Sokphea Young | University College London (original) (raw)

Articles by Sokphea Young

Contemporary Southeast Asia , 2021

It is postulated that collective labour movements responding to demands for political reform, rat... more It is postulated that collective labour movements responding to demands for political reform, rather than to workplace demands, are key actors in democratic mobilization. Contrary to this proposition, this article draws on evidence from labour movements and related social allies in Cambodia to examine why they fail to mobilize in support of democratic revolutions. This article argues that labour movements in Cambodia do not "burst onto the political scene" because they possess weak social and institutional alliances with political actors, such as opposition parties and other interest groups, to establish a democratic revolution.

South East Asia Research , 2021

We are living in the age of photography. Photography and visual social media have flooded our com... more We are living in the age of photography. Photography and visual social media have flooded our communication channels and become embodied in our daily activities. People who can afford the medium of photography—people who are described here as ‘citizens of photography’—use these channels to articulate and represent their grievances. These exemplify a form of visual activism and articulation that have long been discussed in social movement studies, yet the links between photography and social movements remain unpacked. Drawing on a socio-environmental movement case in Cambodia, this paper interrogates how photographic and visual representations, and social media shape the outcomes of collective action by disgruntled citizens. The paper argues that the ubiquity of visual devices and digital access to visual social media facilitates underprivileged citizens in grassroots movements to aesthetically exert influence on their targets in order to leverage their demands effectively. Beyond considering images as messengers and mediatisation, the power of visual images inspires and provokes action: participation in the protest, and re-production and re-circulation of the images on social media. The power of visual images—produced by ordinary citizens—is the performative force that brings about change in the era of social media.

The launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has sparked scholarly interest in understand... more The launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has sparked scholarly interest in understanding how global Chinese capital has entered and faced the unique challenges often associated with the business and regulatory environments of developing economies. Drawing on the case of Cambodia, this paper seeks to understand: i) how the new generation of overseas Chinese investors and companies, in the era of BRI, acquire licences and secure business operation in developing economies; and ii) how these investments cope with the host country's regulatory institutions: including grassroots communities and civil society organizations. This paper argues that, while the BRI Chinese investors has played a crucial role in the Cambodian economy, this injection of capital has co-opted and exacerbated the ambiguity of Cambodia's regulatory environment. These Chinese investors have perpetuated the host country's socio-political culture of patron-client networks, partly entrenched by the Sino-Cambodian elites. These networks are necessary to tap into secure investment operations, and they duly capture (influenced) regulatory institutions at the expense of marginalized communities and civil society organizations. Drawing on Cambodia's case, the paper contributes to the understanding of patron-client relations and regulatory capture in the context of socio-legal studies and the political economy of China's global capitalism.

Amsterdam University Press, 2019

Small landholding is a defining feature of Cambodian farmers and represents the ways of life of t... more Small landholding is a defining feature of Cambodian farmers and represents the ways of life of the majority of Cambodians. Despite rapid urbanization, a large majority of Cambodians remain living in rural areas and most of them are smallholders. Socially and historically Cambodian smallholders were 'class in themselves' and their cultural significance has been relevant to recent Cambodian social and political lives. Today Cambodian smallholders play a crucial role in the country's economy but are faced with issues that threaten their ways of life, from national politics and policies to regional economic dynamics and climate change. While smallholding remains economically and politically crucial for Cambodia, the next generation of Cambodian smallholders may find their smallholding future uncertain.

China, Law and Development, 2019

Chinese investors and companies areexploiting the host country’s socio-political culture of patro... more Chinese investors and companies areexploiting the host country’s socio-political culture of patronage networks,partly entrenched by previous generationsof Chinese migrants to Cambodia, in orderto influence regulations and secureinvestment operations.
The patron-client relationship is a culturalform of intermediary that ensures long-term business success in the host country’suncertain regulatory enforcement.
The Sino-diaspora is the key para-legalintermediary for a new generation ofChinese investment and way of doingbusiness in the era of the Belt and RoadInitiative.

IDS working paper, 2019

This report on Cambodia is one of a set of four country case studies designed to study the implic... more This report on Cambodia is one of a set of four country case studies designed to study the implications of closing civic space for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The case study was commissioned in response to the wave of legal, administrative, political and informal means to restrict civic space and the activities of civil society actors in countries around the world in the past decade. Based on a literature review and conceptual framework developed for the study (see also Hossain et al 2018), the report documents changing civic space in Cambodia. The country is characterized by a centralised political system where power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the dominant ruling class. Development policy has prioritized high-growth goals, with documented violations of land, labour and freedom of speech rights in the process. The case study documents the impacts on specific Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) objectives, including no poverty (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2), decent work (SDG 8), gender and economic equality (SDGs 5 and 10) inclusive communities (SDG 11), life on the land (SDG 15).

