'A war of houses and a war of land': Gentrification, post-politics, and resistance in authoritarian Cambodia

Lawreniuk, Sabina

Abstract

Postwar property reforms in transitional Cambodia plunged the country into new conflict: a war of land. Under the guise of 'beautification', 11% of the capital's residents have been displaced in under two decades in a wave of violent gentrification, enacted through forced eviction and dispossession. Mounting resistance shows signs of taking effect, however, evincing a turning point in state-society relations. Here, the government has trialled a new approach, moving from techniques of violent expropriation towards a conciliatory method, built on dialogue, consultation and negotiation. Responding to calls for more work on resistance to gentrification and success in the fight to stay put, in this paper I investigate these claims, bringing the literatures on gentrification and post-politics to bear on the evictions crisis in Cambodia. Drawing on testimony of former residents and media analysis, I examine techniques of removal and resistance in a case study of the eviction and demolition of Cambodia's White Building (1963-2017). I argue recent shifts are not an abandonment of the state's compulsion to expropriation, exclusion and expulsion but a subtle modification of its gentrification strategy: away from the naked coercion associated with its own kleptocratic variant of authoritarian neoliberalism towards the post-political manufacture of hollow consent.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 26, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jun 25, 2021
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 14, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 25, 2021
• Journal: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
• Print ISSN: 0263-7758
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3433
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 645-664
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758211025536
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5685497
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02637758211025536