TY - JOUR KW - intangible heritage KW - cultural landscape KW - friction KW - heritage management KW - Living heritage AU - Graeme MacRae AB - In 2012 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added to its World Heritage List the ‘Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the subak system as a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy’. Barely a year later, UNESCO had become sufficiently concerned about reports of various problems that it advised the Government of Indonesia of these concerns. Through ethnographic study of the initial implementation of the listing, this article reveals problems of uncontrolled development, and disputes over the allocation of benefits to local communities, and challenges to effective governance. It focuses on two key locations of the site, offering an analysis of problems, their causes and effects. Beginning with the premise that the gulf of understanding between the global World Heritage system and local communities often creates a range of unintended consequences, this article reveals the many ‘awkward engagements’ that have emerged ‘on the ground’ in Bali as local agencies of government are left to their own devices to manage the World Heritage site. © 2017 Graeme MacRae. Published with licence by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor \& Francis Group. DO - 10.1080/13527258.2017.1339107 M1 - 9 N1 - Publisher: Routledge N2 - In 2012 the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added to its World Heritage List the ‘Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the subak system as a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy’. Barely a year later, UNESCO had become sufficiently concerned about reports of various problems that it advised the Government of Indonesia of these concerns. Through ethnographic study of the initial implementation of the listing, this article reveals problems of uncontrolled development, and disputes over the allocation of benefits to local communities, and challenges to effective governance. It focuses on two key locations of the site, offering an analysis of problems, their causes and effects. Beginning with the premise that the gulf of understanding between the global World Heritage system and local communities often creates a range of unintended consequences, this article reveals the many ‘awkward engagements’ that have emerged ‘on the ground’ in Bali as local agencies of government are left to their own devices to manage the World Heritage site. © 2017 Graeme MacRae. Published with licence by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor \& Francis Group. SP - 846 EP - 859 TI - Universal heritage meets local livelihoods: awkward engagements at the world cultural heritage listing in Bali UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85028756035&doi=10.1080%2f13527258.2017.1339107&partnerID=40&md5=c4baa7b75d505a0640fc9806083ce2af VL - 23 SN - 13527258 (ISSN) ER -