examination and use of scales and questionnaires. Barriers to treatment were beliefs and adherence, and facilities involved the patient's level of knowledge and time since diagnosis. Conclusion: Physiotherapists face difficulties in assessments related to clinical picture and diagnosis. Physiotherapy treatment can be made difficult or facilitated by biopsychosocial aspects, and the treatment objectives are the management of pain and symptoms of the disease.

Socialization of tribal girls into soccer: identifying the potential socializing contexts

Awashes Subba, Viswanath Sundar, Kuntal Karmakar — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This qualitative study investigates the complex, multi-level socializing contexts that shape marginalised tribal girls' trajectories toward becoming professional soccer players. Utilizing a grounded theory methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 female athletes from the Santhali tribe in West Bengal, India. Data were evaluated through thematic analysis employing constant comparative coding. Grounded in a socio-ecological framework underpinned by interactionist and internalisation paradigms, the research identifies four pivotal socializing contexts: interpersonal, cultural, institutional, and mass media. Findings reveal that the interpersonal context serves as the paramount catalyst for sports socialization. Diverging from traditional, club-based, and parent-centric models of sports socialization, this study highlights the unique roles of mothers, elder siblings, neighbourhood peers, and local retired coaches. These specific actors formed an informal network that facilitated opportunities, financial and emotional support, and the substitution of household work responsibility. Furthermore, the girls’ sporting ambitions were reinforced by village subcultures, their self-perceived physicality, and the aspirational influence of televised sports celebrities. While situated within a specific tribal group, which limits broad generalisability, this qualitative study offers theoretical insights and illustrates that sports socialization and gendered athletic behaviours do not occur in a vacuum; instead, they are deeply embedded within complex, multi-layered social contexts that actively shape, and are shaped by, the deliberate negotiation and choices of young women navigating their way into the sporting world.

Anticipated social remittances: knowledge transfer among Sudanese and Egyptian students in Indonesia

Yasir Esam Osman Mohammed — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

International student mobility research has largely focused on movement from the Global South to the Global North, leaving South-South mobility, including Indonesia as a host destination, comparatively unexamined. This qualitative study investigates the anticipated social remittances of Sudanese and Egyptian postgraduate students in Indonesia: the knowledge, practices, and civic norms they expect to carry home. Drawing on data from ten participants (five Sudanese, five Egyptian) and reflexive thematic analysis, most were found already engaged in informal sharing, mainly via WhatsApp, though only some carried clear developmental intent rather than incidental cultural exchange. Anticipated extensions remained at the idea or informal-discussion stage, consistent with participants' early program stage, and nearly all insisted anything brought home would need local adaptation. Perceptions of home-country receptivity diverged by nationality: Egyptian participants described stable bureaucratic and cultural resistance, while Sudanese participants described a landscape reshaped by ongoing conflict, marked less by pessimism than by reordered priorities and, in one case, a new opening for the digital knowledge-preservation systems observed in Indonesia. The study extends social remittances theory to a temporary, credential-seeking population in a South-South context and offers early evidence on how home-country conditions, including active crisis, shape what students believe they can carry home.

Socio-economic and cultural transformation of the Garo community: a qualitative study in Mymensingh District, Bangladesh

Md. Azharul Islam Shakib, Rashed Hossain — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

The current study aimed to identify the socio-economic and cultural transformations of the Garo community in Mymensingh district. This study employed a qualitative research design with the application of a thematic approach. Data were collected by conducting 10 in-depth interviews and 5 key informant interviews using convenience sampling, and the sample size was determined on the basis of data saturation. Among 15 participants, only 7 interviews were recorded, and others were noted by the interviewer. Afterwards, the data were transcribed into English and analyzed thematically. After analyzing the data, we found two main themes, including socio-economic transformations and cultural transformations, as well as several sub-themes under these main themes. With regard to socio-economic transformation, the findings of the study showed that access to higher education and literacy rates have increased, and men joined diversified jobs such as small businesses, day labor, government sectors, NGO, and so on. On the other hand, women have joined specifically in the nursing sector, beauty parlors, and handicraft sectors. Regarding cultural transformation, the study found that while major festivals like ‘wangala’ were still celebrated, the duration of celebration decreased, as well as Bengali and pop culture influenced the traditional festivals. The findings also disclosed that healthcare facilities have expanded, and traditional treatment methods were replaced by many government and private hospitals. The study highlights the importance of sustainable development policies, education, and economic support to ensure a better life for the Garo people along with protecting their identity.

Negotiating power, managing nutrition: contestation of local governance Indonesia’s free nutritious meal program

Dedi Epriadi, Mulia Jaya — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

Public nutrition policy in the Global South increasingly operates beyond the boundaries of technocratic welfare administration. This article investigates how Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meal Programme (MBG) evolves into a contested arena of negotiated legitimacy, symbolic statecraft, and relational governance. Using an interpretive-constructivist approach, the study examines MBG implementation in Bungo Regency through in-depth interviews, field observations, and document analysis. The findings reveal that welfare distribution does not function through coherent bureaucratic coordination alone, but through fragmented negotiations among local governments, schools, informal actors, and community networks. MBG operates not merely as a nutritional intervention, but as a political technology through which the state reproduces visibility, moral authority, and public legitimacy in everyday social life. The study further demonstrates that governance in the Global South is sustained less by procedural certainty than by relational bargaining, bureaucratic improvisation, and symbolic performances of welfare. The article contributes to interpretive governance scholarship by reconceptualizing nutrition policy as a relational mechanism for the production of state authority under conditions of hybrid and contested governance.

Political dynamics of women's representation: 30% affirmative action governance in Bungo Regency

Miranti, Dedi Epriadi, Neni Hertini Redhaste — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0700

This study aims to analyze the implementation of Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections, strategies implemented by political parties, and supporting and inhibiting factors in the affirmative action quota of 30% women's representation in Bungo Regency, Jambi, in the 2024 elections. The background of this study is based on the fact that female DPRD members in Bungo Regency are only 14.3%, which is relatively low. The successful implementation of the affirmative quota policy of 30% women's representation in the general election requirements has been administratively supported by the active participation of women as legislative candidates in strengthening the principle of gender equality in the local political ecosystem. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method with a case study approach. Data collection techniques were carried out through in-depth interviews with the General Election Commission, 5 political parties, and 5 elected female DPRD members for the 2024-2029 period from the PKB faction, the Gerindra Party, the Nasdem Party, the Democratic Party, and the Golkar Party. Data were collected from various literature, written documents, and field research through observation and in-depth interviews. This study employed four stages of data analysis: data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and data verification. The results indicate that the five parties met the 30% quota for women's representation, and the other participating parties in the election, as stipulated in Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning General Elections in Bungo Regency, had fulfilled the administrative requirements declared by the General Elections Commission. However, the number of women actually elected as members of the Bungo Regency Regional People's Representative Council remains far from proportional. This is due to the open proportional system in elections based on the majority vote, which hinders female candidates from being hindered by the practice of money politics, the existence of gender-biased religious groups, the quality of human resources of irrational voters, patriarchal culture, and local primordialism.