Cambodia for Sale: Everyday Privatization in Education and Beyond

Abstract

This book presents a multi-dimensional view of everyday privatisation in education in post-con fl ict Cambodia. It attributes everyday provatisation to a combination of historical, political and economic factors, which enabled privatisation to seep deeply into the social fabric of Cambodian village life, via the time-honoured structures of kinship, clientelism, and hierarchy. Employing the portraiture method, an approach that vividly captures subtle and complex human experiences through the blend of art and science, Will Brehm illustrates how everyday privatisation began, a ff ected behaviour, actions, interactions and emotions, and contributed to inequity. The book begins with “ life drawings ” of students ’ daily practices that are streaked and coloured by privatisation, such as their payment of fees for tutorials conducted by their teachers at school, or the habitual selling and purchasing of ’ leaked ’ answer keys in preparation for high-stake examinations in school. Brehm situates his book in the privatisation literature in Chapter 1, before he shows in 2 how privatisation of public services emerged It was a lack of resources, Cambodia still continues the system sponsoring