- Understanding the epistemological content of conflict drivers and sustainers, Globalization, Developing Countries, Conflict Transformation, Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding, Buddhism (Religion) (Religion), and 30 moreCambodia, Peace & Conflict Studies, Women and Development, Global Justice, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, contemporary continental philosophy, axiology (theories and applied research on values), philosophical and cultural anthropology, diversity managment, gender studies, intercultural communication, and translations studies, Normative Epistemology, Religion and Globalization, International Studies, Faith-Based Development Organisations, Globalisation and Development, Education, Access to Justice, Community Development & Conflict Resolution, Peace and Conflict Studies, David Mosse, Development Studies, International Law, Religion, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, Nationalism, Ethnicity, Diplomacy, International organizations, Conflict, Violence, Peacebuilding, ASEAN Studies, Global education, and Peace Journalismedit
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Research Interests:
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Religion and power. The cultural context of mediation in rural Cambodia. This paper explores the role of religion in the re-establishment of grass roots mediation processes in rural Cambodia. While cultural dimensions of mediation have... more
Religion and power. The cultural context of mediation in rural Cambodia.
This paper explores the role of religion in the re-establishment of grass roots mediation processes in rural Cambodia. While cultural dimensions of mediation have begun to receive more attention in the design of mediation processes in post-conflict settings, developments in Cambodia provide potentially valuable insights into how secular perspectives on the context of mediation and conflict resolution can miss important dimensions of pre-existing processes. The avowed purpose of the 1990s United Nations (UN) intervention was the rebuilding of Cambodian society, with a specific focus on the development of more democratic mediation and conflict resolution processes. Twenty years after the departure of UN peace-keepers, mediation and conflict resolution processes at the grass roots level are developing steadily, but there has been little growth in the development of a civil society able to withstand global economic forces that have left the rich and powerful much more rich and much more powerful, and the poor as poor and powerless as they ever were. This paper explores the theoretical frameworks behind the mediation and conflict resolution process that have developed. It marshals recent research to illuminate how a lack of awareness of the need to strengthen indigenous cultural structures and perspectives, particularly those enshrined in religious frameworks, has proved to be a major impediment to the development of effective counter-balances to the exploitative forces of those with access to raw power. Recent developments suggest that powerful elites are capturing and distorting those traditional cultural structures which were able to provide at least a bulwark against exploitation. This paper suggests that failure to recognise and significantly develop traditional mediation and conflict resolution structures has aided the development of a new society which offers little protection and little hope for the majority of poor Cambodians in confronting those global forces keen to exploit them.
This paper explores the role of religion in the re-establishment of grass roots mediation processes in rural Cambodia. While cultural dimensions of mediation have begun to receive more attention in the design of mediation processes in post-conflict settings, developments in Cambodia provide potentially valuable insights into how secular perspectives on the context of mediation and conflict resolution can miss important dimensions of pre-existing processes. The avowed purpose of the 1990s United Nations (UN) intervention was the rebuilding of Cambodian society, with a specific focus on the development of more democratic mediation and conflict resolution processes. Twenty years after the departure of UN peace-keepers, mediation and conflict resolution processes at the grass roots level are developing steadily, but there has been little growth in the development of a civil society able to withstand global economic forces that have left the rich and powerful much more rich and much more powerful, and the poor as poor and powerless as they ever were. This paper explores the theoretical frameworks behind the mediation and conflict resolution process that have developed. It marshals recent research to illuminate how a lack of awareness of the need to strengthen indigenous cultural structures and perspectives, particularly those enshrined in religious frameworks, has proved to be a major impediment to the development of effective counter-balances to the exploitative forces of those with access to raw power. Recent developments suggest that powerful elites are capturing and distorting those traditional cultural structures which were able to provide at least a bulwark against exploitation. This paper suggests that failure to recognise and significantly develop traditional mediation and conflict resolution structures has aided the development of a new society which offers little protection and little hope for the majority of poor Cambodians in confronting those global forces keen to exploit them.
