"Education, Faculty of"@en . "Educational Studies (EDST), Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Sen, Vicheth"@en . "2020-12-03T20:21:08Z"@en . "2020"@en . "Doctor of Philosophy - PhD"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "My dissertation problematizes the taken-for-granted colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility introduced by the French colonial administration in Cambodia in the 1860s. The study examines the processes underpinning the pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia, and posits that this colonial doxa continues to be reproduced in contemporary Cambodian society. The doxa is reproduced through colonial residue present in Cambodian society, neocolonial agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank, and neoliberal capitalism. Conceptually, the study develops a theory of social practice in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South societies by expanding Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s constructs and adding concepts pertinent to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South societies. These include colonial habitus, indigenous habitus, colonized field, gender-embedded capitals, community cultural wealth, working-class cultural complements, and Southern agency. The study draws on life-history interviews with twelve participants who were originally from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds across Cambodia. The study reveals the complexities of forces that facilitate and constrain the participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 journeys of social mobility, particularly the family, social networks, and the broader socio-cultural framework. Findings highlight an interplay between internal forces of the socio-cultural tradition and external forces shaped by coloniality. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences are marked by strategic maneuvering within the socio-cultural traditions, illustrating their \u00E2\u0080\u009Csituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D Southern agency. Overall, the journey of social mobility is a familial/collective, rather than an individual, endeavor. Social mobility is defined as resistance to the disadvantages of being from the marginalized social class and, for women, an emancipation from the constraints of socio-cultural norms. The aspirations for social mobility through higher education, however, are enveloped in the colonial doxa framed within the confines of individualistic economic successes, indicating the continued enslavement of the minds of the colonized in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D societies. The study has major implications for rethinking educational development in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South societies, and suggests that contextually relevant approaches to local community development be reflected in national development policies and practices. It contributes an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodian lens on Western concepts, which will in turn refashion our conceptual and theoretical understandings of higher education and social mobility from a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South perspective."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76656?expand=metadata"@en . "\u00E2\u0080\u009CCAPTIVE\u00E2\u0080\u009D SUBJECTS?: HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN \u00E2\u0080\u009CPOSTCOLONIAL\u00E2\u0080\u009D CAMBODIA by Vicheth Sen M.A., The United Nations-Mandated University for Peace, 2009 M.Ed., Simon Fraser University, 2008 Grad. Dip., SEAMEO Regional Language Center, 2005 B.Ed., Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh, 2002 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Educational Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2020 \u00C2\u00A9 Vicheth Sen, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: \u00E2\u0080\u009CCaptive\u00E2\u0080\u009D Subjects?: Higher Education and Social Mobility in \u00E2\u0080\u009CPostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia submitted by Vicheth Sen in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies Examining Committee: Pierre Walter, Professor, Educational Studies, University of British Columbia Supervisor Andr\u00C3\u00A9 Elias Mazawi, Professor, Educational Studies, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Shan Hongxia, Associate Professor, Educational Studies, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Sharon Stein, Assistant Professor, Educational Studies, University of British Columbia University Examiner Bonny Norton, Professor, Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia University Examiner iii Abstract My dissertation problematizes the taken-for-granted colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility introduced by the French colonial administration in Cambodia in the 1860s. The study examines the processes underpinning the pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia, and posits that this colonial doxa continues to be reproduced in contemporary Cambodian society. The doxa is reproduced through colonial residue present in Cambodian society, neocolonial agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank, and neoliberal capitalism. Conceptually, the study develops a theory of social practice in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South societies by expanding Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s constructs and adding concepts pertinent to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South societies. These include colonial habitus, indigenous habitus, colonized field, gender-embedded capitals, community cultural wealth, working-class cultural complements, and Southern agency. The study draws on life-history interviews with twelve participants who were originally from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds across Cambodia. The study reveals the complexities of forces that facilitate and constrain the participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 journeys of social mobility, particularly the family, social networks, and the broader socio-cultural framework. Findings highlight an interplay between internal forces of the socio-cultural tradition and external forces shaped by coloniality. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences are marked by strategic maneuvering within the socio-cultural traditions, illustrating their \u00E2\u0080\u009Csituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D Southern agency. Overall, the journey of social mobility is a familial/collective, rather than an individual, endeavor. Social mobility is defined as resistance to the disadvantages of being from the marginalized social class and, for women, an emancipation from the constraints of socio-cultural norms. The aspirations for social mobility through higher education, however, are enveloped in the colonial doxa framed within the confines of individualistic economic successes, indicating the continued enslavement of the minds of the colonized in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D societies. The study has major implications for rethinking educational development in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South societies, and suggests that contextually relevant approaches to local community development be reflected in national development policies and practices. It contributes an \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodian lens on Western concepts, which will in turn refashion iv our conceptual and theoretical understandings of higher education and social mobility from a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Global South perspective. v Lay Summary The aim of this research is to gain an understanding of the constraints and opportunities for social mobility and the ways in which colonial conditions continue to be reproduced and perpetuated in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia. The study focuses on the role of higher education in promoting the social mobility of men and women from poor family origins. It also explores the meanings of social mobility within a Global South context. This research analyzes the life histories of nine men and three women to gain insights into the factors that constrained or facilitated their social mobility journeys, and how study participants overcome these constraints and capitalized on emerging opportunities. The study makes a significant contribution to the knowledge gap in the existing literature in relation to higher education and social mobility in Cambodian society and contributes to a growing body of scholarship from and about these issues the Global South. vi Preface This dissertation is the original, unpublished, and independent work conducted by the author, Vicheth Sen. The University of British Columbia Behavioral Research Ethics Board approved this project entitled Social Mobility in Contemporary Cambodia: Life Histories of University Graduates from Poor Family Origins, certificate number H16-00345. vii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary .................................................................................................................................v Preface ........................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ vii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. xiii Glossary ...................................................................................................................................... xiv Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................xv Dedication .................................................................................................................................. xvii Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Genesis of a research problem ............................................................................ 1 1.2 Situating the research problem within the context of the study and the existing body of scholarship................................................................................................................ 3 1.3 Conceptual frame and research design ............................................................... 6 1.4 Significance of the study ..................................................................................... 8 1.5 Scope and limitations of the study ...................................................................... 9 1.6 My positionality: Beyond the insider-outsider dichotomy ............................... 10 1.7 Organization of the dissertation ........................................................................ 11 Chapter 2: Schooling and Social Mobility in Cambodia: Historical Perspectives................ 14 2.1 Pre-colonial period (prior to 1863): Khmer traditional school system and social stability ........................................................................................................................... 16 2.2 French colonial period (1863-1953): The genesis of education for social mobility ........................................................................................................................... 20 2.3 Sihanouk regime (1953-1970): Perpetuation of colonial school system .......... 23 2.4 Khmer Republic (1970-1975): The end of the first phase of failed colonial education system ................................................................................................................. 29 2.5 Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979): A failed attempt to reconceptualize educational development project ......................................................................................... 31 viii 2.6 People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989): Education and social reproduction of the select few ............................................................................................. 36 2.7 From the State of Cambodia (1989-1993) to the Kingdom of Cambodia (1993-present): Transitioning towards reviving and morphing a failed colonial educational development project ............................................................................................................ 40 2.8 Summary ........................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 3: Higher Education and Social Mobility: A Review of the Global North and Global South Perspectives .......................................................................................................... 55 3.1 Global North perspectives................................................................................. 56 3.1.1 Linkage between higher education and social mobility .................................... 56 3.1.2 It takes more than higher education .................................................................. 58 3.1.3 Bourdieusian contributions ............................................................................... 59 3.1.4 Contributions of the individualization thesis .................................................... 59 3.2 Global South experiences ................................................................................. 61 3.2.1 Constructions of the Global South .................................................................... 61 3.2.2 A tale of two opposing views............................................................................ 63 3.2.2.1 Constitutive effects of colonial legacies, neo-colonialism, and neoliberal globalization on the linkage between higher education and social mobility ............... 