Resisting Gendered Norms: Civil Society, the Juridical and Political Space in Cambodia(Gender in a Global/Local World)

Political scientists have, on occasion, missed subtle but powerful forms of `everyday resistance’ and have not been able to show how different representations (pictures, statements, images, practices) have different impacts when negotiating power. Instead they have concentrated on open forms of resistance, organized rebellions and collective actions. Departing from James Scott's idea that oppression and resistance are in constant change, Resisting Gendered Norms provides us with a compelling account on the nexus between gender, resistance and gender-based violence in Cambodia. To illustrate how resistance is often carried out in the tension between, on the one hand, universal/globalised representations and, on the other, local `truths’ and identity constructions, in-depth interviews with civil society representatives, politicians as well as stakeholders within the legal/juridical system were conducted.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword; Preface; Introduction; Theorising power and resistance; Gender roles and practices in Cambodia. Part I Gender, Resistance and Gender-Based Violence: Theorising practice: understanding resistance against gender-based violence in Cambodia; The construction of a trauma: gender-based violence issues in the Extraordinary Court of the Chambers of Cambodia; Bearing witness: biopower and resistance in the ECCC. Part II Gender, Resistance and National Politics: Gendering political legitimacy through the reproduction of memories and violent discourses in Cambodia; Globalisation, women’s political participation and the politics of legitimacy and reconstruction in Cambodia; Theorising resistance: mapping, concretism and universalism; The gaps of the `linguistic turn’: resistance in the nexus of representations, the `surplus’ and the material; Concluding reflections; List of references; Index.

About the Author :
Mona Lilja is Associate Professor in Peace and Development Studies and Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Review :
'A subtle and searching examination of the interplay of resistance and power in the dynamics of social change, Resisting Gendered Norms raises challenging questions about body, culture, discourse, identity, memory and space. Exploring these issues through richly textured evidence from Cambodia generates provocative reflections on women's and men's possibilities.' Jan Aart Scholte, University of Warwick, UK 'Resisting Gendered Norms explores gendered patterns of power and resistance in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. Memories of the killing regime are revealed as sites of struggle, wherein various actors utilize mythologization, medicalization, and denial to gain control over the means of enunciation. Lilja's exploration of struggles over the meaning of forced marriages is a particularly powerful example of biopolitical practices of power and resistance in women's lives.' Kathy E. Ferguson, University of Hawai'i, USA 'Drawing on different case studies of discursive resistance in Cambodia, the book provides a powerful and dense analysis of the entanglements of power and resistance around gender in a post-conflict country. Spanning different arenas (the political sphere, civil society, the ECCC), it will attract the interest of researchers focusing on Cambodia as well as those working on gender studies, resistance studies or transitional justice.' Journal of Contemporary Asia 'This book will be of interest to Southeast Asianists who teach or study global/local gender relations. So, too, it will be of interest to scholars and students of Cambodia generally, and especially to those interested in post-1975 social developments.' Pacific Affairs