Playing with ambiguity: The making and unmaking of local power in postcolonial Timor‐Leste

Abstract

This article discusses the ambivalent status of local authorities in postcolonial state building in Timor-Leste. We deploy two sets of empirical data to analyse the role ambiguity plays in particular power dynamics: the East Timorese legislation on community authority, and ethnographic descriptions of a local form of conflict resolution at the village level. The ethnographic analysis points to the fact that local