64 3.2.2.2 Global South epistemologies and agency: An indigenous response/resistance to the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility .............. 68 3.2.2.2.1 Inter-generational dependency and collective endeavor ........................ 68 3.2.2.2.2 Southern epistemologies ........................................................................ 72 3.2.2.2.3 Rethinking Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts to fit the Global South context ........... 74 3.3 Towards a conceptual framework ..................................................................... 76 3.3.1 Colonial legacy, coloniality, neo-colonialism, and neoliberal globalization .... 76 3.3.2 Global South, indigenous, local epistemologies ............................................... 77 3.3.3 The family, community, and collective Southern agency ................................. 77 3.3.4 Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts .......................................................................................... 77 3.4 Summary ........................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 4: Conceptual Framework .......................................................................................... 79 ix 4.1 Bourdieu: A (post)colonial thinker? ................................................................. 80 4.2 Social practice in postcolonial Global South societies ..................................... 83 4.2.1 Doxa: Traditional and colonial ......................................................................... 86 4.2.1.1 Continuity of colonial doxa .......................................................................... 87 4.2.2 Illusio ................................................................................................................ 89 4.2.3 Field: Local and colonized ................................................................................ 91 4.2.3.1 Family as a (local or colonized) field ........................................................... 93 4.2.4 Habitus: Individual and family ......................................................................... 96 4.2.4.1 Individual habitus.......................................................................................... 96 4.2.4.2 Family habitus ............................................................................................... 99 4.2.4.3 Colonial and indigenous habitus ................................................................. 102 4.2.4.3.1 Colonial habitus ................................................................................... 102 4.2.4.3.2 Coloniality: The perpetuation of the colonial habitus .......................... 103 4.2.4.3.3 I(i)ndigenous habitus ............................................................................ 109 4.2.4.3.4 Fundamentals of the indigenous habitus .............................................. 110 4.2.5 Forms of capital and cultural complements .................................................... 115 4.2.5.1 Bourdieusian forms of capital ..................................................................... 116 4.2.5.2 Limitations of Bourdieusian forms of capital ............................................. 120 4.2.5.3 Community cultural wealth......................................................................... 121 4.2.5.4 Working-class cultural complements .......................................................... 125 4.2.5.5 Gender-embedded capital ........................................................................... 128 4.2.6 Southern agency .............................................................................................. 133 4.3 Summary ......................................................................................................... 137 Chapter 5: Research Methodology .......................................................................................... 139 5.1 Beyond the researcher insider-outsider dichotomy......................................... 139 5.2 Quantitative approaches to social mobility research and their limits ............. 142 5.3 Understanding social mobility in context: Qualitative approaches ................ 147 5.4 Qualitative research methodology and life history method ............................ 149 5.4.1 Theoretical orientation of the life history method .......................................... 151 5.4.2 Value of the life history method ..................................................................... 153 x 5.4.3 Limitations of the life history method ............................................................ 155 5.5 Research participant recruitment process ....................................................... 157 5.6 Sources of data: Life history interviews ......................................................... 161 5.7 Approaches to data management and analysis................................................ 165 5.8 Ethical considerations ..................................................................................... 167 5.9 Description of the research participants .......................................................... 168 5.10 Summary ......................................................................................................... 174 Chapter 6: Doxic Linkage between Higher Education and Social Mobility ....................... 175 6.1 The family habitus and the postcolonial driver of aspirations for higher education ......................................................................................................................... 176 6.2 The post-conflict reconstruction and the English language: Neocolonial/neoliberal drivers of aspirations for higher education .................................. 179 6.3 Summary ......................................................................................................... 186 Chapter 7: Forces Shaping the Journey of Social Mobility .................................................. 188 7.1 Family ............................................................................................................. 189 7.1.1 Parents as facilitating and constraining forces ................................................ 189 7.1.2 Siblings as facilitating forces .......................................................................... 198 7.1.3 Extended family as both facilitating and constraining forces ......................... 202 7.2 Social networks as facilitating forces ............................................................. 204 7.2.1 Facilitating transition to university: Social and economic capital .................. 205 7.2.2 Facilitating entry into labor market: Navigational and economic capital ....... 208 7.2.3 Providing guidance in choosing a field of studies and career planning: Familial, aspirational, and navigational capital ............................................................................ 211 7.3 Broader socio-cultural framework as facilitating forces for men and constraining forces for women .......................................................................................... 214 7.3.1 The family field and decision making within the family ................................ 214 7.3.2 Career choices ................................................................................................. 218 7.3.3 Career mobility ............................................................................................... 220 7.4 Buddhist temple (wat): A facilitator for men .................................................. 224 7.5 Summary ......................................................................................................... 226 xi Chapter 8: Muddling through Liminality \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Material Scarcity and \u00E2\u0080\u009CSituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D Agency .... 228 8.1 Cultivating the resources of lives in the margins ............................................ 229 8.2 Maneuvering liminality: Exercising \u00E2\u0080\u009Csituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency .................................. 235 8.3 Summary ......................................................................................................... 242 Chapter 9: Social Mobility towards What End(s)? ............................................................... 244 9.1 Meaning(s) or purpose(s) of social mobility ................................................... 244 9.1.1 Towards personal and family-oriented financial stability .............................. 245 9.1.2 Towards social status and reputation .............................................................. 248 9.1.3 Towards personal emancipation ..................................................................... 251 9.1.4 Towards a broader collective good ................................................................. 254 9.2 An emerging middle class? ............................................................................. 257 9.3 Summary ......................................................................................................... 259 Chapter 10: Discussion and Recommendations ..................................................................... 261 10.1 Key findings .................................................................................................... 261 10.1.1 Centrality of the family ................................................................................... 261 10.1.2 Centrality of social networks and friendship .................................................. 265 10.1.3 Persistent influence of the socio-cultural codes, gender norms, and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D educational institution (the wat) .................................................................................... 265 10.1.4 \u00E2\u0080\u009CSituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency............................................................................................ 267 10.1.5 Dispositional qualities of living lives in the margins...................................... 268 10.1.6 Social mobility as a collective endeavor and for collective outcome? ........... 269 10.1.7 Colonized minds, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccaptive\u00E2\u0080\u009D subjects?............................................................. 270 10.2 Conceptual framework revisited ..................................................................... 272 10.3 Directions for further research ........................................................................ 275 10.4 Policy recommendations ................................................................................. 277 10.5 Closing thoughts ............................................................................................. 279 References ...................................................................................................................................282 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................322 Appendix A Consent Form ................................................................................................ 322 Appendix B Provisional Interview Questions ................................................................... 327 xii List of Tables Table 5.1: Research participants ................................................................................................. 169 xiii List of Figures Figure 4:1: Visual representation of the conceptual framework ................................................... 85 Figure 10:1: Revised visual representation of the conceptual framework .................................. 275 xiv Glossary Chbab Normative poems or codes of conduct Chbab bros Normative poems or codes of conduct for boys/men Chbab srey Normative poems or codes of conduct for girls/women Chol mlub Literal translation: \u00E2\u0080\u009Centering the shade.\u00E2\u0080\u009D A traditional socio-cultural practice in which girls were supposed to learn from their parents, particularly mothers, about proper behavior for women and their roles as housewives. The chbab srey was the main reference text. Khsae Literal translation: a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstring.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Used in this dissertation, khsae refers to patron-client networks or kinship ties. Motodup A motorbike used as a taxi, a very common transportation service in Cambodia. The customer rides on the back of the motorbike and pays the driver according to the distance travelled. Oknha A tycoon, a title equivalent to the English title \u00E2\u0080\u009CLord,\u00E2\u0080\u009D traditionally bestowed by Khmer kings to individuals such as religious leaders, governors, ministers or personal councilors who provided exceptional services to the throne. Samput knong phnot Literal translation: \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca robe in its perfect folds\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cperfectly spotless or pure.