Research Program

The Cambodia Research Group Research Program, "Competing Hegemonies - Foreign-dominated processes of modernization and political change in post-conflict Cambodia"

Group members: Heidi Dahles (coordinator), Ngin Chanrith, Gerd Junne, Juliette Koning, Willemijn Verkoren, Un Kheang, So Sokbunthoeun, Heng Pheakdey, Khieng Sothy, Tea San, Gea Wijers and Michiel Verver.

Funded by: The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research

The Research Program contains the following sections:

• Summary
• Rationale
• Objectives and Questions
• Approach
• Projects
• References

For further enquiries, please contact Prof. Heidi Dahles: Contact.

Research Program: Summary

This research program addresses foreign-dominated processes of development in Cambodia, in particular economic growth and democratization and, thereby, aims at contributing to critical globalization scholarship. The context within which these processes obtain their significance is shaped by current Western practices of promoting good governance and the increasing presence of investors from the South. Cambodia constitutes a battlefield for influence of outside actors, as competing models of development emerge from the partly conflicting and partly converging interests and practices of international and local NGOs and community-based organizations, foreign investors from emerging economies and their partnerships with Cambodian actors (political elites and local entrepreneurs), and transnational networks of Cambodian returnees and the revitalized ethnic Chinese business community. The central question of the research program addresses the ways in which the diverging worldviews and interests of foreign hegemonies and related diasporic groups affect both the formation of a civil society and the development of a sustainable economy against the background of inconsistent government policies and patron-client relationships.

The methodology that integrates the different projects under this program is participatory on the one hand and heuristic on the other. The participative approach is informed by action research which is inclusive, emphasizing the integration of action and reflection. Systematic and intensive stakeholder involvement will be an integral part of the process of data-generation, theory-building and dissemination of findings throughout the program. In terms of the heuristic approach, the program employs triangulation: the combination of several research methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon by combining multiple theories, methods, and empirical data with the purpose of overcoming the weaknesses and biases that are integral to single-method, single-theory studies. The innovative dimension of this approach is that research will be an incessant process providing a learning environment for all parties involved and developing a knowledge network which is to continue after the program is finished. This approach opens an avenue for empirically based and socially embedded theory on hitherto neglected dimensions of globalization, involving those who have been overlooked as stakeholder (diverse diasporic groups) and, at the same time, those who work towards similar goals without taking notice of each other (civil society and private sector). The inclusion of academics and stakeholders in the research process and the joint development of a virtual knowledge network will make a unique and necessary contribution to capacity building and social change in Cambodia.

Research program: Rationale

In academic literature and policy papers, Cambodia – having emerged from an ideology-based civil war (1970-1975), followed by the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-79) and foreign occupation (1979-1989) - is usually listed among the post-conflict countries which are characterized by low state capacity, weak formal institutions and an economy that lacks entrepreneurial initiative and is largely dependent on aid from donor countries and foreign direct investments (FDI). In order to reduce the risk of renewed warfare – 40% of post-conflict countries fall back into civil war within a decade (Collier 2006) - institutional and structural change is called for by local, national and foreign stakeholders. The implementation of such change is often organized by Western donors around the concept of good governance involving (local) NGOs and civil society organizations engaging themselves in processes of democratization and offering conditional aid. In many post-conflict countries the engagement of such organizations has shown to be beneficial in terms of the diffusion of tension and support to the poor vis-à-vis failing government (Barnes 2001, Diamond et al 1995, Kaldor 2003, World Bank 2003). However, critical observers argue that massive amounts of aid may be counterproductive for development as it weakens institutional capacity (Ear 2007). Currently, against the Western orthodoxy of democracy, civil society development and ‘good governance’ as the way to move towards sustainable development, competing development models are gaining ground. More than other developing countries, post-conflict countries are battlefields of domination for outside actors (Junne & Verkoren 2005, Duffield 2001).

