THE CAMBODIAN ECONOMY: READY FOR TAKE-OFF?

Cambodia is facing the familiar problem of achieving sustained rates of economic growth that could help it alleviate widespread poverty. Against the background of some encouraging developments, and quite a few that are not equally reassuring, we argue that any push for development needs to consider both agriculture and industry. This is so as both labour absorption, primarily in secondary sector activities, and productivity growth in agriculture are necessary to lift large segments of the population out of the poverty associated with subsistence agriculture, landlessness and informal sector activities. Given that the major success story of the past decade, the garments and textile industry, is under threat, we conclude that Cambodia is yet to achieve an economic take off.Cambodia; economic development; agriculture; industry

Poverty in Rural Cambodia: The Differentiated Impact of Linkages, Inputs and Access to Land

Cambodia has been growing rapidly over the past few years but still remains one of the poorest countries in East Asia. In particular, poverty is widespread in rural Cambodia. This paper examines rural poverty in Cambodia with a view to furthering our understanding of the factors that might explain its occurrence and persistence. Setting out from the existing literature, it appears that reduced rural poverty in Cambodia would have to rest on two pillars. Firstly, improvements in agricultural productivity are necessary. Secondly, other income earning opportunities for the rural population have to be established. Using the 2004 Cambodian Socio-Economic Survey, and focusing on the binding constraints to development and poverty alleviation, we add detail to this picture. Our econometric results show that the main causes to poverty differ between landowners and landless and between different regions. Inputs to agriculture are critical to the landowning poor whereas linkages with the rest of the economy, while also essential to landowners, are of vital importance to the landless poor if their lot is to be improved.Asia; Cambodia; Poverty; Rural; Agriculture; Linkages

Conceptual export and theory mobilities: exploring the reception and development of the “creative city thesis” in the post-socialist urban realm

This paper addresses the limited contribution of scholarship from within/on the post-socialist urban arena to global urban studies, a phenomenon attributed to the influence of a hegemonic Anglo-American academic complex. We seek to present a more nuanced account by considering scholarship on the “creative city” in a post-socialist context. A numerical analysis of English language publications confirms the lack of impact of scholarship from/on post-socialist areas, though we do identify literature which may be “theory exporting” and emphasize the temporal dimension of the development of scholarship. We then consider the interaction of three global mobilities to present a more nuanced account of this pattern – the “creative city” thesis as globally mobile urban policy, the neoliberalization of universities as a globally mobile restructuring of the context in which these inequalities in knowledge-production are produced, and urban studies theorizing itself as a set of globally mobile concepts and practices. We therefore explore the dynamic interaction of a particular urban phenomenon (“creative city” policy) with academic knowledge production. Adopting this perspective allows us to emphasize other factors such as path dependencies within post-socialist areas and to give due emphasis to agency within the region and how these interact with global processes of neoliberalizing academia

Neoliberalism(s) as a guide to post-Wall urban change: explanation out of the blue?

Concerns have been raised that neoliberalism has become the favoured, yet uncritically applied lens used to approach and explain societal developments. This contribution assesses research on an area where this concern has been pronounced, namely the formerly centrally planned economies of Europe. Examining a sample of more than 200 articles published in twelve geography, area and urban studies journals over the period 2000–2014, findings suggest that while neoliberalism is not generally used as a blanket explanation for patterns of change following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, it is occasionally gratuitously afforded explanatory power. Moreover, in this role it is rarely defined and more rarely still validated empirically. Thus, in about one tenth of the sampled literature, the importance of neoliberalism is asserted rather than shown

The difference that the institutional environment makes: Leveraging coordination to balance platform dominance, mutuality and autonomy in geographically fragmented hospitality labour markets

It has been argued that digital platform firms leverage their position at spatial bottlenecks in such a fashion so as to allow operations in local labour markets while at the same time insulating themselves from the regulatory provisions that govern those local markets. This is not necessarily a stable condition, but as long as platform firms exert power, they may shift the social relationships that platforms embody in their favour: domination trumps mutuality and autonomy. However, this does not have to be so. Depending on the context, opportunities for breaking out of this mould exist. Specifically, we focus on the institutional context provided by coordinated market economies to argue that, depending on pre-existing forms of cooperation, platforms can be designed and applied in a manner that enables the building and maintenance of trust through an emphasis on mutuality and autonomy rather than inevitably drifting towards the pole of domination. Using the example of the hospitality industry and focusing on training and certification in geographically fragmented labour markets, we set out to explore the possible role of the institutional setting in shaping platform use as recruitment needs are to be resolved

Soft Budget Constraints: An Analysis Based on a Survey of Chinese Township Enterprises

The reduced influence of soft budget constrints is often seen as an explanation for the successful growth of China's non-state sector. Views differ, however, as to whether collectively owned rural enterprise are in fact subject to hard financial discipline. This paper reports an inquiry into the issue. The study examines the financial behaviour of REs, particularly that of loss-making enterprises, by scrutinising a set of survey data of 630 rural enterprises in Sichuan and Zhejiang (China), Being primarily explorative and conceptual in nature, our study reveals that soft budget constraints can still be observed to be enjoyed by many rural enterprises, in particular among those collectively owned. As the budget constraints do appear to become more rigid, however, enterprises look for other opportunities to ease the financial dixcipline forced upon them by the market and by increasingly illiquid local governments. Accumulating inter-enterprise arrears, as well as withholding wage payments, are identified as means frequently used towards this end by REs in transitional Chinese economy.Soft budget constraints; economic transition; China; rural industry; township and village enterprises; inter-enterprise arrears

Poverty in Rural Cambodia: The Differentiated Impact of Linkages, Inputs, and Access to Land

Cambodia has been growing rapidly over the past few years, but remains one of the poorest countries in East Asia. This paper analyzes rural poverty in Cambodia to identify the factors that explain its occurrence and persistence. The reduction of rural poverty in Cambodia requires (1) improvements in agricultural productivity and (2) the establishment of other income-earning opportunities for the rural population. Our econometric investigation of the 2004 Cambodian Socio-Economic Survey shows that the main causes of poverty differ between landowners and the landless, and between different regions. Increasing inputs to agriculture (e.g., fertilizers) is critical to increasing the welfare of landowning poor, and linkages with the rest of the economy are of vital importance to both landowners and the landless poor. (c) 2008 The Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Three Cases of Changing Capitalism: Sweden, Hungary, and the United Kingdom

The previous chapter demonstrated the error of treating Germany as a static exemplar of a formal model, but has depicted it instead as a system in the process of change. This is essential to appraise whether local institutional innovators are following or running counter to a presumed national system in their entrepreneurship. This chapter applies the same approach to the other three countries being considered in the cases presented in this study

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Qc 2012011