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The phrase is normally used to describe how a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood\u00E2\u0080\u009D woman is expected to behave according to Khmer culture. Sangha The community of Buddhist monks, nuns, novices, and lay people Wat A Buddhist temple xv Acknowledgements This long journey would not have come to this stage if without the genuine, generous, kind, and sustained support of a large number of people. First and foremost, my gratitude goes to my supervisory committee (Dr. Pierre Walter, Dr. Andr\u00C3\u00A9 Mazawi, and Dr. Shan Hongxia) who have been incredibly encouraging and supportive. Pierre has been a kind, generous, patient, and supportive supervisor from the beginning of this journey. His incredible amount of patience, encouragement, wisdom, and funding support through various graduate research assistantships have not only made my pursuit of the program possible but also enriched my academic experience. Andr\u00C3\u00A9 has, too, been very encouraging, kind, and unconditionally supportive from the very beginning of my journey. Andr\u00C3\u00A9\u00E2\u0080\u0099s profound wisdom, wealth of knowledge, and patience have helped me grow professionally and personally. Shan has been very encouraging, kind and supportive, even while she joined my committee in the final years of my program. I would like to thank university faculty members on my PhD Examining Committee (Dr. Kenneth Reeder, Dr. Sharon Stein, and Dr. Bonny Norton) and my External Examiner (Dr. Gerardo L. Blanco) for their thoughtful, critical, and intellectually rich engagement with my research. Their questions and comments have enriched my reflection on my work and shown new directions for my further research in relation to higher educational development in Global South postcolonial societies. My profound gratitude goes to Dr. Wendy Poole and Dr. Gerald Fallon for their friendship, collegiality, encouragement, and funding support over the past several years. I was fortunate to be accepted to join their research team as a Graduate Research Assistant in February 2014. I have learned tremendously from them on the project, co-writing and publications, and numerous co-presentations at a number of conferences. I would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement I have received from many EDST faculty members whom I have met over the years. I would like to acknowledge the incredible kindness and support of Dr. Hartej Gill, who was on my committee during the beginning of my program. My appreciation also goes to Dr. Ali Abdi for his guidance and support when he was on my committee and during his role as the Head of the Department of Educational Studies (EDST). I am also grateful for the kindness and support of former and xvi current staff members of the EDST, including Shermila Salgadoe, Tracy Strauch, Sandra Abah, Jeannie Young, Roweena Bucchus, and Christine Adams. I am fortunate to have been among a large number of fellow students who have inspired me and helped me grow in one way or another. These include Kapil Regmi, Gabriella Maestrini, Paulina Semenec, Patricia Rampersaud, Bob Cowin, Omer Aijazi, Sopheap Phan, Roselynn Verwood, Jeannie Kerr, Ee-Seul Yoon, Shayna Plaut, Mary Kostandy, Ashley Pullman, David Romero, and Caroline Locher-Lo. Gabriella has been an encouraging and supportive writing buddy over the past few years of my program. I would also like to acknowledge several close friends who have been supportive and encouraging during this journey, including Say Sok, Sivhuoch Ou, Rotha Chan, Ratana Som, Pokun Meng, Bandol Teav, Vuthy Monyrath, Phikol Lav, and Samnang Kann. I would like to extend my deep gratitude to Dr. Don Northey, one of my former instructors in the Master of Education program I attended at Simon Fraser University (2006-2008). I truly appreciate the encouragement, wisdom, and support that Don has expressed during many of our conversations over the past several years. Particularly, I am very grateful for Don\u00E2\u0080\u0099s generous funding support that went towards covering my tuition for four academic years. I am very grateful for the fieldwork funding from the Center for Khmer Studies based in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and for various small graduate awards from the Department of Educational Studies, the Faculty of Education, and the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies of the University of British Columbia. I am deeply grateful to all the research participants in this study for trusting me and sharing their life stories with me, without which this research would not have been possible. Finally, I am very grateful every day to my family who is always very supportive of me and is particularly proud of my lifelong pursuit of knowledge. My father, who passed away before he could see the fruit of my effort, was very proud of me and my desire for knowledge; my mother continues to send her encouragement and love to me from afar each and every day. My parents-in-law have been very supportive and encouraging; all of my brothers and sisters and my brother-in-law have continued to sustain their support. My wife, Pheavy, and my two daughters, Sonisa and Sapheana, have been the most patient and supportive, stuck with me through thick and thin, and showered me with their unconditional support and love during this long journey. I am very fortunate and thankful for their love and care each and every day. xvii Dedication In memory of my late father, Sen Moeung (July 15, 1953-June 27, 2014) To my mother (Net Sek), my wife (Pheavy Men), and my daughters (Sonisa Vicheth and Sapheana Vicheth) 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Memory forms the fabric of human life, affecting everything from the ability to perform simple, everyday tasks to the recognition of the self. Memory establishes life's continuity; it gives meaning to the present, as each moment is constituted by the past. As the means by which we remember who we are, memory provides the very core of identity. (Sturken, 1997, p. 1) 1.1 Genesis of a research problem I came to the University of British Columbia for my doctoral program with a different research question in mind from the question in this dissertation. The research question at the time was an examination of the relations between the Cambodian state and higher education institutions from the discursive lens of state policy making. I fully focused my attention and effort on that area of research throughout the first one and a half years of my coursework and my preparation for my Comprehensive Exams. In the spring of 2014, I received a phone call from one of my younger brothers that my father was unwell and being transported to the hospital. Weeks later I was able to visit him in the hospital in my hometown in Cambodia. Sadly, my father passed away on June 27, 2014. In the months that followed when I was grieving my father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s death, I reflected on my life since I was a little boy, on how I had journeyed to where I am today, and on the sacrifices that my parents had made to get me and my siblings to where we are today. During my trip to Cambodia to see my father before he passed, I also managed to visit the village where I was born \u00E2\u0080\u0093 my first visit since I left in 1987. This trip brought back so many memories and further intensified my grief over my father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s passing. This significant turning point in my life \u00E2\u0080\u0093 loss of my father, combined with the past memories triggered by my brief visit to my \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplace of origin,\u00E2\u0080\u009D gave birth to the main research question in this dissertation. It is apparent that I have a deep vested interest in this research. I am essentially researching my own life journey. Looking back at my life history, I would say that my journey from a would-be farmer in a rural village to a professional working in the capital of Cambodia did not simply happen by 2 chance; rather it was paved with the strong support of my family, especially my parents, and my own commitment and perseverance. I also benefited from being part of a circle of friendship and social networks. My family and my parents have given me hope, aspirations and resources; in addition, my own commitment and persistence have enabled me to realize their dreams, so that I have a better life. It was mobility from a farming social category to a professional social class. It was a spatial mobility from a rural to an urban area. This social mobility is a movement from a less to a more secure living condition with some level of social recognition and social standing within contemporary Cambodian society. My life journey on a social mobility trajectory presents only my pathway as a man with a particular socio-economic origin situated within a particular socio-cultural context of Cambodia with its unique histories of monarchy, patriarchy, colonialism, prolonged civil armed conflict, genocide, authoritarianism, Communism, and more recently neoliberal capitalism. In particular, Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-cultural and structural transformation in the last three decades, following more than two decades of prolonged civil armed conflict, has presented new realities that have, to a large extent, had major impacts on the processes and dynamics that structure opportunities for social mobility of many Cambodians aspiring for better and more secure lives. However, that does not necessarily mean the past has no bearings on the present and the future. Within this context, I wondered what life trajectories were like for other young Cambodians like me who came from similar backgrounds to mine and who achieved professional careers. I wondered what could be learned from their journeys of social mobility in the contemporary complex context of Cambodia. The overarching aim of this study is to gain an understanding of the processes that underpin social mobility opportunities in contemporary Cambodia. By \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccontemporary\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia, I mean Cambodia since the early 1990s when the first national elections organized and sponsored by the United Nations were held, marking the rebirth of the Kingdom of Cambodia after more than two decades of civil armed conflict and genocide. \u00E2\u0080\u009CContemporary\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia is burdened with a long history of its past including monarchy, colonialism, wars, and foreign influences. My basic research question was to gain understandings about how we (the research participants and I) got to where we are today. Central in this study is the linkage between higher education and social mobility. I was particularly interested in the processes that underpinned the 3 pursuit of higher education for social mobility, not least the interface between the internal socio-cultural forces and the external forces of colonial residue, contemporary neo-colonialism and increasing capitalism, and the ways in which these complexities played out in shaping the social mobility opportunities of the research participants in the contemporary context of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D1 Cambodia. The study was guided by the following four research questions: 1. What were the contextual aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility for study participants? 2. Who and what facilitated and constrained the processes of higher education pursuit and social mobility? 3. How did the research participants overcome the challenges that constrained their pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility? 4. What was the meaning(s) or purpose(s) of social mobility? 1.2 Situating the research problem within the context of the study and the existing body of scholarship Within the context of this study, the pre-configured linkage between higher education and social mobility was introduced to Cambodian society in the late 18th century by the French colonial power (Ayres, 2003), rendering it a colonial doxa. Ayres (2003) calls it a \u00E2\u0080\u009Csubtle social revolution\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 28). Although Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953, the French colonial discourse and policy continue to colonize the mind of Cambodians, shaping their inspiration for further education as an avenue for improved socio-economic status. This colonial doxa has remained constitutive in influencing the educational development project in Cambodia since the colonial period. With the exception of the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodian leaders of several successive regimes since the colonial era have continued to embrace and perpetuate the colonial model of educational development and policymaking. Even the Khmer Rouge regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 1 The term postcolonial is used in quotation marks here to suggest that the colonial conditions continue to persist in the context the term qualifies, thus rendering the prefix \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpost-\u00E2\u0080\u009D inaccurate to categorize a country or society as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cafter\u00E2\u0080\u009D colonialism. This meaning of the term applies throughout this dissertation, including in the title of the dissertation, even when the term postcolonial is used without quotation marks. 