Processes of disembedding and displacement: anomie and the juridification of religio-ethnic identity in post-New Order Bali

Abstract

This article applies Karl Polanyi's observation of a double movement of law in the history of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Europe to an analysis of Bali's integration into the global cultural economy. It describes how the increasing disembedding of the island's tourist industry from local norms and institutions, and the parallel disjuncture between Balinese religiosity and Indonesian state religion have created a condition of increasing collective anomie that has in turn provoked endeavors to juridify the Balinese religio-ethnic identity. Conceding the partial success of the juridification process that has been facilitated by the recent governance reform, and that has indeed effected a significant degree of re-embedding both tourism and religion into local culture, the article argues that not only has the anomic condition not been attenuated; the potential for internal conflict and division has even been enhanced.