Cambodia constitutes such a battlefield as a multitude of actors have entered the country in the wake of national and foreign donor and aid organizations competing for control of constituency and civil society development and thus offsetting rapid social change. Currently, this rapid change creates extreme inequalities between rural and urban segments of society. About 85 per cent of the Cambodian population lives in rural areas and engages in agriculture (Mak 2007:27). Although poverty has been reduced drastically in the last decade, 35 per cent of the Cambodian population is still living beneath the poverty line (http://web.worldbank.org). Domestic companies do not participate much by way of investments and exports (Humphrey & Schmitz 2007). Cambodia has had trouble attracting FDI due to the unreliable legal environment and poor governance. Levels of transparency and accountability are low (the country holds the 166th position out of 180 on the 2008 Corruption Perception Index) and traditions of authoritarianism and extraction prevail (Hughes 2002, Kent 2006:5, Ojendal & Kim 2006). The Cambodian government falls short of providing effective law-enforcement, a reliable system of state revenue collection, and overall trust in the state apparatus.

On the other hand, Cambodia is experiencing fast economic expansion: double digit growth (in 2008, 2007, 2006 of 7.5%, 9,5% and 11% respectively), inflow of foreign (Chinese, South Korean, Japanese, Malaysian, Middle Eastern, Thai and Vietnamese) investments and the increasing flow of remittances. In 2005, for the first time in five years, FDI increased to $216 million (US Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs 2007), mainly because of rapidly expanding investments from mainland China and other emerging economies in Asia and beyond. In addition, large numbers of Cambodians residing abroad have started to contribute to Cambodia’s economic development through remittances and direct investments (Ebihara et al 1994). Compared to the overall Cambodian aid budget and the GDP, the relative size of inbound remittances is impressive and growing from $9 million in 1990 to $200 million in 2005 and $322 in 2007 (Worldbank 2008). Moreover, the ethnic Chinese in Cambodia, after having been absorbed by the Khmer majority for a long time, increasingly manifest themselves as an ethnically distinct business community (Gottesman 2004: 357, Dahles & Ter Horst 2006). Due to this economic progress, coupled with increasing political consolidation and stability, the arrest of the last Khmer Rouge insurgents, and a more or less democratic processes of election, the Cambodian government obtained a certain measure of public support and, therefore, more legitimacy.
However, Cambodia continues to rely on foreign assistance - about half of its central government budget depends on donor assistance. Foreign donors to Cambodia pledged a total of $698 million for 2007 (Thun 2009) with the European Union (US$170 million), Japan (US$112 million) and China (US$91.5 million) being the largest (Rutherford et al 2008). Submitting to the 1989 Washington Consensus, Western donors and NGOs take a neo-liberal approach for integrating Cambodia into the global system of free trade and liberal democracy (Barnes 2006). Conversely, the aid provided by many non-Western governments seem to come without any conditions attached. The contribution of China alone is impressive as it pledged a total of $600 million in aid and loans to Cambodia (BBC 08-04-06). In addition, South Korea recently pledged $1.8 million for rural development (Kampuchea Daily, 2008) and $30 million of loans (People’s Daily 2006). Therefore, we can speak of a competition between Western and East Asian aid donors.

The Cambodian government’s attitude toward civil society has been ambivalent during the last decade (Junne & Verkoren 2005). Although the government accepts political pluralism - some 200 international and 400 local NGOs are active within a total population of only 14 million (Harris 2006:169) - civil society is largely at the mercy of political instability (Mak 2007:33). Due to the enduring poverty in many parts of the country, people seem preoccupied with their daily livelihoods, leaving the political arena to others. Democratization seems to become a project of the mobile and transnational returnees in collaboration with external agencies acting on behalf but in fact beyond the control of local people (Hughes 2004:214). Rapid economic growth creates a deepening divide between the politically well-connected, internationalized elite and the rural and urban poor (Kent 2006:5). While donor aid from non-western countries does not come with demands for good governance attached, it does seem to broker access for its corporations to Cambodia’s untapped natural resources and cheap labor. The increasing economic impact of aid and investments from countries as diverse as Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam on the one hand and the persistent dependence on aid from all kinds of donors - coupled with the decline of the hegemonic power of the United States - on the other hand, raises the question as to how Cambodian organizations and institutions adopt and adapt to the diverging donor practices and multiple models of development implied.

