Books by Agung Wardana
Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
This book offers a comprehensive examination of spatial and environmental governance in contempor... more This book offers a comprehensive examination of spatial and environmental governance in contemporary Bali. In the era of decentralisation, Bali's eight district governments and one municipality acquired a strong sense of authority to extract revenues from within their territorial borders while disregarding the impacts beyond them which has exacerbated environmental, cultural and institutional issues. These issues are addressed through reorganising space. In reality, however, such re-organisation has predominantly been in order to provide space for tourism investments and market expansion. The outcomes of reorganising space are in fact shaped by the dynamics of power that interface with increasingly complex legal and institutional structures. These complex structures provide more arenas for vested interests to manoeuvre, but at the same time provide different forms of legitimacy for local forces to challenge the dominant process. The book demonstrates the mechanisms through which social actors mobilise legal-institutional arrangements to advance their interests.
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Bali has been regarded as a 'paradise island', 'island of thousand temples' and many other images... more Bali has been regarded as a 'paradise island', 'island of thousand temples' and many other images to support the growth of tourism industry. In fact, the industry has been developed massively after a mass massacre of the leftists and radical populists associated with PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia) taking place in 1965-1966 led by General Soeharto. The images have been a strategy for romanticizing Balinese culture while simultaneously forgetting the traumatic tragedy of 1965. Although the history has been distorted by the regime and most Balinese are reluctant to talk about tragedy, a few Balinese youth has established a community called Taman 65 (1965 Park) as a learning circle to study and challenge the state history. This book is a collection of their thoughts on history, Balinese social dynamics, and contemporary issues in Bali that arguably cannot be separated from the 1965 event.
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Pengantar Editor (Roem Topatimasang):
"Panduan yang anda pegang dan baca sekarang ini pada aw... more Pengantar Editor (Roem Topatimasang):
"Panduan yang anda pegang dan baca sekarang ini pada awalnya adalah selebaran yang dipersiapkan oleh para aktivis dan organisasi lingkungan hidup di Bali, dalam rangka Konferensi Internasional PBB tentang Perubahan Iklim, Desember 2007. Meskipun hajatan internasional tersebut telah berlalu, namun isi dari panduan ini tetap actual bahkan untuk puluhan tahun ke depan. Karena, isu pemanasan global dan perubahan iklim adalah masalah yang memang tak akan bias diselesaikan dalam jangka pendek. Isu ini menuntut upaya sistematis dan strategis berjangka panjang. Dan, yang terpenting dari semua upaya itu adalah keharusan melibatkan seluruh lapisan dan kalangan masyarakat luas untuk secara aktif mengantasipasinya.
Masalahnya adalah bahwa masih cukup banyak warga masyarakat kita, khususnya di Indonesia, yang belum terlalu memahami isu pemanasan global dan perubahan iklim ini. Meskipun sudah sering menjadi bahan pemberitaan di media massa, namun informasi tersebut biasanya terlalu umum atau bahkan hanya menyajikan gejala permukaannya saja. Panduan ini justru dibuat untuk menjelaskan, dalam gaya bahasa dan cara penyajian semudah mungkin, terutama bagi para pembaca awam. Karena itu, penuturannya disusun dalam bentuk pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang langsung disusul dengan jawaban-jawabannya secara ringkas dan padat.
Kami berharap panduan ini benar-benar dapat membantu anda memahami lebih baik salah satu masalah tergawat yang dihadapi oleh umat manusia sedunia saat ini. Lebih dari itu, kami juga berharap panduan ini benar-benar dapat menjadi panduan bagi anda untuk bersikap dan bertindak —secara perseorangan maupun kelompok— menyumbangkan sesuatu yang bermakna mengatasi masalah yang terlalu penting untuk diserahkan hanya kepada segelintir penguasa dan para pakar saja."
