Which Order? Whose Order? Balinese Irrigation Management in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Dik Roth

Oxford Development Studies, 2006, vol. 34, issue 1, 31-46

Abstract: This paper deals with irrigation management among Balinese migrant settlers in Sulawesi, Indonesia. As settlers in the command area of a state-built irrigation system, they have become part of its blueprinted managerial structure. However, many settlers derived their experience from subak, the Balinese irrigators' institution. This paper explores the technical, organizational and normative complexity hidden behind claims of order, manageability and control of a “modern” irrigation system, examining three issues that illustrate the tension between order and disjuncture. First, it criticizes conceptualizations of local management as cycles of degradation by farmer neglect and rehabilitation by government attention. Second, it traces the local history of irrigation development by putting into perspective the assumption of normative, technical and organizational uniformity on which the management structure is based. Third, differences are discussed between engineering approaches to management and Balinese conceptualizations of management, and their consequences for management practices.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600810500495956 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:34:y:2006:i:1:p:31-46

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CODS20

DOI: 10.1080/13600810500495956

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Development Studies is currently edited by Jo Boyce and Frances Stewart

More articles in Oxford Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().