Struggles for Life: Smallholder Farmers’ Resistance and State Land Relations in Contemporary Cambodia

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.