Bali, Indonesia, has experienced accelerated urbanization and overtourism over the past decade, resulting in multifaceted social, economic, cultural, and environmental challenges. These dynamics have driven land conversion, exacerbated water shortages, intensified environmental degradation, deepened social inequalities, and contributed to the erosion of indigenous cultural practices. As competing claims over land and water resources intensify, Indigenous communities are increasingly marginalized, and the island faces escalating ecological pressures. Central to these dynamics is the Subak, an ancient community-managed irrigation and water management system that exemplifies the concept of hydrosocial territories—spaces where water and its management are deeply intertwined with social, cultural, and power dynamics. This system, fundamental to Bali’s agricultural landscape and cultural heritage, now faces growing strain as tourism investors and industries encroach on Subak territories, threatening its sustainability and the communities that depend on it. 
This research investigates pathways for reconstructing Subak’s hydrosocial territories to promote just development through spatial planning and governance frameworks. By focusing on the interplay between the hydrological systems of Subak, institutional governance structures, Indigenous community practices, and environmental sustainability, the study examines how the principles of spatial justice and learning from values can inform the reform of spatial and governance policies to protect and sustain Subak’s social and ecological significance without neglecting its Traditional Ecological Knowledge. 

The Puna de Atacama, home to vast salt flats and fragile highland ecosystems, is now being transformed by the extraction of lithium. This mineral is central to the green transition and global decarbonisation efforts, rendering the region a geophysical asset and a site of ontological dispute. As planetary urbanisation extends its operational landscapes into remote ecologies (Brenner & Katsikis, 2020), ancestral territories become increasingly entangled in extractive logics that reframe land, water and life through the imperatives of energy storage and global market demands.
This research project explores the potential for negotiations between different ontologies. Grounded in political ecology and decolonial thought, it explores how power relations are formed and how they influence the politics of transition, knowledge hierarchies, and the rationales underlying territorial governance. Through situated case studies in the Olaroz-Cauchari and Salinas Grandes–Laguna de Guayatayoc watersheds, the investigation unfolds along three interconnected lines of inquiry: the spatial organisation of extractivist and ancestral territorialities; governance structures and negotiations between divergent ontologies; and epistemic frameworks through which territory is interpreted, represented, and acted upon.
Ultimately, this thesis does not merely critique existing paradigms; it seeks to open up the possibility of alternative territorial configurations and imaginative approaches that recognise distributed agency, ontological plurality, and the potential for a fairer, more reciprocal and context-sensitive way of inhabiting these fragile, contested landscapes.