Artisans Angkor: Reclaiming Cambodian silk crafts under French patronage (1992–2017)

Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords that granted a return to a relative political stability in Cambodia, the non-profit organization Les Chantiers Ecoles was launched with the support of the European Union to revive local traditional crafts and sericulture that had nearly vanished under the Khmer Rouge regime. This vocational institute was the result of a cooperation between the French and the Cambodian government. It provided training to disadvantaged young villagers of Siem Reap’s area in polychromic woodwork, stone carving, metal, lacquerware, and silk weaving. Eventually, the project turned into a social enterprise under the French name Artisans Angkor. Drawing its inspiration from the surrounding archaeological splendors of Angkor Wat, the company emphasizes its authentic making processes. Artisans Angkor welcomes tourists in its silk farm near Siem Reap, using this production site as a showcase for sericulture from silkworms breeding to weaving, promoting the revival of indigenous golden silk while selling a wide range of souvenirs goods. Relying on the performative value of silk craft practices, Artisans Angkor has developed an engaging storytelling, an educational and marketing tool which elevates crafts as tokens of Cambodian cultural identity. Praised by the Cambodians who consider the brand as a national success, the enterprise has however kept a French leadership. Tracing the company’s history, this paper examines to which extent Artisan Angkor follows the definition of a Transnational Artisan Partnership developed by anthropologist Susan Falls and how it pertains to a form of soft power for the French. Through the analysis of its aesthetic and discourses, this case study highlights the project’s hybrid nature and demonstrates how it relates to the colonial model of the School of Cambodian Arts implemented in 1920 under the French Protectorate to promote Cambodian crafts

A review of observed and projected changes in climate for the islands in the Caribbean

Observed and projected changes in climate have serious socio-economic implications for the Caribbean islands. This article attempts to present basic climate change information-based on previous studies, available observations and climate model simulations-at spatial scales relevant for islands in the Caribbean. We use the General Circulation Model (GCM) data included in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3) and the UK Hadley Centre regional climate model (RCM) data to provide both present-day and scenario-based future information on precipitation and temperature for individual island states. Gridded station observations and satellite data are used to study 20th century climate and to assess the performance of climate models. With main focus on precipitation, we also discuss factors such as sea surface temperature, sea level pressure and winds that affect seasonal variations in precipitation. The CMIP3 ensemble mean and the RCM successfully capture the large-scale atmospheric circulation features in the region, but show difficulty in capturing the characteristic bimodal seasonal cycle of precipitation. Future drying during the wet season in this region under climate change scenarios has been noted in previous studies, but the magnitude of change is highly uncertain in both GCM and RCM simulations. The projected decrease is more prominent in the early wet season erasing the mid-summer drought feature in the western Caribbean. The RCM simulations show improvements over the GCM mainly due to better representation of landmass, but its performance is critically dependent on the driving GCM. This study highlights the need for high-resolution observations and ensemble of climate model simulations to fully understand climate change and its impacts on small islands in the Caribbean