Balancing Between Land and Sea Rights—An Analysis of the ‘Pagar Laut’ (Sea Fences) in Tangerang, Indonesia

The construction of a fence in the sea made of bamboo sticks along the coastal areas of Tangerang, Indonesia, caused controversies and many public debates in most Indonesian media. The case is, however, not unique. It provides a means to pose three questions: (1) which controversies and contradictions between formal procedures and informal practices related to land and sea rights exist (2) which values and perceptions of the involved stakeholders play a role in these controversies and contradictions (3) which kind of boundary work or boundary objects could resolve these controversies and contradictions. The theoretical embedding lies in the theories of territory and space on the one hand and formal institutional models of land and sea on the other hand. The analytical model to evaluate the controversies and contradictions constitutes the 7S model, while the data are extracted from journalistic public media reports and social media. The results show a significant discrepancy in shared values when formal and informal territorial claims emerge, as well as a lack of enforcement capacity and/or excessive and uncontrolled discretionary space. The boundary work lies in better enforcement and stricter control of procedural steps and in softer government campaigns to raise awareness and reflexivity into emerging or hidden spatial plans in land and sea.