Governing Stunting through Power, Discourse, and Local Resistance in Indonesia

Shobirin Noer (Department of Government Studies, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Darul Ulum University, Jombang, Indonesia)
Kasanusi (Department of International Relations, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Darul Ulum University, Jombang, Indonesia)
Endah Wahyuningsih (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Darul Ulum University, Jombang, Indonesia)

Journal of Public
Vol. 10 No. 1 (2026): Journal of Public Power

The issue of stunting has largely been treated as a biomedical problem to be solved through technical intervention without considering the politics of the problem. This paper seeks to analyze how the governance of stunting occurs within the power/knowledge complex and how communities interact with such interventions in the Indonesian case. In a qualitative study carried out using case study methodology within Ngusikan village, data was gathered using interview, focus group discussion, observation and documentation methods involving twenty-two respondents. Using the Foucault-inspired theoretical perspective, the study identifies three key dynamics of how stunting governance happens: (1) the processes of governance involve surveillance and normalization through the posyandu and growth monitoring systems; (2) medical discourse represents the dominant regime of truth, which continually competes with the local knowledge; and (3) communities, especially mothers, creatively respond to such interventions.