4 effort to \u00E2\u0080\u009Celiminate\u00E2\u0080\u009D educated Cambodians who benefited from this colonial model of educational development and to de-link this colonial doxa did not discourage surviving Cambodians from pursuing education for social mobility according to this doxa. In spite of successive failures of the colonial model of educational development that is not equitable and relevant to the national and local community development needs, it continues to be embraced in contemporary post-conflict context along the same path of failure it did in the 1960s. On top of that, rising Western influence (i.e., neocolonialism) and widespread neoliberal capitalism in Cambodia following the end of the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s prolonged civil armed conflict in the 1990s further intensify and perpetuate colonial conditions in the country and create conducive conditions for the continued colonization of the Cambodian mindset in relation to the role of higher education for social mobility. This study aims to cast light on the ways in which this colonial doxa operates to frame the aspirations of young Cambodian men and women in their pursuit of better socio-economic standing. The research problem in my study is situated at the intersection of the Global North and Global South scholarship on the relationship between higher education and social mobility. Evidence from research studies across the globe \u00E2\u0080\u0093 from Europe to North America, from Africa to Latin America, from Middle East to Asia \u00E2\u0080\u0093 shows that the pursuit of higher education has been hailed as a key pathway for social mobility. Studies in the Global North reveal that massification of access to higher education has enabled more people from all socio-economic backgrounds to attend universities, and, at the same time, more than higher education credentials are needed to improve one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s chances of attaining a higher social class. Informal social networks such as family, friends, and other personal contacts are important in structuring one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s chance of occupational and social mobility (Bison, 2011; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Breen & Goldthorpe, 1999; Granovetter, 1995; Lampard, 2007; Lin, 1999, 2001; Mouw, 2003). Not unlike the development in the Global North, higher education is also perceived to be an avenue for social mobility in Global South societies. The massification of higher education across the Global South is fueled by a growing demand from different segments of the population who consider higher education as a pathway for improving living standards and upward social mobility (Altbach, 2004; Altbach, Reisberg, & Rumbley, 2009; Harman, 1994). From Africa (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012; Webb, 2018) to Latin America (Duryea, de Freitas, Ozemela, & 5 Sampaio, 2019; Marzi, 2018), the Middle East (Harris & Kalb, 2019; Hashemi, 2012) to South and Southeast Asia (Arnot & Naveed, 2014; Cruz, 2019), higher education is considered to be a crucial form of capital for improving one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status. Research in Global South contexts reveals rising concerns that colonial residue, emerging neo-colonialism, and neoliberal capitalism are increasingly shaping the mentality of the people in former colonies in relation to the linkage between higher education and social mobility, indicating the continuity of colonialism (Anwaruddin, 2014; Gyamera & Burke, 2018; Howson & Lall, 2020; Lebeau, 2008; Nguyen, Elliott, Terlouw, & Pilot, 2009; Papoutsaki & Rooney, 2006; Sakhiyya & Rata, 2019; Shrivastava & Shrivastava, 2014). At the same time, increasing research has emerged that shows growing resistance to the hegemonic continuity of coloniality in the Global South and points to the collective endeavor and outcome of pursuing higher education for social mobility (Cervantes-Soon, 2016; Cruz, 2019; Estes, 2019; Estes & Green, 2019; Hashemi, 2012; Webb, 2018), contrary to a more individualistic endeavor in the Global North. Evidence from research in both Global North and Global South contexts points to the dynamic interplay between socio-cultural factors and individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 agential capacity in the process of social mobility (Bateson, 1989; Bertaux, 1981b; Botterill, 2014; de Bruijn, van Dijk, & Gewald, 2007; Dom\u00C3\u00ADnguez & Watkins, 2003; Hainsworth, Jacobson, McGee, & Placzek, 1981; Hashemi, 2012; Higginbotham & Weber, 1992; Inui & Kojima, 2012; Matthys, 2013; C. W. Mills, 1959; Nimer, 2020; Schaie & Elder, 2005; Shanahan & Macmillan, 2008). Social mobility research that takes into account both structure and individual agency provides a better \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfit\u00E2\u0080\u009D for empirical research in complex and diverse settings across both regions (Brannen & Nilsen, 2005). The process of social mobility is not automatic; it requires an individual to engage with the socio-cultural structure and to exercise their agency in \u00E2\u0080\u009Caccumulating economic, cultural and social capital\u00E2\u0080\u00A6to escape social pressure\u00E2\u0080\u009D and to become socially mobile (Matthys, 2013, p. 50). As Matthys (2013) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSuccess in social transformation depends, in essence, on individual ability to negotiate contextual circumstances on the basis of personal strength\u00E2\u0080\u00A6the quality of individual agency is central\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 238). In addition, agency is an important aspect in social mobility research because it is a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmeans by which individuals from non-privileged backgrounds \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 transcend ordinary career trajectories \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 [and] break through the perceived 6 limitations of their situated circumstances in the battles for recognition\u00E2\u0080\u009D and social mobility (Maclean, Harvey, & Chia, 2012, p. 18). Therefore, this study investigates a problem that is relevant to not only the Global North but also to postcolonial Global South societies. As presented below, the study makes a significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship in both contexts. 1.3 Conceptual frame and research design Given the historical, socio-cultural, political, and economic context and the existing body of scholarship within which this study situates, it was essential to develop a conceptual framework that was relevant and robust in making sense of the social mobility journey of the research participants in the study. Pierre Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing and concepts have been adopted and employed by scholars to research social mobility in both Global North (Aguilera, 2008; Breen, 2010; Breen & Karlson, 2014; P. Brown, Reay, & Vincent, 2013; Fernandez, Castilla, & Moore, 2000; Stuart, 2012; Tholen, Brown, Power, & Allouch, 2013) and Global South societies (Arnot & Naveed, 2014; Dom\u00C3\u00ADnguez & Watkins, 2003; Marzi, 2018; C. Mills, 2008b). In this study, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s primary concepts (i.e., habitus, field, capital, doxa, illusio) are drawn upon to develop the conceptual frame. However, despite the potential relevance of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early writing to the analysis of colonial/postcolonial societies, as argued by Calhoun (2006), Curto (2016), Go (2013), Puwar (2009), and Rapini (2016), these concepts, along with their markers of Western/Euro-centric socio-cultural origin (Gaztambide-Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez, 2019), are not fully relevant in understanding the life experiences of people in postcolonial Global South societies. Therefore, I have added more concepts to develop the framework used in this study. The concepts of colonized field (Ayling, 2019), colonial habitus (Ayling, 2019; Dhareshwar, 1989), family field (Atkinson, 2014), and family habitus (L. Archer et al., 2012; Arnot & Naveed, 2014; Atkinson, 2011; DeLuca, 2016; D. Liu & Morgan, 2020; Tomanovi\u00C4\u0087, 2004), together with my own concepts of traditional doxa, colonial doxa, local field, and indigenous habitus, are added to develop a conceptual framework that is more relevant and fit for the context of the study. Moreover, I draw on Yosso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2017) community cultural wealth framework and its various forms of capital, as well as Rogers and Anderson\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) concept of altruistic capital, to address the limitations of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of capital. Gender-embedded 7 forms of capital (i.e., emotional, feminine, female) are also drawn upon from feminist scholarship (Cottingham, 2016; Gillies, 2006; Huppatz, 2009; O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Brien, 2008; Reay, 2000, 2004; Santoro, 2010) to provide a more insightful analytical perspective for understanding the rich experiences of the study participants. I draw on Streib\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2016) concept of working-class cultural complements to account for the crucial value of cultural resources of people living in the socio-economic margins. Finally, the concept of Southern agency is added to the conceptual framework to ascertain the socio-cultural situatedness of agency in postcolonial Global South societies (Hilsdon, 2007; Pham, 2013; van Dijk, de Bruijn, & Gewald, 2007). Together, these concepts form a more robust and relevant conceptual framework capable of explaining social practices of people in postcolonial Global South societies such as Cambodia, without potentially subjecting their experiences to the colonial gaze. The study aims to gain understandings of the processes of social mobility through pursuit of higher education of individuals from marginalized socio-economic origins in Cambodia as a postcolonial Global South society. To achieve this main purpose and to address the four research questions outlined above, I conduct life-history interviews with 12 research participants who were originally from different parts of Cambodia and now occupy professional and managerial positions in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia. I also weave my own life story into the dissertation to reveal my positionality. Life-history method fits well with the purpose of the study and offers \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca route to more \u00E2\u0080\u0098authentic\u00E2\u0080\u0099 data\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Allen, 1998, p. 232) and emphasizes the mutually re-constitutive interface between social agents and events and possibilities in their lives (Andrle, 2001). It provides rich narrative data that, through the conceptual lens, enables uncovering of the complex and multi-layered nuances and subtleties of the study participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interpersonal relations and inter-generational transmission of social status and privilege (Bertaux, 1981b; Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). It demonstrates socio-cultural dynamics at work in individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives (Bertaux, 1981b; Mallman, 2015) and reveals the nuanced socio-cultural processes that structure the different social mobility experiences of men and women in this study. 8 1.4 Significance of the study Making sense of my own life journey and the journeys of those who volunteered to participate in this study is significant in several ways. First, this study makes an original contribution to the literature on higher education and social mobility in Cambodia. There has been virtually no research that draws on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts to make sense of the Cambodian society, with the exception of Chivoin Peou\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (Peou, 2016; Peou & Zinn, 2014) recent study. However, Peou\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work does not critique nor approach Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts from a postcolonial lens. Moreover, there has not been much work that examines educational development in Cambodia from a colonial and postcolonial lens in general (with the exceptions of the works of Ayres (2003), Fergusson and Le Masson (1997), and Um (2014)). There has also been almost no research that examines the relation between social mobility and (higher) education in Cambodia from a (post)colonial lens. An exception is a study by Kalab (1976), which examines monastic education as an avenue for social mobility, and, partially, in Peou\u00E2\u0080\u0099s study (Peou & Zinn, 2014), which investigates urban youth\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility. Moreover, there is little research by Cambodian scholars on Cambodian society, in general. Therefore, this study helps to fill a research gap and will hopefully generate discussions and research into the issue in the country. It is my hope that my research will inspire Cambodians to do more research into social mobility and educational development in Cambodia from a postcolonial perspective, including the problematic legacies of colonialism on the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational planning and development, as well as the contemporary persistence of coloniality that continues to cripple Cambodians in their pursuit of a more locally relevant and equitable educational development. Second, the study has practical social significance for contemporary Cambodian