Table of Contents

Introduction to contemporary Cambodia

Part 1: Political and economic tensions

1. The contemporary geopolitics of Cambodia: Alignments in regional and global contexts

2. Justice inverted: Law and human rights in

3. Justice and the past: The Khmer Rouge tribunal

4. Civil society in Cambodia: Challenges and contestation

5. Micro-saturated: The promises and pitfalls of microcredit as a development solution

6. The media in Cambodia

7. Tourism in Cambodia: Opportunities and challenges

Part 2: Rural developments

8. Exploring rural livelihoods through the lens of coastal fishers

9. Practices and challenges towards sustainability

10. The imperative of good water governance in Cambodia

11. Cambodia’s highlanders: Land, livelihoods and the politics of indigeneity

12. Under pressure: Environmental risk and contemporary resilience strategies in rural Cambodia

13. Concessions in Cambodia: Governing profits, extending state power and enclosing resources from the colonial era to the present

14. From chicken wing receipts to students in military uniforms: Land titling and property in post-conflict Cambodia

Part 3: Urban conflicts

15. Urban megaprojects and city planning in Phnom Penh

16. Labor rights and unions in Cambodia

17. The ties that bind: Rural-urban linkages in the Cambodian migration system

18. Real estate productions, practices, and strategies in contemporary Phnom Penh: An overview of social, economic, and political issues

19. Forced relocation in Cambodia

20. Homelessness in Cambodia: The terror of gentrification

21. Phnom Penh’s relocation sites and the obliteration of politics

22. Street vending in Phnom Penh: Flourishing but invisible

Part 4: Social processes

23. The contemporary landscape of education in Cambodia: Hybrid spaces of the "public" and "private"

24. Health: medical cosmologies and medical inequities

25. Violence against women and girls in Cambodia

26. Gendered politics of power in contemporary Cambodia

27. Sex politics and moral panics: LGBT communities, sex/entertainment works and sexually- active youth in Cambodia

28. Children, childhood and youth in contemporary Cambodia

29. Households and family processes

30. Digital technologies in contemporary Cambodia

Part 5: Cultural currents

31. Ethnic identities in Cambodia

32. Violence and memorialization in Cambodia

33. A shifting universe – religion and moral order in Cambodia

34. The persistent presence of Cambodian spirits: Contemporary knowledge production in Cambodia

35. Natural and cultural heritage in Cambodia

36. Destination Cambodia: A volunteer tourism boom

37. Addressing the contemporary: Recent trends and debates in Cambodian visual art

38. Finding new ground: Maintaining and transforming traditional music

About the Author

Katherine Brickell is Reader in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, and recipient of the 2014 Royal Geographical Society Gill Memorial Award. For over a decade, her research has focused on gender, violence and rights in Cambodia.

Simon Springer is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Victoria, Canada and recipient of the 2015 Association of American Geographers Stanley D. Brunn Young Scholar Award. He has authored four books, including Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order (Routledge, 2012).

Reviews

This Handbook is sure to become the definitive starting point for just about anyone—from students to policymakers—to understand the political and economic tensions, rural developments, urban conflicts, social processes, and cultural currents underpinning today’s Cambodia. The contributors are top-notch and include a wide range of scholars ranging from geographers turned social constructivists to demographers to anti-corruption experts to journalists turned biographers. The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia is truly a collection of gems that will be mined for many years to come.Sophal Ear, Occidental College, Los Angeles, USAIn this crowded, courageous and penetrating collection of essays, over fifty scholars and activists examine some of the issues that press against Cambodia today. These deeply committed, highly professional chapters come together to form a path-breaking, invaluable, but often saddening book.David Chandler, Monash University, AustraliaHaving given six years of my service for the promotion and protection of human rights in Cambodia as a senior UN official, I was pleased to see the publication of this book which examines in an interdisciplinary manner different facets of Cambodia. After going through a tragic past, Cambodia is emerging out of the ashes of conflict, lasting more nearly 30 years, as a forward-looking nation. It has started to build state institutions and infrastructure from scratch and is making significant progress in this regard. However, there is a dearth of academic literature on different aspects of Cambodian life and this book seems to fill that gap and fill in a handsome manner. Hence, it is a welcome and timely publication. The coverage of the book is comprehensive and should thus provide the reader with a good overview of the situation of the legal, political and economic landscape in Cambodia, a country with a rich cultural heritage. I highly commend this book to those interested in Cambodia.Surya P. Subedi, University of Leeds, UKThe book opens a window into the realities of life for those living in the country today. More than 50 international and Cambodian researchers shine a spotlight on the justice system, microcredit, rural livelihoods and urban conflicts such as forced relocations.Michelle Vachon, The Cambodia Daily ... the "Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia" remains a vital and indispensable guide to understanding Cambodian society as it is today. Besides exploring the com-plexities of current areas of conflict, it also provides a timely and highly relevant glimpse into a diversity of subjects such as visual arts, the maintenance and transfor-mation of traditional music, the persistence of spirits and religious and moral order, the politics of good water governance, the structure of the education system, labor rights, micro-finance, and the judicial system and important laws. All in all, the volume is required reading for practitioners, academ-ics, and professionals working on and in Cambodia.Daniel Bultmann, ASIEN, The German Journal on Contemporary Asia