Journal of International Relations and Development , 2019

In social movements and contentious politics, the factors determining success or failure of a mov... more In social movements and contentious politics, the factors determining success or failure of a movement remain contested since different scholars tend to argue differently. As a contribution to this debate, this paper draws on two cases representing the relative success and failure of movements targeting the government of Cambodia and foreign joint venture investments to address the communities' grievances. The paper reveals that, while other factors such as strategies, resource mobilisation, networks and corporate behaviour remain necessary to the debate, the variation in outcome is essentially determined by the patron-client network, a political dynamic employed by the neo-patrimonial rulers to cling onto power.

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 2019

In the realm of global environmental governance, accountability has been key to the debate concer... more In the realm of global environmental governance, accountability has been key to the debate concerning pervasive environmental deterioration. Among the factors underlying this deterioration, a perceived challenge is the lack of clear mechanisms for identifying to whom the actors in environmental governance in general, and in other sectors, for example, hydropower, agricultural land, mining, and infrastructure in particular, are accountable to for their actions. To investigate the challenge of this situation, this article explores the ways in which the protest movements of grassroots communities and non-governmental organizations endeavour to hold government and foreign corporations accountable for the actions they have taken which have contributed to environmental degradation in Cambodia. Drawing on two case studies, this article argues that these protest movements have played an increasing role in requiring environmental accountability from both government and corporations.

As a contribution to the growing literature on transnational advocacy networks (TANs) in the glob... more As a contribution to the growing literature on transnational advocacy networks (TANs) in the global production networks, this paper examines how Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), which have adopted the framework of TANs, influence the sugar industry in Cambodia. Due to ineffective domestic influencing strategies, the CSOs adopted the TANs framework and escalated to the international supply chain movement approach (ISCMA) aiming to influence international stakeholders at each stage of the sugar supply chains in order to leverage boomerang pressure on the sugar producing companies, and the Government of Cambodia. Despite its resourceful networking strategies, ISCMA failed to leverage significant influence on the sugar companies and the Government to achieve their demands. The failure was not due to weak networks, but was in part due to the political nexus between the Government and the sugar companies. This paper suggests that to ensure the effectiveness of CSOs' actions within the TANs framework in the global production networks, one should take into account the power of the Government in relation to local politico-commercial elites.

From agrarian perspective, the resistance occurs as a result of expropriation and dispossession o... more From agrarian perspective, the resistance occurs as a result of expropriation and dispossession of the poor farmers' land and other properties. This paper examines how cost-benefit rational choice determines the government of Cambodia's response to the resistance of a large-scale land acquisition for an agro-industrial investment. Theoretically, whatever mechanism of response is chosen by the government, the aim is to retain more benefits, especially retaining political legitimacy. In this study, the government, in collaboration with the companies, opted for a combination of strong repression and partial concession in response to the resistance by the communities. The study argues that this response is basically determined by cost-benefit rationales. However, the purpose is not to retain political legitimacy as theoretically argued, but to protect the economic interests of the client-patron networks instilled between the foreign companies and the local powerful politico-commercial persons of the regime.

