Collaborative Livelihood Strategy: A Reflection of Social Network in Economic Activity (Case Study in Small Islands, Maluku Province, Indonesian)

Research was aimed to analyze the existence of household livelihood strategy and to identify agreements constituting livelihood strategy adopted by households in small island community. Data were collected from questionnaire given to 200 respondents who lived in five small islands, such as Ambon Island, Saparua Island, Gorom Island, Selaru Island, and Kisar Island. Respondents were selected with simple random sampling. Depth interview was also conducted with key informant in each island to verify questionnaire data. Some findings were then obtained. It was found that 83.5% respondents have built social network based on kinship, while 38.5% created network based on friendship and 48% was based on neighborhood. Agreement in network may take few forms such as borrow-lend activity (63%), output marketing (59.5%), and using farming output as collateral (42%). Therefore, it was concluded that kinship is the most influential base underlying the economic activity of community in small islands.