The Dynamics of Strengthening Socio-Economic Capacity of Rural Community Through Thematic Kampong in Semarang

The development of rural communities has become a central issue developing lately. Various policies both at the national and local levels surfaced and placed the village's socio-economic strengthening as the top priority of development. One policy that has implications for the socioeconomic dynamics of the community is the thematic kampong program in Semarang city, especially the Malon natural kampong. The purpose of this study was to find out: 1) the implementation of the Semarang natural thematic kampong program along with the problems and challenges faced: and 2) strengthening the socio-economic capacity of the community through Semarang's natural thematic kampong program. The research method used is qualitative descriptive with data retrieval techniques using observation, interviews, and documentation. Data validity uses triangulation, and data analysis is guided by interactive data analysis. The results of this study indicate that the community managed to identify the local potential that they have to develop in the thematic kampong program. The implementation of the Malon natural thematic kampong program is realized in the community resource-based Edutourism package, which combines agriculture, livestock, culinary, and the practice of making batik with natural dyes. The problems and challenges of implementing thematic kampong are also faced by the community, concerning institutional and operational aspects. Through this thematic kampong program, there has been a strengthening of community capacity regarding infrastructure aspects, economic aspects of the community, social aspects of society, social networks with relevant stakeholders, even on the attitudes of the community in facing the problems and challenges in the thematic village