The dynamics of pesantren: Responses toward modernity and mechanism in organizing transformation

The development of pesantren from time to time illustrates its significant role within communities. its dynamic development appears clearly as a result of its ability to adapt into the external condition. its communities are well-known with their social skills in dealing with external culture that comes from all types of challenges coming from outside. pesantren has an internal mechanism to adapt into a new trend,due to the development of its function and differentiation. the empirical experiences show the ability of four imperative functions of pesantren,namely: high ability to adapt into the external world,wide-ranging goal achievement,integrative ability of unifying the unique aspects of pesantren as sub-culture,and ability in preserving the pesantren’s tradition with the principle “maintaining the old good tradition and gaining a new better tradition”. differentiation mechanism is a gradual transformation process of pesantren that causes the steady increase of new units within it to perform their functions more effectively. this response leads to various models of pesantren. © 2011,state islamic university of sunan ampel. all rights reserved.