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Book Chapters by Agung Wardana
Policy Paper: Putusan MK Terkait UU Cipta Kerja (FH UGM), 2022
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Kertas Kebijakan Catatan Kritis Terhadap UU No. 11 Tahun 2020 Tentang Cipta Kerj, 2020
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in Wardana & Hutabarat (Eds). Melawan Lupa. Denpasar: Taman65 Press, 2012
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in Wiratma, Djadijono & Legowo (Eds). Membangun Indonesia Dari Daerah: Partisipasi Publik dan Politik Anggaran Daerah. Jakarta: CSIS-JICA, 2007
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Journal Articles by Agung Wardana
Policy Matters, Special Issue 22 on Environmental Defenders Vol. 1: 44-67, 2021
Environmental law is a relatively new but rapidly developing field of law in Indonesia. This deve... more Environmental law is a relatively new but rapidly developing field of law in Indonesia. This development is in large part the result of environmental defenders employing legal institutions, especially the court, for advancing progressive legal rules and procedures for protecting the environment. Ironically, in post-authoritarian Indonesia, those defenders have faced threats or been subject to criminal charges and civil lawsuits for exposing environmental destruction and advocating environmental rights. Several cases that may be considered as Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP) have been heard before the court and resulted in prison terms. This paper examines the current phenomenon of SLAPP in Indonesia, pointing at the political-economic contexts leading to SLAPP being used. I argue that the encounter between environmental defenders and the law in post-authoritarian Indonesia remains contentious. Instead of exercising judicial activism to enhance the principle of in dubio pro natura, the court appears as a fortress protecting the oligarchy’s interests by prosecuting defenders of the environment.
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Critical Asian Studies, 2020
In Bali, rapid conversion of agricultural land has been framed by opinion leaders and mass media ... more In Bali, rapid conversion of agricultural land has been framed by opinion leaders and mass media as an indication of an agrarian crisis. The government responded by nominating subak (a traditional water management system) landscapes for world heritage status, which was achieved in 2012. Instead of mitigating land conversion, world heritage status has incentivized local farmers to sell their agricultural land. This article examines market-based conservation strategies by investigating their conceptual foundation. It argues that a romantic characterization of subak, combined with neoliberal assumptions which conceive of the land crisis in Bali through a rational choice lens, has led to a counter-productive market-based solution managed in a technocratic manner, ignoring the structural conditions which have been the main cause of land conversion. Thus, the neoliberal response to Bali’s agrarian crisis, rather than conserving subak landscapes and empowering local farmers, has contributed to the further marginalization of local farmers and their landscapes.
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Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 2019
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Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law, 2018
Bali faces serious environmental crises arising from overdevelopment of the tourism and real esta... more Bali faces serious environmental crises arising from overdevelopment of the tourism and real estate industry, including water shortage, rapid conversion of agricultural land, pollution, and economic and cultural displacement. This article traces continuities and discontinuities in the role of Indonesian environmental impact assessment (EIA) during and since the authoritarian ‘New Order’ period. Following the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, the ‘Reform Era’ brought dramatic changes, democratizing and decentralizing Indonesia’s governing institutions. Focusing on case studies of resort development projects in Bali from the 1990s to the present, this study examines the ongoing capture of legal processes by vested interests at the expense of prospects for sustainable development. Two particularly controversial projects in Benoa Bay, pro- posed in the different historical and structural settings of the two eras—the Bali Turtle Island Development (BTID) at Serangan Island in the Suharto era and the Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional (TWBI) proposal for the other side of Benoa in the ‘Reform Era’—enable instructive comparison. The study finds that despite significant changes in the environmental law regime, the EIA process still finds itself a tool of powerful inter- ests in the efforts of political and economic elites to maintain control of decision-making and to displace popular opposition forces to the margins.