Research program: Objectives and Questions

The main objectives of this program are (1) to analyze the diverging ways in which the main stakeholders in Cambodian development (government, civil society, foreign investors, and the Cambodian returnee and business community) position themselves vis-à-vis one another and the development models that emerge in their wake and (2) to involve these stakeholders in data-generation, theory-building and the dissemination of findings throughout the research process and beyond (3) by building a sustainable knowledge network which will contribute to social change.

The central question addresses the ways in which the partly converging and partly conflicting worldviews and interests of foreign hegemonies and related diasporic groups affect both the formation of a civil society and the development of an embedded economy against the background of inconsistent government policies in Cambodia.

This central question identifies four domains to be elaborated by sub-questions, i.e., (1) national government, (2) civil society, (3) diasporic and returnee involvement, and (4) the embedded economy.

Sub-questions:

1. What changes do the competing development models generate in terms of opportunities for and threats to diverse actors and how do these changes affect the political culture in Cambodia?
2. Against the background of competing hegemonic models, how do international and local NGOs negotiate between their constituencies, national government, international donor agencies and community-based organizations on the one hand and the pressure emanating from private sector involvement on the other? 
3. At what scale and scope do investors from emerging economies in East Asia impact upon the Cambodian economy and to what extent do these investors create conditions for the emergence of an embedded economy including Cambodian entrepreneurs and donor organizations?
4. In what ways do different diasporic groups involve themselves in and what effects do these kinds of involvements have for the development of both urban and rural society?

Research program: Approach

Methodology
The geographical focus of the projects encompasses the rural-urban nexus (hence the comparison between urban centers and rural location that characterizes the program as a whole) and the transnational comparative dimension (which is particularly relevant for projects addressing the international-local NGO interaction, the diasporic and returnee involvement and the impacts of foreign investors on urban and rural communities).

The methodological approach that integrates the different projects under this program is informed by action research which – following Lewin (1946) - is ‘committed to the social engagement of the social sciences both as a strategy for advancing fundamental knowledge and as a way of enabling the social sciences to contribute solutions to important social problems’ (Susman & Evered 1978: 587). In its contemporary application, action research is participative and inclusive, emphasizing the integration of action and reflection (Leitch 2007: 147). Therefore, systematic and intensive stakeholder involvement will be an integral part of the process of data-generation, theory-building and dissemination of findings throughout the program. As part of the heuristic approach, the program employs triangulation: the application and combination of several research methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon by combining multiple theories, methods, and empirical data with the purpose of overcoming the weaknesses and biases that are integral to single-method, single-theory studies. The methods employed will include cost-benefit analysis, value chain analysis, policy analysis, ethnographic multi-sited fieldwork, interviews, focus group discussions, discourse analysis, quantitative digital data analysis, virtual ethnography and content analysis. In terms of participatory approach, a (virtual) knowledge network (building on existing infrastructure of partner institutions) will facilitate ongoing debates on research results, provide continuous feedback to both researchers and stakeholders, and involve international research networks.

Expected outcome:
As critics of the Washington Consensus - strengthened by the recent global economic crisis - point out, the old hegemonies and their neo-liberal good governance-based reform model are severely damaged. State-centrism, on the other hand, does not work either, as the decline of centrally managed economies worldwide has shown. Emerging economies in East Asia – especially those under a developmental state model – hardly offer a viable alternative for countries with a fragile state apparatus. For lack of best practice examples, these countries are facing the problem of finding examples that may be applicable to their current situation. With its relative political stability that has been sustained for over a decade, its rapid economic growth and its rising middle-class, Cambodia seems to emerge as a relative success-story among the current post-conflict countries. The research will identify the conditions that allow the newly emerging Cambodian society to sustain its current path to development and the dangers that lurk along this path. Studying the Cambodian case in-depth and addressing the complex interplay among declining and emerging stakeholders, the research program will provide a profound understanding of development beyond the post-conflict situation. The challenge is to adequately address the possible outcome of the competition between these stakeholders against the background of shifting global power balances. The results should be capable of being applied to other (national) contexts, contribute to theory building as outline below and facilitate learning processes among the academic and stakeholder organizations involved.

