Cowboys, Cowoks , Beachboys and Bombs: Matching Identity to Changing Socioeconomic Realities in Post-2005 North Bali

Abstract

The collapse of the tourist industry in Bali since late 2002 has had devastating effects on the lives of those who depended on tourism for their livelihood. This sector comprises a vast array of market segments, from those directly employed in hotels, restaurants and retail outlets, or those sustained by an ebullient domestic and export-oriented arts and crafts industry, to the miscellaneous self-employed who predicate their economic strategies on a guaranteed supply of tourists. The present paper examines one such group, the beachboys (cowok), who loiter around the beaches, cafes and bars of Lovina, North Bali, in hope of striking a love match with a foreigner. Such matches are perceived as providing a means of migration to an affluent Western or East Asian country, conceptualised as a place of fantastic wealth and opulence. Although this strategy frequently bore fruit during the prolonged tourism boom of the late 20th century, in the wake of the second series of terrorist bombings, occurring on October 2, 2005, it has foundered. Tourists have deserted the island in droves. The consequent economic and social vacuum so created is not only undermining beachboys’ aspirations for a luxurious life abroad, it may also be transforming the fundamental pattern of foreigner–local interactions in North and even South Bali. The present paper points to the implications of some of these macroeconomic and social changes for the ways in which North Balinese beachboys construct their identity as cowoks, both now and in the future.

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