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Australian Journal of Asian Law, 2018
Spatial governance is never a neutral, technocratic intervention, but an exercise of power that d... more Spatial governance is never a neutral, technocratic intervention, but an exercise of power that determines how a particular space is defined, organised and regulated, and whose interests are served best. In this paper, I show how the legal production of spatial governance in Bali provides legitimacy for capital investments and how such production is contested by social forces whose interests are affected. In so doing, I will primarily focus on the case of the resort development project owned by Tomy Winata, a powerful tycoon, in Benoa Bay, Bali. I argue that the alliance of elites – national/local, economic/politico-bureaucrat – has been able to deploy the state law governing spatial planning for the Benoa Bay space to support the project, but that they have not succeeded in convincing local communities to abandon their resistance. In fact, local communities have engineered religious rulings and customary law as new legal resources to support their stance against the state-backed project showing how law can be mobilised by contending parties in social conflicts.
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Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law 18 (2): 172-195, 2017
In Indonesia, persons with disabilities have long been marginalised in mainstream development pol... more In Indonesia, persons with disabilities have long been marginalised in mainstream development policies. The adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which was ratified by Indonesia in 2011, has opened new opportunities for persons with disabilities in the country to participate in the development process. In this regard, the first step toward the implementation of the convention domestically has been undertaken through the enactment of Law No. 8/2016 on Persons with Disabilities where the provisions of the convention are directly adopted. This article traces the development of the new law and how it differs from the previous legislation. We find that the new law is moving away from a long-standing pa-ternalistic view toward disability in Indonesia by advancing a rights-based approach. Despite this substantial change, it remains to be seen how the new law would be able to change the challenging conditions of persons with disabilities in the country.
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Wacana: Jurnal Transformasi Sosial 35 (2017): 55-90., 2017
Neo-liberalisation processes have been taking place in many parts of the world where livelihoods ... more Neo-liberalisation processes have been taking place in many parts of the world where livelihoods and commons areas are privitised and commercialised in the hands of corporations. The common reason for this is state’s incompetency to manage such areas effectively and efficiently due to limited financial and human resources. This article aims at examining neo-liberalisation of the environment and natural resources in Bali by focusing on Teluk Benoa development plan proposed by PT Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional (TWBI). In so doing, how neo-liberal capitalism, at least in theory, is able to represent itself as the savior of the environmental and social crises that are actually caused by it is elaborated. In this context, the crises are promptly turned into new opportunities for capital expansion and accumulation. Consequently, environmental movements for the environment’s sake will face more complex and dillematic conditions. If they want to avoid being used as a means to justify the dominant economic system, environmental movements should be able to articulate more clearly the critics of and negations against capitalism and state in their advocacy.
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The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology Vol. 16 (2) 2015: 106-122
This paper analyses controversies over law-making processes on spatial planning in Bali, Indonesi... more This paper analyses controversies over law-making processes on spatial planning in Bali, Indonesia. Rapid development of the tourism industry and concerns over environmental sustainability and commodification of culture gave rise to heated debates over the province’s spatial planning regulation. The analysis focuses on the legally and institutionally plural character of Bali, and thus is not confined to the state legal regime. As in many other developing countries, customary and religious legal regimes co-determine how spatial planning is dealt with legally and institutionally. State law itself may be plural because of different interests represented through it at various levels of governance. A broader discussion is needed of this complex legal and institutional setting about which concepts of space and whose interests in space are represented through the various legal repertoires in the process of developing a spatial planning regime.
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The Asian Journal of Comparative Law 2014, Oct 2014
The controversy over the provincial spatial planning regulation for Bali Province reflects the dy... more The controversy over the provincial spatial planning regulation for Bali Province reflects the dynamic of Balinese society in the era of regional autonomy. The dynamic is polarised between expanding the tourism and real estate industry for economic reasons and constraining such expansion for the sake of protecting Bali’s environment and culture. Thus, the law governing space becomes an essential means to intervene in crafting the relations between competing interests over space. The application of the law itself is also complicated by the condition of legal pluralism which provides different and sometimes conflicting sources of legality to be used to justify the interests of legal actors. This article aims at highlighting how space is produced in a pluralistic legal setting and examining whose interests are served by the condition of legal pluralism in contemporary Bali. Employing socio-legal methods with Lefebvre’s conception of space and legal pluralism as an integrating analytical framework, the article contributes to the literature on spatial planning law in Indonesia that is dominated by ‘legal centralism’ and a given notion of space.