Interdisciplinary and integrative approach
This program advocates a multi-disciplinary approach addressing debates of critical globalization scholarship (Bello 2002, Berger & Huntington 2002, Cameron & Palan 2004, Hardt & Negri 2000, Harvey 2003, Saul 2005, Urry 2002) in which perspectives ‘from below’ open up vistas on local agency vis-à-vis changing global hegemonies. Critical globalization scholarship is informed by a wide array of disciplines which find common ground in their view of global relations as de-centered and de-territorialized and as incorporating hybrid identities, flexible hierarchies and plural exchanges through multi-layered networks (Hardt & Negri 2000:xii-xv). This critical approach to globalization finds resonance among scholars of political theory, who call for more comparative research on different transnational networks operating within the same national and local political context (Mahler 1998), a call which is answered by this Cambodia-focused program. A recurring theme in globalization studies is the future of the nation state. In addressing this issue in particular for weak or fragile states, institutional theory has argued that such states need to employ not only regulatory but also entrepreneurial activity in collaboration with private capital as a necessary part of economic transformation – a condition of embedded autonomy (Evans 1989:581). Likewise, reformist economists influenced by institutional theory have pointed out that private entrepreneurs are not only directed at accumulating personal gain, but are embedded in structures of social relations and contribute to social change (Granovetter 1985). In this research, the embeddedness concept will not only be applied to state and economy at large, but will also inform the investigations after emerging cross-sector social partnerships (Austin 2000, Selsky & Parker 2005) and diasporic economic activities and, thereby, linking up with the vast literature on the embedded character of Chinese business networks (Dahles 2008, 2005; Hamilton 1991). Hence the research will contribute to the literature on the innovative potential of returning diaspora and resurfacing hitherto silenced ethnic groups (Naím 2002). Conversely, research on the (un-)boundedness of transnational political and economic networks raises the question whether dominant discourses on democracy and capitalism can be transplanted into transnational society (Hilhorst 2003). This has also been the leading question in current development research which elaborates on the increasing presence of emerging economies of the South in developing countries (cf. Fernandez & Hogenboom 2007), acknowledging the relevance of South-South relations in a globalizing world.

For the different disciplinary approaches to contribute to the building of an integrated theoretical perspective, the research will be organized as an incessant and integrative learning path for both the researchers and the key-stakeholders involved in this program. A strong integrative effect is expected from shared engagement in education for Cambodian students and young professionals, in particular the joint design of courses on core themes emerging from this program in cooperation with the Network University. It is by means of learning that the current research program intends both to affect and effect social change in Cambodia.

Innovative aspects
1. The approach: the research will be an incessant process, evolving into a knowledge network which is to continue even after the program is finished.
2. The methodology: action research will provide a learning environment for all organizations involved and will encourage these organizations to change and develop.
3. The theoretical perspective: the program envisions the development of an empirically-based and socially embedded theory on hitherto neglected dimensions of globalization.
4. The stakeholders: the program aims at involving those who have been overlooked as stakeholder and, at the same time, those who work towards similar goals without taking notice of each other.
5. The applied outcome: the inclusion of academics and stakeholders in the research as a shared learning process will make a unique and necessary contribution to capacity building in Cambodia, facilitated by the Amsterdam-based Network University.

Research Program: Projects

Project 1

Title of project:
The dynamics of state-society relations under competing development models I (post-doc)

Name researcher: Dr. Ngin Chanrith

Description:
This project addresses the changes which the competing development models generate in terms of opportunities for and threats to diverse actors and the way in which these changes affect the political culture in Cambodia.

The central question:
To what extent does the Cambodian state succeed in (or fail to) managing the new and established models of development and who benefits – with what consequence for the development of Cambodia – from the state’s successes or failures?


