Try and Find it - Understanding Public Space and Civil Society in Bali

Abstract

An ethnographic study using qualitative research methodology underwrites the following study. Withinthe current urban planning practice, the concept of public space exists in contradiction to private ownership. Within the global capitalist system, land is commodified like any other goodand is subject to ownership via the market mechanism. The endgame is for all land to have this status. In this context, there isbusiness. This paper, however, offers to renege on this perspective. It tries to understand public space within a system where use-value is the dominant concept. Taking Bali as its laboratory, this paper examines a hypothetical typology of public space that brings use values to the fore and denies the primacy of land as solely a profit-seeking medium for land rent, surplus value extraction from labor and profit on built form. While no doubt these processes will still take place, they must be assessed in the context of environmental ethics and fundamental human needs. In conclusion, this paper seeks a benevolent and humane planning practice that places people before profits. It implements this idea by saying that the creation of spaces whose use values can be accessed by all members of society must become the central planning strategy.