Past studies revealed only the different sustainability practices of foreign direct investors in ... more Past studies revealed only the different sustainability practices of foreign direct investors in developing countries, while the motives that influenced their sustainability practices remain underexplored. This study investigates how civil society organizations (CSOs) influence the sustainability practices of foreign investors in the Cambodian agricultural sector. It focuses in particular on interactions between civil society and government, drawing new links between existing theoretical debates concerning influencing strategies of civil society on companies, government strategies of regulatory enforcement and the political nexus between the government and corporations. Two cases of foreign joint venture investments (one rubber and one sugar plantation) in the agro-industry were selected for observation. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed. This study used a process tracing method to analyse observable causes and outcomes within case causal mechanism processes through which CSOs influence corporate sustainability practices. The causal mechanism refers to CSO mobilisation and the outcome is company sustainability practices.
Results revealed that CSOs employed a variety of influencing strategies, incorporating institutional and non-institutional tactics, in an attempt to influence government and foreign joint venture companies. However, these tactics did not necessarily influence foreign joint venture companies to behave in a more sustainable way. Rather, whether or not CSOs were able to influence the government, companies or both, they relied heavily on the political nexus between the government and the two companies in the two cases. For instance, CSOs were more effective in influencing the rubber company to behave more sustainably than CSOs targeting the sugar company. The sustainability assessment unveiled that the rubber company went to great effort to ensure sustainability and long-term investment after facing contention with indigenous communities, whereas the sugar company was more likely to neglect the sophisticated mobilisation approaches of the CSOs. In so doing, the sugar company caused negative outcomes for the communities.
The different sustainability practices of the two joint venture companies were determined by the different intensities of the client-patron networks between the foreign companies and government officials. The different intensity of networking tends to induce different capture of government (regulatory) institutions. Strong relationships between the foreign companies and government officials tended to influence government institutions, whilst weak relationships resulted in less influence. While strong network restricts CSOs’ ability to ensure sustainable practices, the weak network avails the CSOs to influence the company to attain better sustainability impacts. In this instance, the rubber company, due to its weak network between the government and local partner, which resulted in weak influence on government institutions, strives to perform well to deal with the concerns of indigenous communities and to ensure sustainable development. Meanwhile, the sugar company, having possessed a strong network between the government and local partner constitutes strong capture of regulatory institution not to enforce sustainability related regulations, resists the CSOs’ strategic influence. In contrast, the strong network of the sugar company tended to suppress the CSOs’ tactics. With these, failure or success of the CSOs to influence the government and the foreign joint venture companies to ensure sustainability in or surrounding the investment area is more often than not mediated and undermined by the political nexus between the government and the foreign joint venture companies. Not only this, corporate relationships with government negate CSO influence. To a certain degree, CSOs’ mobilisation, however, leverages a certain influence not only on the government but also shapes the behaviour of the foreign joint venture companies operating in a host country with lax regulatory enforcement and uncertain business environment.

Since the collapse of Khmer Rouge in 1979, in tandem with peace reconciliation and democratizatio... more Since the collapse of Khmer Rouge in 1979, in tandem with peace reconciliation and democratization, Cambodia has worked to restore its economy, and to ensure sustainable macro-economic growth, which is believed to benefit both urban and rural communities. In so doing, since the late 1990s, the Cambodian government has delineated a number of development policies and strategic plans. Given that approximately 91 per cent of rural Cambodians are poor (ADB 2014), rural development and poverty reduction have always been the loci of government strategies and policies apart from stabilizing macro-economic growth. To implement the plans and policies, the government frequently calls upon the contributions of the private sector and civil society. Consequently, the government enjoyed its double-digit economic growth of about ten per cent annually from 2004 to 2007. Although the growth – due in part to global economic crisis – declined to about six per cent in 2008, it recovered up to seven per cent in 2012 (World Bank 2014). While these gains denote the efforts of the government in concert with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and donors, whether or not these achievements have contributed to sustainability remains an open question. This chapter simultaneously examines the current practices and the challenges towards achieving sustainability in Cambodia’s rural communities.

This study examines the dynamics and outcomes of movements by indigenous communities which target... more This study examines the dynamics and outcomes of movements by indigenous communities which targeted an agro-industrial investment demanding remedy to adverse impacts on their socio-economic conditions. Since the employment of initial institutional tactics, such as peaceful protests and petitions, yielded no significant outcomes, the indigenous communities escalated their tactics to non-institutional tactics: violent protests. To respond, the government chose a combination of partial repression and moderate concession. To address the government responses as well as the demands of indigenous communities, the company mitigated most of the adverse socio-economic impacts. As a result, the indigenous communities were able to achieve most of their demands. This paper, therefore, concludes by arguing that tactical escalation of indigenous community movements from institutional to non-institutional tactics influences the government and company to address the demands of indigenous communities, and also shapes the behavior of the company operating in a host country with lax and uncertain regulatory enforcement.

This paper explores the impacts of multinational companies’ (MNCs’) social investment on the live... more This paper explores the impacts of multinational companies’ (MNCs’) social investment on the
livelihoods of local people in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and explores the
drivers that influence these impacts. The study advances an argument that MNCs’ social investment
produced two distinct types of families after being relocated to new villages: poor and well-off families.
The well-off families received the fewest direct benefits from the MNCs’ social investments, but
with a greater degree of self-resilience than the poor families, they were able to adapt to their new
environments and availed of the MNCs’ social investment to improve their livelihoods. This study
concludes that the impacts of the MNCs’ social investment on the livelihoods of the affected families
depend not only on the behavior and commitment of the MNCs, but also on the economic and
cultural capability of the affected families to adjust to the new environment and on the commitment
of the host country’s government.