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Jurnal Hukum Undiknas Vol. 1(1) 2014, Aug 2014
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Journal of Bali Studies Vol. 3 (2) 2013: 211-216
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Indonesian Journal of International Law Vol. 9 (1) 2012, 2012
The status and rights of indigenous peoples have been recognized by international law. However, t... more The status and rights of indigenous peoples have been recognized by international law. However, there remains debatable whether or not such recognition has been translated into providing access to justice to such peoples when their rights are violated. Therefore, the research has been conducted to examine the extent to which international law allowing access to justice for indigenous peoples given that state remains the dominant subject in international law and in some countries the state itself seems to be reluctant to recognize the status and rights of indigenous peoples in its territory. It shows that several mechanisms can be used by indigenous peoples under the international legal system in the context of access to justice although they are argued to be insufficient in securing the status and rights of indigenous peoples as such mechanisms are very fragmented and practically challenges.
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Books by Agung Wardana
"Panduan yang anda pegang dan baca sekarang ini pada awalnya adalah selebaran yang dipersiapkan oleh para aktivis dan organisasi lingkungan hidup di Bali, dalam rangka Konferensi Internasional PBB tentang Perubahan Iklim, Desember 2007. Meskipun hajatan internasional tersebut telah berlalu, namun isi dari panduan ini tetap actual bahkan untuk puluhan tahun ke depan. Karena, isu pemanasan global dan perubahan iklim adalah masalah yang memang tak akan bias diselesaikan dalam jangka pendek. Isu ini menuntut upaya sistematis dan strategis berjangka panjang. Dan, yang terpenting dari semua upaya itu adalah keharusan melibatkan seluruh lapisan dan kalangan masyarakat luas untuk secara aktif mengantasipasinya.
Masalahnya adalah bahwa masih cukup banyak warga masyarakat kita, khususnya di Indonesia, yang belum terlalu memahami isu pemanasan global dan perubahan iklim ini. Meskipun sudah sering menjadi bahan pemberitaan di media massa, namun informasi tersebut biasanya terlalu umum atau bahkan hanya menyajikan gejala permukaannya saja. Panduan ini justru dibuat untuk menjelaskan, dalam gaya bahasa dan cara penyajian semudah mungkin, terutama bagi para pembaca awam. Karena itu, penuturannya disusun dalam bentuk pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang langsung disusul dengan jawaban-jawabannya secara ringkas dan padat.
Kami berharap panduan ini benar-benar dapat membantu anda memahami lebih baik salah satu masalah tergawat yang dihadapi oleh umat manusia sedunia saat ini. Lebih dari itu, kami juga berharap panduan ini benar-benar dapat menjadi panduan bagi anda untuk bersikap dan bertindak —secara perseorangan maupun kelompok— menyumbangkan sesuatu yang bermakna mengatasi masalah yang terlalu penting untuk diserahkan hanya kepada segelintir penguasa dan para pakar saja."
Book Chapters by Agung Wardana
Journal Articles by Agung Wardana
"Panduan yang anda pegang dan baca sekarang ini pada awalnya adalah selebaran yang dipersiapkan oleh para aktivis dan organisasi lingkungan hidup di Bali, dalam rangka Konferensi Internasional PBB tentang Perubahan Iklim, Desember 2007. Meskipun hajatan internasional tersebut telah berlalu, namun isi dari panduan ini tetap actual bahkan untuk puluhan tahun ke depan. Karena, isu pemanasan global dan perubahan iklim adalah masalah yang memang tak akan bias diselesaikan dalam jangka pendek. Isu ini menuntut upaya sistematis dan strategis berjangka panjang. Dan, yang terpenting dari semua upaya itu adalah keharusan melibatkan seluruh lapisan dan kalangan masyarakat luas untuk secara aktif mengantasipasinya.