citizens. The life experiences of the participants will provide useful lessons for younger generations of Cambodians about what it takes for those from humble family origins to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmake it\u00E2\u0080\u009D to the next level of social location and attain a secure livelihood. The findings, when shared publicly, may help motivate younger generations from poor family origins to pursue higher education. The results of the study also contribute to informing higher education policy discussions related to the issues of access and funding for the poor to be able to pursue higher education. This will 9 hopefully result in education policies that provide better higher education access to those from humble beginnings. Third, the study contributes to an ongoing debate about the role of higher education (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Breen, 2010; Breen & Karlson, 2014; Heath, Mills, & Roberts, 1992; Sicherman, 1990) vis-\u00C3\u00A0-vis other factors such as social origins, parental backgrounds, and personal networks in promoting social mobility (Bison, 2011; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Lampard, 2007; Lin, 1999, 2001; Mouw, 2003). The study also contributes a local, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodian lens on Western concepts, which will in turn refashion our conceptual and theoretical understandings of social mobility from a postcolonial Global South perspective. In particular, the study makes an important contribution to the small, yet growing body of scholarship that investigates the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility in postcolonial Global South societies, as well as a conceptual model that is relevant for research in this context. Finally, this study contributes to a growing body of scholarship on social mobility that is approached from qualitative, life-history methodological perspectives (Bertaux, 1981b; Bertaux & Thompson, 1997; Friedman, 2014; Maclean et al., 2012; Mallman, 2015; Matthys, 2013; A. Miles, Savage, & Buhlmann, 2011; Naudet, 2008; Savage, Bagnall, & Longhurst, 2001; Stuart, 2012). 1.5 Scope and limitations of the study First, it is important to note that this research focuses only on the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csuccessful\u00E2\u0080\u009D stories of select research participants who have moved out of poverty and difficult living conditions, and secured stable living conditions by means of occupational mobility. The study does not consider people from poor family origins who are still living in harsh conditions and have not been socially mobile. Their lives are definitely worth researching, too, especially from a comparative perspective. Their life stories deserve in-depth investigation, so that they are better understood, and more can be done to assist them. However, this group of research participants is beyond the scope of my study. Another research direction outside the methodological scope of the study is a more in-depth positioning of the research within the specific current socio-cultural contexts of Cambodia 10 today. Ethnographic field observation, for example, in a select local community would be a useful addition to the research. This would add rich contextual data to the analysis of the process of social mobility in this study, but was not possible given limited resources available to conduct the study. 1.6 My positionality: Beyond the insider-outsider dichotomy Much literature discusses the benefits and concerns with regard to the researcher being an insider or an outsider to the research participant population (R. Berger, 2015; Blythe, Wilkes, Jackson, & Halcomb, 2013; Dwyer & Buckle, 2009; Gair, 2012). As a Cambodian growing up in roughly a similar time period, coming from similar family origins as my research participants, I was often considered by them to be an insider. However, I may also be viewed as an outsider in this research. I cannot pretend to fully understand the lived experiences of my research participants. Although we may share some commonalities in our family origins, there are particularistic contextual dynamics for each of us that may have shaped our lives and influenced our perspectives on our lives. Moreover, as a man talking to women in a socio-cultural context where certain intimate subjects are taboo, there is a high chance that the women participants in my research did not reveal aspects of their lives that they were not comfortable sharing with me during interviews. One of my research participants was a Muslim woman (I am a Buddhist), and this added ethnicity/religion as another layer to the insider-outsider complexity. Thus, in my positionality as a researcher, I am aware that I am operating at the intersection of different layers of socio-cultural norms, gender, and ethnicities. Therefore, instead of positioning myself as either an insider or an outsider, I see myself as a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbetweener\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Dwyer & Buckle, 2009). At times, I may be closer to the position of an insider; at other times, I may not. In Chapter 5 Research Methodology, I argue that insider-outsider dichotomies do not always serve us well as qualitative researchers, and I am in fact both insider and outsider in the life history research I have conducted with study participants. In the next Chapter 2, I also elaborate my positionality as researcher by telling my life story in relation to the themes of the study; namely, higher education and social mobility in postcolonial Cambodia. My life history, also woven into the 11 dissertation, will reveal to the reader who I am, how I came to be interested in this topic, and why I pursued this research project in particular. 1.7 Organization of the dissertation The dissertation is organized as follows. Chapter 2 discusses the context of the study, including the beginnings of my own life story. It describes a general overview of Khmer (Cambodian) society and its social organization from the pre-colonial era to the present day. It also examines the role of schooling and pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility, how this linkage has evolved, and what has influenced this change. Finally, the chapter discusses the dynamics of post-conflict reconstruction efforts and how they have shaped the role of schooling and higher education as an avenue for social mobility. Chapter 3 reviews the literature that sheds light on the dynamics and complexities that shape the processes of social mobility, in particular the linkage between higher education and social mobility, by drawing on the existing scholarly literature. The chapter attends to the Global North and Global South perspectives on this linkage to draw important insights that will be useful for crafting a conceptual framework in the next chapter. Chapter 4 describes the conceptual framework of the study. The chapter draws on the conceptual framing with reference to key concepts from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. It also draws on feminist scholarship, the community cultural wealth perspective, and the working-class cultural complements framework for additional conceptual perspectives to make my conceptual framework more robust and more relevant to the context of postcolonial Cambodia in particular, and Global South societies in general. Lastly, the continuity of the coloniality of power, neocolonialism, and neoliberal capitalism in Cambodia is elaborated. This provides a relevant historical, cultural and societal contextual framework to make sense of the nuances and complexities of the subjective experiences of the Cambodian men and women in my study. Chapter 5 discusses the research design of the study. The chapter begins with a consideration of my insider-outsider role as researcher. It then moves into a discussion on the potentials and limits of quantitative approaches to social mobility research. A discussion of the potential of qualitative methodologies for social mobility research follows, and argues that they are better able to capture the nuances that underpin the process of social mobility than 12 quantitative approaches. Then, the theoretical orientation of the life history method, its value and limitations are discussed. The chapter also details the research participant recruitment process, sources of data, approaches to data management and analysis, and ethical considerations taken in this study, and ends with a description of the research participants. Chapters 6-9 present the findings of the study. Chapter 6 presents findings on the first research question: What were the contextual aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility for study participants? Specifically, this section focuses on the contextual aspects that shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for social mobility through the pursuit of higher education. Chapter 7 presents findings on the second research question: Who and what facilitated and constrained the processes of higher education pursuit and social mobility? First are findings on the facilitating and/or constraining role of the family in their pursuit of higher education and social mobility journeys. Second are findings on the role of the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social networks and the ways in which these, a social capital, facilitated or constrained social mobility. Third, the chapter attends to the broader socio-cultural codes, gender norms and the ways in which these forces shaped journeys of higher education and social mobility for the research participants. Finally, it discusses the role of the wat or Buddhist temples in facilitating or constraining the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 educational and social mobility journeys. Chapter 8 focuses on the third research question: How did the research participants overcome the challenges that constrained their pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility? The chapter highlights findings on how cultural resources for study participants as poor and marginalized people became essential forms of capital for their educational, occupational, and social mobility. It presents findings on women participants' exercising of \u00E2\u0080\u009Csituated agency\u00E2\u0080\u009D as they navigated within the liminal space of personal emancipation and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural norms and social frameworks. Chapter 9 presents findings that address the fourth research question: What was the meaning(s) or purpose(s) of social mobility? This chapter elaborates findings on the meanings and purposes of participants' social mobility journeys as characterized by the research participants. 13 Finally, Chapter 10 summarizes study findings, situates them within the broader body of scholarship reviewed, and considers them in light of the conceptual framework of the study. This is followed by recommendations for further research, policy recommendations, and a conclusion. 14 Chapter 2: Schooling and Social Mobility in Cambodia: Historical Perspectives The embrace of an irrelevant Westernized educational model in Cambodia has been a function of the weight of past perceptions. The \u00E2\u0080\u0098modern\u00E2\u0080\u0099 education of the colonial era was associated with the notion of social mobility. It is a notion that has continued to motivate Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s citizens to desire education, and particularly formal educational qualifications, in the belief that it will lead to more attractive employment. (Ayres, 2000, p. 461) When I was growing up in rural Cambodia, what came often to my mind was to move out of difficult life circumstances, have a stable living condition, and at least have proper meals to eat every day. I did not know how to do this. My parents, especially my mother, always reminded me and my siblings to study hard because we did not have any inheritance. They said we could use our knowledge to earn a living later in life and possibly to live a better life than what they could provide. The best they could do at that time was to try to make sure all of us could go to school and study hard. I did not understand much why they said this then, but each of us tried our best in our own way, although we were all capable in different ways. We all hoped to live a more secure and stable life in the future. For my parents, as well as for millions of other Cambodians, education was and remains the greatest hope for people from poor rural origins like us to be able to have a decent living through a good salaried job. We did not have capital or talent to pursue small trading that some Chinese Cambodians in our village seemed to be good at. However, how my parents came to view the role of pursuing education as an avenue for improved livelihood and higher socio-economic status did not come out of thin air. My parents would tell us that when they were young during the 1960s, being a schoolteacher was a respectable and well-paid profession. They hoped we would at least become teachers in schools in our village or district. But being a teacher in the 1980s was completely different from being a teacher in the 1960s. Unlike teachers in the 1960s, who were well paid and highly respected, teachers in the 1980s (and even presently) do not enjoy the same kind of status, respect, and financial security. They are poorly paid, and they 15 are not as much respected due to their low economic status. But my parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 belief then was that as a teacher one could at least receive a monthly income, regardless of how little it might be. It would at least be a supplement to our work on the farm. For many Cambodians, the idea of becoming teachers or serving in the government as civil servants was, and largely still is, a way of moving out of life in the rice paddies, signifying one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s improved social status. This perception has its origin during the French colonial period. At that time, pursuing education opened the possibility for those from peasant origins to leave behind their life on the farms and improve their social status by serving as low-level civil servants in the French colonial administration. The recruitment of those with some education into the French administration offered a new perspective for Cambodians about the role of education in social mobility (Ayres, 2003; T. Clayton, 2000). It was the first time in Cambodian history that farmers could elevate their social status through the pursuit of education. This change was the primary factor that motivated peasants, including my parents, to encourage their children to go to school (Martin, 1994). How has the role of schooling as an avenue for social mobility evolved over the decades, from the pre-colonial era to contemporary Cambodia? How have Khmer traditional socio-cultural norms and values shaped the interface between schooling and social mobility? What is the dynamic of gender relations in connection with schooling and social mobility? How has the prolonged civil war impacted Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perspectives about the role of schooling as an avenue for social mobility? How have post-conflict reconstruction efforts affected the linkage between schooling and social mobility? This chapter addresses these questions in order to contextualize the study. It describes a general overview of Khmer society and its social organization from the pre-colonial era to the present day. It also examines the role of schooling and pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility, how this linkage has evolved, and what has influenced this change. Lastly, the chapter focuses on the dynamics and changes in post-conflict reconstruction efforts and how they have shaped the role of schooling and higher education as an avenue for social mobility. 16 2.1 Pre-colonial period (prior to 1863): Khmer traditional school system and social stability Khmer society prior to the 1863 establishment of the French colonial administration was organized hierarchically. Power was centered on the devaraja (the god-king), who made or revoked appointments and titles, particularly of the dignitaries or elite in the royal court (Chandler, 2008). Self-reproduction appears, largely but not totally, to have been the continuity of all social categories (Ebihara, 1984; Mabbett, 1978). The traditional, pre-colonial Khmer society was largely divided into six general categories: the sdech (royalty); the neamoeun montrey (nobility); the reastr (common people), including the peasantry; the sangha2; the slaves3; and the non-Khmer people, of whom there were two groups: Indigenous tribal peoples and foreigners (Ebihara, 1984; Peang-Meth, 1991). These categories were not hereditary, and there was some movement of membership into or out of some of these groups (Ebihara, 1984). Deeply rooted in the socio-cultural landscape of Cambodian society, patronage practice, or khsae4, allowed some social fluidity between social categories, especially at the higher social groupings. Patronage was practiced as a means of running the country at the time. For the dignitary and elite social categories, this practice \u00E2\u0080\u0093 built around preferential appointments and the granting of property by the king \u00E2\u0080\u0093 was a predominant means for social reproduction; however, it also functioned to elevate the social status of those loyal to the king (Mabbett, 1977). Elites appointed by the king also \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmade their own appointments to lesser offices to reward their entourages, and so on down the line in interlocking, descending networks of patrons and clients\u00E2\u0080\u009D Ebihara (1984, p. 285). Patronage5 was 2 Sangha refers to the community of Buddhist monks, nuns, novices, and lay people. 3 Slaves in Khmer language are called khnum or prey ng\u00C3\u00A8er, literally meaning task/job/work persons (Ebihara, 1984). According to Chou Ta-Kuan\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1992) account, it seems slavery was a very common aspect of life during the Angkor era. He noted that most people owned slaves; only the very poor had no slaves. 4 Khsae literally means strings. Used in this context, khsae refers to patron-client networks or kin ties. It is a predominant feature and practice in Cambodia, even to the present day. 5 It is worth noting that the patronage practice and the king\u00E2\u0080\u0099s prerogative to grant and revoke titles also suggest downward mobility among elite groups. The king could revoke titles at his pleasure and reduce an official (and his family) to a lower status or even to slavery in some extreme cases (Ebihara, 1984). Within the royal family, factional fighting and differences among 17 practiced, to a limited extent, at the lower social strata, which allowed some ordinary commoners to improve their socio-economic condition. However, for the majority of common folks, social mobility \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwas something that might be hoped for in the next reincarnation if one were very virtuous\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ebihara, 1984, p. 289)6. In addition to patronage practices, marriages represented another important means for social mobility. Generally, marriages functioned as a means of coalition formation (Chandler, 2008) and a mechanism for the reproduction of social status, wealth and privilege (Ebihara, 1984). However, marital relations also served as a strategy that enabled some members of the elite group to move further up in the social hierarchy by being in marital relations with the royalty (D. E. Brown, 1988; Ebihara, 1984). This form of relationship seems to have been the main avenue for social mobility of women (Jacobsen, 2008). Women were able to enhance their social status, own property and move upwardly in society by engaging in remarriages, incestuous relationships, and other forms of status-elevating unions (Jacobsen, 2008). In ancient Cambodia, education was not widespread, and existed only for certain social groups, and mainly favored boys or men. According to the diary of a Chinese official Chou Ta-Kuan, who traveled to the Khmer Empire at the end of the thirteenth century, one of the three religious groups in the Angkorean city was called the pan-chi, or men of learning (Chou, 1992). There appears to have been no school or seminary for the pan-chi, but they were often able to move to high-status positions in the royal court (Ayres, 2003). It is unknown, however, what the size of this religious group was or who were the members of the group. However, that form of monastic-style education was similar to the wat (Buddhist temple) school system run by Buddhist monks, as described by the French when they arrived in Cambodia (Ayres, 2003). It is possible that the wat school system gradually evolved from the thirteenth-century religious group, the pan-chi. One may conclude that higher social status was associated with higher learning and knowledge. family members could result in those not in favor of the king finding themselves and their families reduced from royalty to slavery (Ebihara, 1984; Vickery, 1985). 6 Ebihara (1984) noted that it would probably not be valid to think of ordinary free persons at the time as constituting a category of generally poor persons. There were gradations of relative wealth in this social group, which might have helped them, to some extent, improve their socioeconomic status (p. 289). 18 Schooling in pre-colonial Cambodia was not designed to promote social mobility (Jacobsen, 2008) but fundamentally existed to reinforce the importance of appropriate behavior and a sense of group identity, and served to determine people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social locations within the social strata (Ayres, 2000). Children generally \u00E2\u0080\u009Creceived a rigid education, very often non-public, within the family and based on a morality inspired by Buddhist principles handed down from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tomasi, 2000, p. 153). The only public schools were the wat schools open to boys only. The history of education prior to the establishment of the French Protectorate in Cambodia, as summarized below, captures the overall purpose of schooling in pre-colonial Cambodia: teaching was given only in the pagoda schools. For centuries, it had been the custom for parents to send their sons to the local pagoda for a few years. There, a bonze would teach them to read the Satras, the sacred books of the Buddhists, written in the Cambodian language. As the bonzes built their pagodas and cells with their own hands, they also taught the boys the elements of carpentry. (Bilodeau et al., as cited in Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997, p. 95, original emphasis) The nature of wat-based instruction, argues Ayres (2003), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cperpetuated the notion of taking the children [boys] from the rice-fields and giving them back to the rice-fields\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 28). Pre-colonial schooling served primarily to reinforce the existing social hierarchy overseen by the monarchy and legitimized by the Buddhist monastic order and was not meant to be an avenue for social mobility (Ayres, 2003). Education played a central role in ensuring that younger generations respected the hierarchical social order (Tomasi, 2000). Girls were not allowed to attend the wat schools arguably because they were thought to be a distractor for Buddhist monks. While boys were sent to the wat schools, girls were supposed to stay indoors for a defined period of time, a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D practice known as chol mlub, literally meaning \u00E2\u0080\u009Centering the shade.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This is the time when girls were supposed to learn from their parents, particularly mothers, about proper behaviors of women and of their roles as housewives. The chbab srey (normative poems/codes of conduct for women) was the main reference for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproper\u00E2\u0080\u009D behavior for women. Chbab srey is one of several normative codes of conduct that Cambodia has used over the centuries as guidelines for proper behaviors for members of the society (Lilja, 2016). There are 19 codes of conduct (chbab7) for men, women, children, and other social categories. Originating in the early 19th century in the form of literary works, chbab srey represents \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial constructions of Cambodian girlhood and womanhood [that] are intimately tied up with notions of domesticity, virtue, and girls\u00E2\u0080\u0099 future roles as wives and mothers\u00E2\u0080\u00A6associated with the construction of female domesticity and status in Cambodian society\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Rogers & Anderson, 2019, p. 535). Chbab srey \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpromotes female passivity, lowers their status, and restricts their mobility in comparison to their male counterparts\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Rogers & Anderson, 2019, p. 536). This code of conduct for women has over the past century shaped Cambodian girls and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s schooling experience and structured their opportunity for social mobility. Although it was only after the French arrived in Cambodia that the various chbab, especially the chbab srey, had far-reaching impact on the status of women (Jacobsen, 2008), these normative codes of conduct written in the pre-colonial period represent Khmer traditional social norms and continue to shape women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s subjectivity and constrain their opportunities for education and social mobility to this day. Parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lack of support for girls\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of education or parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure on girls to marry early are but two examples of these constraints (Rogers & Anderson, 2019). There are several important lessons that may be learned about the nature of pre-colonial schooling system in the land now known as Cambodia. First and foremost, opportunities for schooling and higher learning were mostly accessible to those of the elite social class. The rest of 7 The beginning of the nineteenth century marks the start of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca tradition of misogynist literature\u00E2\u0080\u009D with the composition of the chbab srey and several other chbab (Jacobsen, 2008, p. 109). When Ang Duong came to power, he introduced a series of new laws, claiming the ancient laws had not been \u00E2\u0080\u009Crevised\u00E2\u0080\u009D for a long time. While the laws inside the palace pertained the royal succession, particularly limiting the succession of princesses, the laws outside the palace privileged male interests and subjugated women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s status. This view was also present in didactic literature written by King Ang Duong. Apparently, King Ang Duong initiated the administrative reforms and wrote various chbab as an expression of his resentment towards Ang Mei, his niece, who was crowned in Phnom Penh by the Vietnamese. It was the period when Cambodia was largely divided and controlled by the Siamese, who backed Ang Duong, and the Vietnamese, who supported Ang Mei. Ang Mei became the Queen of Cambodia at a time when the country was already controlled by the Vietnamese. The cruel treatment by the Vietnamese toward Cambodians at the time seems to have attracted a great amount of resentment from Ang Duong and the general populace. When Ang Duong came to power, Ang Mei was probably imprisoned and tortured (Jacobsen, 2008). From this experience, Ang Duong\u00E2\u0080\u0099s works focused on misogyny, correct behaviors for women, and the danger of having a female ruler. Ang Mei was and continues to be depicted as a Vietnamese puppet in Cambodian collective memory. 