The research examines the application of local good governance (LGG) in the implementation of rur... more The research examines the application of local good governance (LGG) in the implementation of rural infrastructure development planning (RIDP) and analyzes its strengths and limitations. Two communes with longer and shorter working experience in the application of LGG in RIDP, viz. Khnach Romeas (KR) and Prey Khpos (PK) in Battambang province were selected. The study covered six elements of LGG: rule of law, participation, accountability, transparency, responsiveness and effectiveness and efficiency. The research revealed that the commune with relatively longer working experience (KR) had achieved better performance on several key elements of LGG than the one with shorter working experience (PK). Better performance in LGG by KR than PK commune was due to several factors, including better understanding and application of LGG in RIDP, wider learning by doing in RIDP, more effective fundraising for project implementation, stronger commitment among commune councils (CCs), better coaching and mentoring support from district planning facilitators and authorities and more active local participation. CCs and sampled households expressed relatively higher satisfaction levels on rural infrastructure projects as a result of the use of LGG. Therefore, the LGG performance in applying RIDP of the two study communes was significantly determined by several institutional, economic, and social factors.

Works in Progress and Being Reviewed by Sokphea Young

Contemporary Southeast Asia , 2021

South East Asia Research , 2021

Amsterdam University Press, 2019

China, Law and Development, 2019

IDS working paper, 2019

Journal of International Relations and Development , 2019

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 2019

International advocacy networks (TANs) has increasingly influenced local and international organi... more International advocacy networks (TANs) has increasingly influenced local and international organizations’ work in the era of globalization. This paper examines how TANs driven Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) mobilize against the sugar industry in Cambodia. To evade domestic suppression, CSOs escalated to International Supply Chains Movement Approach (ISCMA). Influenced by TANs, ISCMA is initiated by CSOs to particularly influence international stakeholders in each stage of sugar supply chains to leverage pressure directly on the sugar producer companies, and indirectly on the government of Cambodia. ISCMA did influence the sugar companies and the government to address some but not all demands of CSOs. This was due in part to the political nexus between the government and the sugar companies. This paper suggests that–to ensure success of TANs in international supply chains in the era of globalization–one should take local political ties between the government and business into account.

In social movement and contentious politics, factors determining success or failure of a movement... more In social movement and contentious politics, factors determining success or failure of a movement remain contested because different scholars tend to argue differently. As a contribution to this debate, this paper draws on two cases of large-scale controversial foreign joint venture investments in the agro-industry of Cambodia. The paper examines why movements of grassroots communities succeed or fail. The paper reveals that movements of grassroots communities which target the companies with strong politically tied patron-client networks with the neo-patrimonial Government are doomed to failure. Meanwhile, other movements succeed as they target the companies with weak politically tied networks with the Government. Though other factors remain necessary, the paper argues that success or failure of grassroots communities’ movements is sufficiently determined by the patron-client network, which is known as a reciprocal, but not equal relationship between clients or middle patrons, and powerful individuals—or the central patron—in the neo-patrimonial context.

Bueno de Mesquita and his colleagues argue that regimes survive because of their winning coalitio... more Bueno de Mesquita and his colleagues argue that regimes survive because of their winning coalition—a set of people who select or vote for the leaders. In authoritarian regimes, the winning coalitions tend to be small, and they are large in democratic regimes. To remain in office, the leaders of authoritarian regimes have to dole out its private goods to placate the winning coalitions, and to ensure their loyalty. Leaders of democratic regimes have to utilise public goods to placate a large number of winning coalitions. Yet, the argument has failed to acknowledge, on the one hand, how regimes generate goods or wealth to placate the winning coalition, and how the regimes deal with non-winning coalition, on the other, to survive. As a contribution to this dearth, this paper postulates that, to survive, not only do the regimes award and protect rent extraction of its winning coalition’s networks, but it also circumvents and co-opts the challengers, the non-winning coalition.

