The Vortex of “Illegality” in Balinese Contested Space: Local Gangster, Desa Adat, and the Aristocrats

The contemporary era of Bali provides a new contested space for even more complex actors. Guided by Reformasi, the production of space in Bali which is related to tourism interests is also the field for local gangster, Desa Adat and the Aristocrats to exercise their power at the local level. This research argues that the neoliberalism process through the production of (tourism) space in Bali is not exclusively conducted between the private sector(s) and the central government – but smoothened by the vortex of ‘illegality’ consisting of these three local entities. While Desa Adat and the Aristocrats trade their owned land, the local gangsters secure the dispossession process. By elaborating David Harvey’s conceptual framework on Production of Space and Simon Springer’s Violent Neoliberalism as the contextualization, this research explains how neoliberalism works through the tourism expansion in the “virgin” territorial of Bali, mainly in the Eastern side.