DINAMIKA KOMUNIKASI KELOMPOK DALAM PENGELOLAAN DAERAH ALIRAN SUNGAI DI PERKOTAAN KALIMANTAN SELATAN

Abstract

Rivers play a vital role in human life as sources of clean water, transportation infrastructure, and ecological and tourism functions. However, in urban areas such as Banjarmasin, these functions have undergone significant deterioration. The Banjarmasin City Government has sought to address this issue through the Maharagu Sungai Program since 2017, resulting in the formation of more than 200 riparian community groups. This study was motivated by the need to understand how small group dynamics reflect broader societal patterns in fostering collective awareness and behavior toward river conservation. This study aims to analyze group communication dynamics in watershed management in urban South Kalimantan. Specifically, it seeks to: (1) analyze the dimensions of group communication dynamics (commitment, intensity of information exchange, leadership, decision-making, and conflict resolution); (2) analyze the diversity of river meanings across groups; (3) analyze stakeholder support; and (4) examine the influence of group communication dynamics on pro-environmental behavior in river maintenance practices. The primary conceptual framework employed in this study is group communication dynamics, which adopts five functional dimensions proposed by Johnson and Johnson: commitment, intensity of information exchange, leadership, decision-making, and conflict resolution. Pro-environmental behavior was measured across four dimensions: conservation lifestyle, land stewardship, social environmentalism, and environmental citizenship. This study adopts a post-positivist paradigm with a sequential mixed-methods approach. The unit of analysis comprised 31 active riparian groups in Banjarmasin during the period 2022–2023. Quantitative data were collected through a survey of 31 groups (186 respondents) and analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to account for the hierarchical data structure of individuals nested within groups. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews with informants from four case groups selected based on quadrant classifications of dynamics and behavior. Member characteristics were predominantly composed of long-term riverside residents (over 20 years) with informal occupational backgrounds and high access to information through WhatsApp and YouTube. The majority of groups fell within the moderate category of group dynamics (48%). HLM analysis confirmed that group experience and information access significantly enhanced commitment, information exchange intensity, and conflict resolution. Furthermore, civil servant (PNS) employment status was found to have a differential effect on group dynamics, contributing to lower decision-making scores while significantly improving conflict resolution capacity. Group interaction and communication remained largely leader-centered and technically coordinative in nature. Groups exhibited a high degree of uniformity in river meaning, with 84% of groups perceiving the river as a historically significant identity space that has undergone physical degradation. HLM analysis demonstrated that greater uniformity in river meaning within a group is significantly associated with higher group communication dynamics (p = 0.042). Stakeholder support was also found to have a positive and significant effect on group communication dynamics; however, empirically, 90.3% of groups received only low-level support. Support was predominantly provided by the public sector (Environmental Agency, Sub-district Office, Public Works) in a programmatic, physical, and temporary manner, largely neglecting capacity-building and continuous evaluation. The majority of groups displayed moderate levels of pro-environmental behavior (45%). Group communication dynamics were found to simultaneously exert a positive and significant influence on pro-environmental behavior. Partially, the dimensions of commitment, information exchange intensity, leadership, and conflict resolution were each significantly associated with increased pro-environmental behavior. Group-initiated behaviors were most prominently observed in the formation of conservation lifestyle, land stewardship, and social environmentalism, though environmental citizenship engagement remained comparatively weak. As a synthesis of the study, a group communication dynamics model was developed, representing group communication as the core mechanism. The Jukung (a traditional canoe) symbolizes the collective vessel (the group), integrating inputs (member characteristics, river meaning, stakeholder support) through the process of group communication dynamics to produce the output of pro-environmental behavior. The novelty of this model lies in its assertion that sustainable environmental behavior is not merely the product of individual responses, but rather the result of convergent meaning-making and stable social interaction within a group. The model recommends communication interventions through the strengthening of information literacy, alignment of historical river meaning, and the transformation of stakeholder support from a reactive-programmatic orientation toward sustained capacity-building accompaniment.