Download full text
(external source)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1868103419845520
Exports for your reference manager
Struggles for Life: Smallholder Farmers' Resistance and State Land Relations in Contemporary Cambodia
[journal article]
Abstract Struggles revolving around questions of land access and control occupy a central place in the political and social life of contemporary Cambodia. In this study, we examine three cases of struggles against economic [State] land concessions. In a context of unequal power distribution among the actors ... view more
Struggles revolving around questions of land access and control occupy a central place in the political and social life of contemporary Cambodia. In this study, we examine three cases of struggles against economic [State] land concessions. In a context of unequal power distribution among the actors involved, we elicit the place of the peasantry and its agency to resist and engage in negotiations with multi-level State authorities and market actors. We show how conflict management occurs through hybrid institutions to produce contingent rules that are specific outcomes of the negotiation between actors. Despite the shrinking space of contestation in Cambodia, these contingent rules reveal that opportunities for negotiation can be created for smallholder farmers to protect their land resources. Beyond the specificities of each particular conflict transformation trajectory, we also argue that State land management is a dynamic process that combines a calculus by authorities to retain social legitimacy and reproduce their sovereign power in respect of land.... view less
Keywords
landed property; rural population; resistance; right of ownership; conflict; conflict management; land; Cambodia; Southeast Asia
Classification
Sociology of Developing Countries, Developmental Sociology
Free Keywords
state land; smallholder farmers; land conflicts; contingent rules
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 10-32
Journal
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 38 (2019) 1
Issue topic
Social movements in Cambodia
ISSN
1868-4882
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed