Local Resilience and the Reconstruction of Social Institutions: Recovery, Maintenance and Transformation of Buddhist Sangha in Post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia

ABSTRACT

This article explores how local resilience is realised in post-conflict reconstruction, by examining the redevelopment of Buddhist institutions in Cambodia. It firstly proposes three forms of resilience that were significant in the local level peacebuilding practice in the country – recovery, maintenance and transformation – and examines the process by which each form of resilience was materialised from the perspectives of local communities. Moreover, this study highlights two factors that determined the development of local resilience: ontological security and local leadership structure. Based on the empirical findings, this study discusses the conceptual and theoretical implications of such elements of resilient peacebuilding.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• local peacebuilding
• maintenance
• recovery
• transformation
• ontological security

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Elizabeth Guthrie and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

SungYong Lee is Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research focuses on conflict resolution, post-conflict peacebuilding, and civil conflicts in Southeast Asia. His recent publications include Local Ownership in Asian Peacebuilding (2019, Palgrave Macmillan) and International Peacebuilding: An Introduction (with Alpaslan Özerdem, 2016, Routledge).

Author’s Interviews

Interview I. Buddhist peace activist (November 2016, Phnom Penh, Cambodia).

Interview II. Director of a human rights organisation (December 2017, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, via Online Video Conference)

Interview III. Local government officer (January 2019, Battambang, Cambodia).

Interview IV. Member of a pagoda committee (January 2019, Battambang, Cambodia).

Interview V. Village leader (January 2019, Battambang, Cambodia).

Interview VI. Member of a pagoda committee (January 2019, Svay Rieng, Cambodia).

Interview VII. Village leader and former communne chief (January 2019, Battambang, Cambodia).

Interview VIII. Researcher of Cambodian Buddhism and activist (January 2019, Battambang, Cambodia).

Interview IX. Village leader (January 2019, Svay Rieng, Cambodia).

Interview X. Local government officer (January 2019, Svay Rieng, Cambodia).

Interview XI. Community resident (January 2019, Battambang, Cambodia).

Interview XII. Researcher of Cambodian Buddhism (January 2019, Phnom Penh, Cambodia).

Interview XIII. Local government officer (June 2019, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, via Online Video Conference).

Interview XIV. Researcher of Cambodian Buddhism (June 2019, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, via Online Video Conference).

Notes

1 Sangha is a Sanskrit term that denotes various forms of gathering, association and community of Buddhist practitioners. In this study, however, this term is used to particularly refer to a Buddhist order or community centred to local monastery that usually consists of monks although it may occasionally include nuns and lay practitioners.

2 Kathina denotes a festival that takes place at the end of rainy season retreat and in which lay followers offer robes and other gifts to Buddhist monks (Harris 2013).

3 In Southeast Asia, pagoda usually means monastery, or temple where monks reside and conduct their practice.