20 the male population had access to some form of schooling offered by the wat-based school system. Second, Buddhism played a crucial role in educating and socializing new generations of male Khmer into accepting and following the existing social hierarchy. In fact, until the beginning of the 20th century, wat schools continued to exclude girls from education and offered courses to boys only (Tomasi, 2000). And this relates to the fourth point, which is about the important role of the family in socializing and teaching children, especially girls, proper social behavior expected of them. 2.2 French colonial period (1863-1953): The genesis of education for social mobility Cambodia was oriented to a modern nation-state when the French officially established their protectorate administration in Cambodia on August 11, 1863 (R. S. Thomson, 1945; Tully, 2005). Described by Munson et al. (1963) as a hierarchical and static colonial system, Cambodia was then under the reign of Prince Norodom. Not unlike its traditional societal structure, Cambodian society under the French was organized like a pyramid with the monarch at the top of the social order, followed by the commoner class, which included, in descending order, montrey (officials), freemen, serfs and slaves (Steinberg, 1959). Khsae networks continued to run deep in every aspect of social relations. Not unlike the social and political context in the previous centuries, the elite groups in the colonialized Cambodia continued to widely practice khsae networks as a dominant mechanism for securing high positions, power, prestige and wealth (Osborne, 1969). The French were not involved in educational development in Cambodia until the beginning of the 20th century (Ayres, 2000, 2003; T. Clayton, 1995); however, their policy on education, in particular the linkage between schooling and social mobility, has had a lasting impact on the mentality of Khmer people. Under the French protectorate, the Khmer were responsible for the education of their children, and the wat schools in which lay teachers or monks taught continued to be the typical education institutions (Tomasi, 2000). Mass education was left to Buddhist temple or wat schools and other community supported schools (Ayres, 2003; Smith, 1970). In the wat schools, the textbooks used prior to the French arrival, such as chbab srey, chbab bros (normative poems/codes of conduct for boys/men), and other traditional codes of conduct, remained widely used (Martin, 1994). During such a colonial period in which 21 foreign influence was immense, the various chbab were more significant than ever as they were considered \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctrue\u00E2\u0080\u009D reflection of traditional patterns of behavior in Cambodian society (Jacobsen, 2008). However, the discourse about women being the custodians of Cambodian cultural identity and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D values and the practice encoded in such codes of conduct as chbab srey largely disempowered women, limited their educational opportunities, and contributed to the decline of their status (Jacobsen, 2008). The French did not seek to change the traditional school system in Cambodia when they started to engage in educational development in the country; instead, they established a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cparallel system\u00E2\u0080\u009D of education mainly in the capital city, with some in provinces \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhere the influence of the family and tradition was very strong\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tomasi, 2000, p. 153). One of the goals of this school system was clearly a response to the resistance of the French presence in the country. The Franco-Cambodian schools set up during the early stage of colonization were not popular among Cambodians because the people were resistant to the French presence in the country, especially the French language (T. Clayton, 1995). Importantly, those Franco-Cambodian schools did not suit \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe [traditional Buddhist] mentality of the country\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bilodeau, as cited in Clayton, 1995, p. 7). Cambodian peasants and monks viewed French education as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca peril for the Buddhist doctrine\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Forest, as cited in Clayton, 1995, p. 7). Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u0099 unwavering belief system (Buddhism) is reflected in a comment made by a French Catholic bishop during the colonial period: \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe only sure way to advance Christianity [in Cambodia] was for missionaries to purchase the freedom of slaves, who would then become converts\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Osborne, 1969, p. 27). The colonial era saw the rise of a kind of modernist Buddhism in Cambodia, influenced partly by the French colonial policy and local response to various external threats, as well as the effort to promote Buddhist education in the country (Hansen, 2007, 2008). The sangha played an important part not just in social criticisms particularly concerning the moral decay caused by corruption, oppressive government control and over-taxation; but also in leading revolts against the French colonial power and the encroaching Siamese and Vietnamese (Hansen, 2007, 2008). On top of the fundamental influence of Buddhism in the Cambodian society, the French education system was not perceived as \u00E2\u0080\u009Clegitimate for Cambodian society\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 1995, p. 7), as illustrated by Bilodeau\u00E2\u0080\u0099s observation below: 22 the sole ambition of the Cambodian peasant was to settle his son on his rice-field, which supplied all his needs. He himself had never gone to school, and was quite happy. It was natural for him to think that his son could acquire little useful information at the state school, where much French was taught but no agriculture. (Bilodeau, as cited in Clayton, 1995, p. 7) This quote perfectly captures Cambodian peasants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 understanding of their local needs, which was agricultural development, and of the irrelevance of schooling offered by Franco-Cambodian schools. It also indicates their resistance to the use of French language in schools, which was one of the reasons for the failures of Franco-Cambodian schools. Only after the French modernized the Cambodian wat schools (by adopting the Thai Buddhist temple school model during the first decade of the 20th century) did the French manage to gain Cambodian peasants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 acceptance of this model of schooling (T. Clayton, 1995). This model of schooling was perceived by Cambodians as an external, modern form of education, one not conceived by the French and which did not use the French language. After the French took over this system of education in the 1908, secularized the schools in 1911, and rebranded them as khum or communal schools, they became very popular among rural Cambodians, resulting in the mushrooming of the schools across the country (T. Clayton, 1995). It is important to note that some sections of these schools were open for girls as well (T. Clayton, 1995). These khum schools incorporated the features of both Franco-Cambodian schools and traditional wat schools, fundamentally functioning as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca bridge for rural students into Franco-Cambodian schools\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Clayton, 1995, p. 9). At the same time, the French were also able to assert their influence in traditional wat schools through a teacher training program for monks teaching in wat schools, thus modernizing these traditional schools (Clayton, 1995). Modernized wat schools offered curriculum similar to that in Franco-Cambodian schools but used Khmer language as the medium of instruction, and, like khum schools, they functioned as a bridge for students from the countryside to transition into Franco-Cambodian schools. By the end of the 1940s, the number of schools spread across the country, with schools jumping from 30 in the 1910s to 268 in 1939 (Delvert, as cited in Clayton, 1995). A fundamental change that occurred during these few decades of educational development was when the pool of Cambodian children, largely boys, from these schools was 23 selected to join the French colonial civil administration (Ayres, 2000, 2003; T. Clayton, 1995). Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education system established by the French colonial power, argues T. Clayton (2005), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cacted as a sorting machine, selecting the better students from basic education for advanced education and, ultimately, for the colonial civil service\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 506). The modernization of the Cambodian school system by the French introduced the Cambodian peasantry to the concept of social mobility through schooling. It was the first time in Cambodian history that education enabled those from the peasantry to join the civil service and change their social status. Although this opportunity mostly benefited children from elite social origins, some children from the peasantry were also the beneficiaries of this change. This \u00E2\u0080\u009Csubtle social revolution,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as Ayres (2003, p. 28) calls it, changed the perception of rural Cambodians about the role of schooling and redefined the nature of educational development in the country to this day. While only a small group of Cambodians received French education and the majority were uneducated or attended wat schools (Tan, 2010), the colonial \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernization\u00E2\u0080\u009D of Cambodian education system has primarily left a permanent imprint not only on the trajectories of Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational development since then, but also on the mindset of Cambodians, particularly with regard to the linkage between schooling and social mobility. The colonial approach to sustaining its colonial administration in Cambodia resulted in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe indigenous forms of education [being] turned away from a Cambodian purpose and similarly redefined in terms of the colonial enterprise\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Clayton, 1995, p. 11). Moreover, the French involvement in the education sector in Cambodia opened for the first time the opportunity for girls to attend public schools (i.e., khum or communal schools). The educational development in Cambodia has since followed a similar trajectory, with the exception of the Khmer Rouge regime (Ayres, 2000). 