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management of the rice terraces, a subak
2
, apart from being part of a village commu-
nity. The rice paddy farmers in Bali demonstrate effective management of their rice
fields in a bottom up manner by agreeing on an irrigation schedule
within
and
be-
tween
Subaks [6]. The irrigation schedule synchronises the cropping patterns to avoid
pests and provides water for all the subaks. The success of the rice paddy farmers lie
in their ability to adapt to the ecological circumstances, in other words, their capacity
to engage in collective action. Any change in this ability of the farmers in a subak can
potentially affect the whole system of subaks that are interconnected by the river. For
instance, even short periods of lacking cooperation could have large impacts on the
harvest on multiple scales. In addition, the damage that this lack of cooperation can
produce takes time and effort to return to the state before cooperation was lacking,
just imagine the devastating effects on ecology to recover from pests, or the long way
a community needs go through in trusting each other again. The goal of our model
will thus be to explore the vulnerability of a social group within the Bali context and
explore on multiple scales the effect of such a system but also the role of our theories
and assumptions on the understanding of such as system.
Recent work done by Lansing et al [7] indicate variation between subaks in their
ability to adapt to environmental and social circumstances. . Lansing et al. [7] ex-
plored the age and demographic stability of subaks (their genetic diversity) in relation
to their ability to adapt, i.e., to engage in collective action. Communities with lower
adaptive capacity might potentially be more threatened by impacts of local or global
change such as an influx of newcomers or expansion of tourism. These empirical
hints of potential threats on to self organisation trigger questions: ' what affects the
adaptive ability capacity of farmer communities?, 'what is the effect on different
scales of varying capacity to adapt?' and in the larger frame of our project 'what does
the understanding of this case mean for general models of social dilemmas?'. Inspired
by these latest findings we focus on exploring potential threats on self-organising
groups and thereby on the ability to maintain the necessary ability to adapt to ecologi-
cal and social circumstances. The Bali irrigation case already proved its value for
understanding both the Bali case
3
and more generic reflections on cooperation and
ecological feedbacks [8].
This paper zooms in on the ABM design phase: the contextualisation of a generic
model of cooperation placed within the context of Bali irrigation. Although we use
2
The rice paddy farmers organise themselves in groups around a shared water resource, so-
called subaks. These subaks are embedded in a nested network of temples matching the isl-
and's landscape: ranging from the main temple and lake on top of this steep volcanic island,
via smaller temples at rivers, canals and weirs towards the rice paddy fields, where the water
ends her journey finally in the sea.
3
For instance the model developed by Lansing and Kremer demonstrated the necessity and
power of bottom-up organisation that convinced the consultants and government to continue
'modernisation' of bali agriculture was a big drama, (for a detailled description of the 'green
revolution, see chapter 1, [6]).
