Property and Authority in a Migrant Society: Balinese Irrigators in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Author: Roth, Dik

Source: Development and Change, Volume 40, Number 1, January 2009 , pp. 195-217(23)

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Abstract:

Multiple definitions of resources as property lead to competition over legitimate authority between state and non-state organizational and institutional arrangements. This article focuses on the overlapping and competing domains of the water users' association, WUA, and the `traditional' Balinese irrigators' institution, subak. While the former is backed up by the power of state regulation and administration, the latter derives legitimacy from Balinese irrigators. The author presents a case study of the establishment and transformation of property rights in an irrigation-based Balinese migrant society in Indonesia; he concludes that, in the ongoing process of competition for authority and mutual adjustment, both institutions undergo important transformations.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01511.x

Affiliations: 1: is a social anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Law and Governance Group of Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands ( ). Among his research interests are socio-legal studies and anthropology of law, natural resources governan

Publication date: 2009-01-01