Our Library

Analyses, Perspectives and Opinions

RLS Southeast Asia regularly publishes political analyses and working papers on current and relevant topics from the Mekong Region. Together with our partners, we shed light on different opinions and introduce perspectives on pressing social and ecological questions and challenges. The publications are categorized according to topics and countries and can be selected using the links below.

 Cambodia, Social-ecological transformation

Pesticide and Herbicide Use: The Impacts on Small-Scale Farmers in the Romeas Haek, Romdoul, and Svay Chrum Districts of Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia

This study analyzed three significant aspects of small-scale farmers’ use of agrochemical inputs in their rice farming and other crop production methods. It documents the pressures of the green-revolution-in- spired innovations of agricultural production methods and small-scale farmers’ shift toward agrochemical inputs. This trend was vital to increase yields but ignored the severe impacts that agrochemical inputs have on human health, the environment, biodiversity, and livelihoods.

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 Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

Corona Crisis in the Mekong: From Extractive Imperialism to a New Bloom

 

This paper provides an introduction to the initial impacts of the corona crisis on some the most vulnerable populations across the Mekong at the end of its first year. Part one highlights uneven fortunes of different social class fractions, from low paid workers in export-oriented industries to those participating in informal economies, immigrant workers and displaced persons. These fortunes are contrasted with those of salaried workers, big firms, and investors in financial markets.

 

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 Cambodia, Social Justice

Laborers’ Plight - Cambodia: Stories of the Ordinary Labor 2020

In our collaborative program with Cambodian Center for Independent Media, we illustrate incidents and problems encountered by the workers, by having them speak up for their own. The authority and employers are also interviewed for their sides of the stories, and their responses accordingly.

 

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 Cambodia, Social Justice

Land Privatization and Affordable Housing in Cambodia

Cambodia, with Phnom Penh at the forefront, has one of the fastest rates of urbanization in the world. Sadly, this growth is dominated by speculative, unplanned development that favours wealthy elites to the exclusion of the urban poor. The frenzied pace of construction is leading to a landscape pockmarked by projects in various stages of completion, towers looming over traditional homes, religious sites and colonial-era buildings. The quick pursuit of profit is often too hasty for the developments themselves with many failing to secure funding for completion.

 

 

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 Cambodia, Social Justice

The Conscience of Clothing

It’s a roadtrip about honest encounters and a progressive personal development story, translated through permanent reflexion of our two protagonists Helen Fares and Willy Iffland – taking a deep dive into the heart of Cambodia’s garment industry.

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 Cambodia

Lockdown, Debt and Job Losses: The impact of the pandemic on Cambodian farm workers

The Southeast Asian state of Cambodia remains predominantly rural. Despite industrialization and booming economic growth in recent decades, over 70 percent of its population continues to live and work in the countryside, overwhelmingly as agricultural workers on farms. But how has the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns, which we tend to associate with urban areas, affected the countryside?

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 Cambodia

All covid-19 infected cases treated but schools in Cambodia are still close

According to the Minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron, temporary closure of all schools will continue indefinitely to prevent a second wave of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections in Cambodia.

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 Cambodia, Labour, Myanmar

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Value Extraction from the Mekong: A Case study on the Control and Exploitation of Land and Labor in Cambodia and Myanmar SEZs

The study shows that SEZs in Greater Mekong Sub-region have played an important role in regional integration and economic development, however, they have been developed with limited transparency and locals are not involved in the planning process.

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