Violence and the Civilising Process in Cambodia

Surveys violence in Cambodia from the nineteenth century to the present, testing the theories of Norbert Elias in a non-Western context.

Roderic Broadhurst (Author), Thierry Bouhours (Author), Brigitte Bouhours (Author)

9781107109117, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 November 2015

382 pages, 22 b/w illus. 9 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.68 kg

In 1939, the German sociologist Norbert Elias published his groundbreaking work The Civilizing Process, which has come to be regarded as one of the most influential works of sociology today. In this insightful new study tracing the history of violence in Cambodia, the authors evaluate the extent to which Elias's theories can be applied in a non-Western context. Drawing from historical and contemporary archival sources, constabulary statistics, victim surveys and newspaper reports, Broadhurst, Bouhours and Bouhours chart trends and forms of violence throughout Cambodia from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present day. Analysing periods of colonisation, anti-colonial wars, interdependence, civil war, the revolutionary terror of the 1970s and post-conflict development, the authors assess whether violence has decreased and whether such a decline can be attributed to Elias's civilising process, identifying a series of universal factors that have historically reduced violence.

Introduction
1. Resistance of a peasant society
2. Patterns of pre-modern criminality
3. Development of the colonial state: modernisation and control
4. The 'golden age' of the Protectorate 1920–40
5. The anti-colonial war 1940–55
6. The golden years of Sihanoukism 1955–66
7. Criminal states and civil wars 1967–75
8. The perfect storm: de-civilising state and society 1975–9
9. Reconstruction in the midst of a civil war: pariahs, bandits, and international accomplices 1979–91
10. Crime and violence in contemporary Cambodia 1991–2012
11. Civilising processes and violence in contemporary Cambodia
12. Discussion
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Crime & criminology [JKV], Regional & national history [HBJ]