Masalahnya adalah bahwa masih cukup banyak warga masyarakat kita, khususnya di Indonesia, yang belum terlalu memahami isu pemanasan global dan perubahan iklim ini. Meskipun sudah sering menjadi bahan pemberitaan di media massa, namun informasi tersebut biasanya terlalu umum atau bahkan hanya menyajikan gejala permukaannya saja. Panduan ini justru dibuat untuk menjelaskan, dalam gaya bahasa dan cara penyajian semudah mungkin, terutama bagi para pembaca awam. Karena itu, penuturannya disusun dalam bentuk pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang langsung disusul dengan jawaban-jawabannya secara ringkas dan padat.
Kami berharap panduan ini benar-benar dapat membantu anda memahami lebih baik salah satu masalah tergawat yang dihadapi oleh umat manusia sedunia saat ini. Lebih dari itu, kami juga berharap panduan ini benar-benar dapat menjadi panduan bagi anda untuk bersikap dan bertindak —secara perseorangan maupun kelompok— menyumbangkan sesuatu yang bermakna mengatasi masalah yang terlalu penting untuk diserahkan hanya kepada segelintir penguasa dan para pakar saja."
Keywords: climate change, international law, Kyoto Protocol
Keywords: Taro Village, Bali, Eco-Tourism, Political Ecology, Critical Tourism Studies
Keywords: socio-legal, legal geography, spatial governance, social conflicts, Indonesia
Key words: Indonesia, Bali, Resort Development, Legal Pluralism, Adat, Resistance.
Short Biography
Agung Wardana is a Lecturer at Department of Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Asia Research Center, Murdoch University, Australia, and a Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental law from the School of Law, the University of Nottingham, the UK. His articles have been published in, among others, the Asian Journal of Comparative Law, the Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, and Indonesia Law Review.
Keywords: cultural heritage, conservation, neoliberalism, tourism, World Bank, Bali, Indonesia.
This presentation will examine this re-territorialisation process using a legal pluralism approach. It argues that the reconfiguration and rescaling of the Subak Landscape of Catur Angga Batukaru did not carefully assess the pluralistic legal-institutional and power dynamics at every scale. As a result, alliances and contestations between social forces aimed primarily at accessing power and resources have used this complex legal-institutional setting to facilitate or constrain particular interests at the expense of others. The fundamental failure of the original nomination to undertake adequate consultation and ensure participation at the scale where local social interaction and political dynamics take place - the subak itself - is compounded by failure to ensure full participation and benefit sharing in the management of the World Heritage site since its designation. If not corrected, the disingenuous conflation of conservation and commodification objectives of power-holding interests will undoubtedly lead to the failure to build a sense of subak ownership toward the program and inability to prevent vested interests from undermining the interests of the whole.
With regard to environmental sustainability, the Provincial Government of Bali has issued a provincial regulation (perda) on spatial planning, the 2009 Provincial Regulation on Spatial Planning for Bali Province. Since space plays an important role in maintaining culture and social relationship among Balinese, it is clear that the regulation would determine the picture of Bali in the next twenty years. In fact, the regulation is still the subject of ongoing debate among a wide range of interests, from conservation to commodification paradigm, or from sacred and profane viewpoints. However, it seems that both arguments are for the sake of tourism development since the arguments put maintaining the paradise image of Bali (for tourists) as the main objective.
Therefore, the paper will examine how law plays a role in conducting debates between conservation and commodification viewpoints with regard to the provincial spatial plan of Bali and the extent to which justice is being accommodated in the regulation. Books, journal articles, regulations, reports, and other sources will be assessed critically for answering the purpose statements above.