Balinese Social Entrepreneurs and the Pursuit of Harmony

Abstract

Using four Balinese case studies in the crafts, arts, disability, and hospitality sectors, this thesis examines the question of why Balinese engage in social entrepreneurial activities and what makes Balinese social entrepreneurs distinctive. In Bali and across the world, social entrepreneurs represent a set of social actors positioned uniquely to provide new solutions to social issues. As this thesis shows, there are ancestral values that may (not) fit with imposed Western values behind social entrepreneurship. Thus, my original contribution to knowledge is the analysis of Balinese actors within a dynamic interplay of ancestral and Western values. This approach is informed by the idea that Balinese social actions are characterised by heterogeneous elements that coalesce to create unique and dynamic social entrepreneurial networks leading to collective agency. The Balinese environment is articulated in terms of the tri hita karana philosophy — a three-fold pathway to perceived harmony between people, gods, and nature that underpins actions and profoundly influences policymaking. Thus, Balinese act in environments encompassing interdependent objects that accumulate discourse and hold agency through events — visible and invisible — that they encounter. The entanglements with ideologies, events, and objects cannot be separated from personal values. Such values are permeated through networks, which have the capacity to inform practitioners, scholars, and policymakers in ethical decision-making. One’s values are critical guiding principles within one’s belief system about how one ought to behave. Yet, Balinese values are not necessarily a mirror of tri hita karana, and as the case studies suggest, the relationships between ancestral and Western values are complex. The case studies lead to a typology of Balinese value dimensions (spiritual, social, material and political) of overlapping and downscaled themes that emerged through the four unique social entrepreneurial networks: Tinta, Buaya, Cahaya, and Rasa. Importantly, I argue that values are time-bound and fluid, and they undergo reinterpretation over time, through actions and their connection to historical events. Accordingly, this thesis conceptualises Balinese social entrepreneurs as ancestral value-laden actors whose personal values shape moral actions and relationships.