For many years, scholars have debated the durability of hybrid or authoritarian regimes.23 In the... more For many years, scholars have debated the durability of hybrid or authoritarian regimes.23 In their selectorate theory, Bueno de Mesquita, Smith, Siverson and Morrow postulate that leaders of a regime survive because of their winning coalitions, known as sets of people who support the rulers to remain in office or power.24 In nondemocratic or hybrid regimes, the winning coalition is a group or a set of people who possess power to keep the leaders in office, and in democratic regimes, is a set of people who select or elect the leaders. Furthermore, Bueno de Mesquita et al. assert that to maintain office tenure by keeping the winning coalition loyal, the ruling parties have to design appropriate policies, especially concerning the distribution of private and public goods, to not only serve vested interests of the winning coalitions, but also to entice all of the electorate or society. In democratic regimes where the winning coalition is large, the regimes distribute public goods; however, in authoritarian or hybrid regimes where the winning coalition is small, the regimes distribute private goods to keep their supporters loyal. Despite being praised by a number of scholars25, Bueno de Mesquita et al.’s conceptualization has raised two puzzles: (i) how regimes generate goods (wealth) to entice the winning coalition; and (ii) how the regimes deal with challengers, especially in hybrid regimes. As a contribution to resolving these puzzles, this paper draws upon evidence from the Cambodian case where a hybrid regime has survived over two decades.

Cambodia has long had a difficult mix of resource wealth and weak land governance, a function of ... more Cambodia has long had a difficult mix of resource wealth and weak land governance, a function of its legacy of enduring postwar conflict and neoliberal development policies of the 1990s. Since 2012, however, its government has undertaken a series of self-described ‘deep reforms’ aimed at overcoming the poverty, land conflict, and unequal rural landholdings created during the 2000s, when over 2 million hectares of economic land concessions were allocated to private companies. This paper, commissioned as part of a Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) ‘learning journey’ on inclusive land governance, inquires whether these reforms constitute durable institutional change, or temporary and calculated forms of social inclusion aimed at managing an increasingly volatile political and economic landscape. We use the example of community forestry in Cambodia’s northeastern Stung Treng province to examine (1) rural land scarcity at the village scale, which is caused by a mix of corporate plantation concessions and land markets involving inter-province migrants and other business interests, and (2) regulatory geographies and overlaps among competing state authorities, which are exacerbated by recent reforms. The study concludes with a set of ‘ways forward’ for SDC and other actors interested in inclusive land governance, both in Cambodia and elsewhere, focusing on the enhancement of tenure-protecting institutions, the cultivation of discussion and debate, cross-sectoral land-related programming, and legal areas for additional possible reforms.

Palgrave Macmillan , 2021

This book analyses how authoritarian rulers of Southeast Asian countries maintain their durabilit... more This book analyses how authoritarian rulers of Southeast Asian countries maintain their durability in office, and, in this context, explains why some movements of civil society organizations succeed while others fail to achieve their demands. It discusses the relationship between the state-society-business in the political survival context. As the first comparative analysis of strategies of regime survival across Southeast Asia, this book also provides an in-depth insight into the various opposition movements, and the behaviour of antagonistic civic and political actors in the region.

GOVERNING CAMBODIA’S FORESTS: The International Politics of Policy Reform, 2019

Citizens of Photography Conference 15-17 Sept 2021

Session 1. 2.00pm-3.30pm UK Time Image Events Karen Strassler: "Resonating images: George Floyd i... more Session 1. 2.00pm-3.30pm UK Time Image Events Karen Strassler: "Resonating images: George Floyd in Papua" Elizabeth Edwards: "What do people want photographs to be-for them?" Konstantinos Kalantzis: "Image events: From the hospitable gaze to accusatory memory" Session 2. 4.00pm-5.30pm UK Time Politics of Dissemination Shahidul Alam: "Does photojournalism still matter?" Lucie Ryzova: "Photography and self-writing in Cairo" Sokphea Young: "Citizen photojournalism and activism in Cambodia: The boomerang of image".

This one day workshop, organized as part of the ERC ‘Photodemos’ project concerns itself with que... more This one day workshop, organized as part of the ERC ‘Photodemos’ project
concerns itself with questions of visibility and occlusion. New GDPR protocols demand the anonymity of the face, while research interlocutors might expect the political right to be seen and recognized as a defence against ‘percepticide’. In a further twist, a changing political context might make such visibility highly dangerous. These paradoxes and oppositions are reflected in other ways: the desirability or complications of making colonial histories visible once again, the migration between different media of traumatic histories, the power and fragility of family archives displayed in the public sphere.

Wednesday 3rd July 2019, 1030am-6pm. All welcome!

Anthropology and Photography, 2021

...This photo-essay presents fragments from a collaborative project that has explored the ways in... more ...This photo-essay presents fragments from
a collaborative project that has explored the
ways in which ‘demotic’ photography might
illuminate and frame political futures. The
project, ‘Citizens of photography: the camera
and the political imagination’, is an empirical
anthropological investigation into the relationship
between ‘representation’ through everyday
images and ‘representation’ through politics....

https://therai.org.uk/images/stories/photography/AnthandPhotoVol14.pdf