Coffee Houses as Social Infrastructure: Student Interaction, Social Capital, and Community Formation in an Eastern Indonesian Urban Setting

Abstract

Coffee houses are increasingly used as everyday social spaces where students study, exchange information, build relationships, and engage in collective activities. However, their role is often framed in terms of consumption, lifestyle, or informal learning, leaving their capacity to function as social infrastructure insufficiently examined. This study investigates how coffee houses facilitate repeated student interaction, generate social capital, and contribute to community formation in an Eastern Indonesian urban setting. An interpretive qualitative case study was conducted in Negeri RumahTiga, Ambon, focusing on two coffee houses frequently used for academic, organizational, and social activities. Data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation and analyzed thematically. The findings show that repeated encounters transform coffee houses from commercial consumption venues into relational environments that facilitate trust, reciprocity, information exchange, mutual support, and network formation. These processes generate both bonding and bridging social capital, enabling students to access academic and organizational information, practical assistance, emotional support, friendship networks, and collaborative opportunities. Over time, these relational resources strengthen belonging, solidarity, and collective identity, contributing to the emergence of informal student communities. The study contributes to social infrastructure scholarship by conceptualizing coffee houses as relational spaces through which everyday interaction is converted into social capital and community formation, extending existing understandings beyond consumption and third-place functions to an underexamined Eastern Indonesian context.