Living Pancasila in everyday bureaucracy: a phenomenological ethnography of ethical subjectivity among civil servants in West Java

This dissertation examines how civil servants in West Java experience and enact Pancasila as an ethical orientation in everyday bureaucracy. Drawing on phenomenological ethnography conducted in 2025–2026, the study combines participant observation, in-depth interviews, informal conversations, and analysis of administrative documents across government offices. Findings show that Pancasila is not encountered as an abstract ideology but translated through rambu-rambu, amanah, BerAKHLAK, leadership examples, meetings, paperwork, and encounters with citizens. Its meanings vary across procurement, social services, archives, political administration, and energy governance, where officials negotiate fairness, empathy, neutrality, accuracy, and manage conflicts of interest. Ethical formation remains uneven because hierarchy, workload, political pressure, unequal training, and digital competence shape officials’ capacity to reflect and speak. The study introduces bureaucratic ethical translation to explain how public values become responsibility, procedural compliance, or suspended commitments. It argues that living Pancasila requires organizational spaces that support deliberation, exemplary leadership, documentation, reflection, and public accountability.