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 developments8. 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 r