Project 2

Title of project:
The dynamics of state-society relations under competing development models II (post-doc)

Name researcher: So Sokbunthoeun

Description:
This project continues the research of project 1.


Project 3

Title of project:
Local NGOs facing many globalizations (PhD)

Name researcher: Khieng Sothy

Description:
The aim of the project is to provide an analysis of the challenges faced by local NGOs as a consequence of competing models of development that take root in Cambodia. 

The central question:
How do local NGOs – in their effort to contribute to civil society development in Cambodia – attempt to create a niche between the priorities set by diverging international actors, the needs of their local constituencies and often hostile government policy?


Project 4

Title of project:
China’s investments in Cambodia: an alternative path to development? (PhD)

Name researcher: Heng Pheakdey

Description:
This project addresses the scale and scope of impacts that investments from China exert on the Cambodian economy and the opportunities and/or restrictions that these investments pose for the emergence of an embedded economy.

Central question:
How do the diverging ways in which Chinese investments are (dis-)embedded in the Cambodian economy affect local livelihoods and what policy measures are called for to prevent the exploitative economic activities of China from undermining Cambodia’s long-term growth prospects?


Project 5

Title of project:
The South Korean Investment boom: an opportunity for Cambodian employment and entrepreneurship?

Name researcher: Tea San

Description:
This project is another exploration into the opportunities and/or restrictions of foreign investments for the emergence of an embedded economy, in particular with regard to South Korean investments in Cambodia.

Central question:
What role does the Cambodian government play in attracting and facilitating South Korean investments, and to what extent are these investments embedded in the Cambodian economy, contributing to sustainable development?


Project 6

Title of project:
Institutional entrepreneurship and the Cambodian diaspora (PhD)

Name researcher: Gea Wijers

Description:
The central object of this research is to compare the value added by Cambodian American and Cambodian French returnee-entrepreneurs in local and international civil society organizations - understood also as intrapreneurship - to the societal development of Cambodia.

Central question:

What are the critical economic and political conditions both enabling and restricting first generation Cambodian American and Cambodian French returnee-intrapreneurs to contribute to societal change in Cambodia?


Project 7

Title of project:
Returnee Businesses and Social Change in Cambodia: a Comparative Perspective (PhD)

Name researcher: (vacancy)

Description:
This project is another exploration into the involvement of diasporic groups engaging in the Cambodian economy and the effects of this involvement on the development of both urban and rural society.

Central question:
To what extent does entrepreneurship figure among the forms of capital investments among returnees in Cambodia and to what extent does such entrepreneurship contribute to social value creation including social change in such a way that one may speak of ‘social entrepreneurship’?


Project 8

Title of project:
The revitalization of ethnic Chinese business networks in Cambodia (PhD)

Name researcher: Michiel Verver

Description:
Throughout Cambodian history ethnic Chinese groups have maintained a dominant position in the economy and have cultivated cultural ties with Chinese hometown associations. Two developments seem to contribute to this revitalization: 1. the influx of public and private Chinese investments 2. the diasporic link which channels considerable investments from South-East Asian countries with a substantial ethnic Chinese population to Cambodia.

Central question:
To what extent do the resurgent entrepreneurial activities of the ethnic Chinese in Cambodia offer a viable path to development emulating the success story of other Southeast Asian countries with a substantial ethnic Chinese population?


Activities senior researchers 

Name(s) researcher: Dr. Willemijn Verkoren

Description:
Dr. Verkoren will provide expertise in the area of civil society and (local and international) NGOs in post-conflict countries, particularly the issues they face as part of processes of globalization including the issues that figure prominently in this research program, i.e. the ‘economization’ of (I)NGOs, their relationship with CBOs and problems of legitimacy, negotiations with newly emerging elites and their coalitions with foreign hegemonies figuring prominently in the soaring extractive industries that jeopardize local livelihoods.

Name(s) researcher: Dr. Un Kheang

Description:
Dr. Un will act as advisor to the researchers in this program based on his expertise and long-standing involvement with processes democratization, human rights, and non-governmental organizations.

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