2.3 Sihanouk regime (1953-1970): Perpetuation of colonial school system Cambodia gained independence from France on November 9, 1953. Commonly referred to as Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Socialist Community) (Ayres, 2003; Chandler, 2008), Cambodia was then under the reign of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. In general, social class at that time was defined \u00E2\u0080\u009Cboth by birth and by attained or inherited position within the religious or government hierarchies\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Steinberg, 1959, p. 92). Cambodian society during the Sihanouk regime was organized around four social groups: the royalty-nobility, the sangha, the 24 commoners, and the rural peasantry (Steinberg, 1959). The royal family and the nobility represented the core of the government and remained at the apex of the social hierarchy (Munson et al., 1963). Positions in the religious or government realm, even at the lower levels, were accorded more prestige and power than those in trade or the professions. Commoners who held high positions in the government bureaucracy, the sangha, and the armed forces were considered to be part of the elite group. The sangha had its own hierarchy which was equated with certain rankings in the government bureaucracy or the nobility (Munson et al., 1963; Steinberg, 1959). There was a distinction between urban and the rural society. Urban society was structured around the \u00E2\u0080\u009Celite\u00E2\u0080\u009D class comprising the royalty, the nobility, and the high-ranking commoners. This category was mostly self-reproducing due to their access to (higher) education and opportunities for wealth and power (Munson et al., 1963; Steinberg, 1959), but their status was not permanent. The largest segment of the urban middle class was made up of white-collar workers, including university professors, who occupied different ranks of the government administrative services. They were mostly ethnically Khmer. The next largest urban group was made up of the lower level of the sangha (both Mohanikay and Thommayut orders)8. The third group was the commercial and professional group, including businessmen, shopkeepers, lawyers, and doctors. Most of them were Chinese or Vietnamese Cambodians (Munson et al., 1963; Steinberg, 1959, pp. 90-91). The lower urban social group comprised small shopkeepers and skilled and unskilled laborers (Munson et al., 1963; Steinberg, 1959). They were usually descendants of slaves, serfs and freemen from the pre-colonial period (Munson et al., 1963). The peasantry formed the majority of the population and resided in the rural areas. The rural areas were characterized by minimal class distinctions (Steinberg, 1959). Only a very small number of rural people had noticeably large landholdings; the income and material assets gap was narrow (Steinberg, 1959). An important feature of rural society was family and communal 8 There are two distinct orders in Cambodian Buddhism: the Thommayut and Mohanikay (Kent, 2008; Steinberg, 1959). Each has its own organization and personnel. The Thommayut order (those attached to the doctrine) is based mainly in the cities, particularly Phnom Penh. It is the most influential in the royal court, compared to the other order; its members consider themselves among the Cambodian elite. The Mohanikay (great congregation), on the other hand, has a much larger number of followers and is based in rural villages across the country. The Mohanikay order is much less strict than the Thommayut order. 25 reciprocity; prestige and respect were placed on righteous conduct and faithful service to the neighborhood Buddhist temple rather than material wealth. Reputation and prestige, therefore, did not necessarily correspond to material wealth (Munson et al., 1963). Buddhist monks, school teachers, doctors and other literate persons usually functioned as temporal and religious leaders in their rural communities (Munson et al., 1963). Wealth or economic capital also played an important role for social mobility, especially for the potential of it being converted into other possibilities or opportunities (Munson et al., 1963; Steinberg, 1959). In pre-colonial society, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwealth was not considered as an end or as a means to an end to most Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Munson et al., 1963, p. 69). However, during the Sihanouk regime (1953-1970), wealth earned through businesses began to gain growing importance as it could enable one to connect to the elite circle in the capital city (Munson et al., 1963; Steinberg, 1959). This was an opportunity for economically well-off, particularly ethnically Chinese Cambodians, to improve their social status. Wealth intensified the khsae networks as a path for social mobility. Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s approach to ruling Cambodia \u00E2\u0080\u0093 that is, through preferential treatment and patronage practices \u00E2\u0080\u0093 indicated a pattern of social mobility and promotion to a higher position of those at the top of the social hierarchy. His attitudes towards, and lack of trust in, highly educated people further reinforced this khsae practice. Wealth also enabled \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca favorable marriage into an influential family\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Steinberg, 1959, p. 93), which allowed one to attain a higher social status. In addition, economic capital provided a means to accumulating cultural capital, which could then enable one to attain higher status in the religious or political hierarchy. Increasingly, as Steinberg (1959) argued, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cboth education and wealth, as ends and as means to ends, (were) assuming greater importance (p. 93). As a result, the gap between the educated and the uneducated was increasingly widening, as was the gap between the rural poor and the urban better-off during Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Cambodia (Steinberg, 1959). Joining the sangha seemed to be a viable means for male individuals from lower social strata to rise to a higher social status because status in both religious realm and nobility or government rank was comparatively equal (Steinberg, 1959). Religious hierarchy could also be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cutilized as a steppingstone or \u00E2\u0080\u0098bridge of merit\u00E2\u0080\u0099 to the political hierarchy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Steinberg, 1959, p. 92). Through this transfer of merit from the religious to the political realm, a man from a poor rural origin could rise to a higher social status by entering the sangha in the first place and work 26 his way from there. Because joining the sangha was a process of schooling, it opened an avenue for elevating one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social status. As Kalab (1976) showed in his study of a rural Cambodian village, a Buddhist monk gained certain knowledge and skills after serving some years in the temple. He could then leave monkhood and make use of his knowledge to attain a higher status in society (Kalab, 1976). This path was limited to men only, however, because the wat schools were for boys; girls were not allowed to join, as noted, because they would be a distractor for Buddhist monks. Social mobility through the sangha was not for women (Jacobsen, 2008). Sihanouk regime initiated the beginning of the end of the important role wat schools played in the area of education in Cambodia. The rapid educational development, especially the drastic increase of the number of primary schools across the country, argues Prigent (2019), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdeprived the monks of their educational monopoly (from a formal education perspective)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 4). This is probably because the wat schools were restricted to boys only and they were not indicative of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D that Sihanouk regime was pursuing. Sihanouk was keen on modernizing Cambodia, and he believed that a nation-building project through formal educational development was \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe vehicle that would transform his small country into an industrialized and technologically advanced modern state\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ayres, 2000, p. 449). Prince Sihanouk embarked upon a program to massively expand access to education to the entire population, including women, by building schools and opening universities across the country (Ayres, 2000; Tomasi, 2000). The education budget often surpassed 20 percent of national expenditure (Ayres, 2000; T. Clayton, 2005; Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997). Government elementary schools were open to all, regardless of their gender; scholarships were provided to both boys and girls who qualified in competitive examinations (Steinberg, 1959). Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education was then considered \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe best education system in Southeast Asia\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 2005, p. 506). While women were expected to maintain \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D social and cultural norms and gender expectations, and their status was largely dependent upon the status of their family, especially their husbands, women were able to advance themselves \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpolitically and socially through education\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Munson et al., 1963, p. 69). Through occupational mobility, especially by becoming school teachers or university professors (Bit, 1991), women were able to improve their living conditions and social status. Those with high educational achievement could enter the civil 27 service and improve their social status. However, despite the various policies being implemented by government following independence to ensure women had the same civil and legal status as men and to increase their literacy and education, they continued to face challenges in benefiting from these changes. This is primarily due to, as Jacobsen (2008) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdeeply ingrained male attitudes and \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social constructs that maintained the idea that men were superior to women\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 209). Women were still assigned a role as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cguardians of Cambodian cultural identity\u00E2\u0080\u009D, that is the Cambodian society prior to the French arrival. To maintain the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural tradition\u00E2\u0080\u009D means women had to remain \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D so that Cambodian culture could be protected. The literature and various chbab written prior to the French arrival were taken to represent \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender roles and imposed on women so they could maintain the cultural values and gender roles articulated in the literary works and chbab (Jacobsen, 2008). This process in turn disempowered women and limited their potential to improve their social status. These practices primarily constrained women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s opportunities for social mobility. The educational development during Sihanouk regime not only resumed but also expanded the colonial approach to formal educational development project initiated by the French (Ayres, 2000, 2003; T. Clayton, 1995). The idea of pursuing further education as an avenue for \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial advancement\u00E2\u0080\u009D continued to inspire people from rural backgrounds (Steinberg, 1959, p. 92). For most rural Cambodians, pursuing further education and gaining government employment was the main path to improve their social status (Hollister, 1958). That is why the majority of students chose to study the arts and humanities, which would qualify them for a career as a government functionary, and, by 1970, only 16 percent of students enrolled in higher education were in the combined faculties of education, engineering and agriculture (Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997). In addition, there were also scholarships offered to a good number of Cambodian students to study overseas, further emphasizing the Western-oriented \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmutually reinforcing goals\u00E2\u0080\u009D of education and economic achievement (Steinberg, 1959, p. 93). Sihanouk built his educational development project based on this conception. However, although Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s government undertook educational reforms aimed to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceradicate the colonial mentality\u00E2\u0080\u00A6and to install in its place a \u00E2\u0080\u0098Khmer character\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 2005, p. 506), the education system inherited from the French, and cultivated to promote an image of modernity, continued to bear little relevance to the economic conditions and needs of 28 Cambodia (Ayres, 2000). Meanwhile, the expansion of commercial and industrial sectors did not keep up with the rapidly growing number of graduating students and presented an enormous risk. As Eilenberg (1961) argued at the time, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cin creating an educated class at a rate which the economy cannot absorb, the risk is great that Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u00A6will create an educated class all of whom will\u00E2\u0080\u00A6be\u00E2\u0080\u00A6dreadful of manual work and anxious only for white-collar positions as government functionaries\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 192). Unfortunately, Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s civil service system was full and could no longer accommodate the students expecting to join the public administration. When Sihanouk advised university graduates to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgo back to the farm\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Vickery, as cited in Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997, p. 101), it was already too late; Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational development plan had already awakened and cultivated aspirations which were premised upon the colonial linkage of education and social mobility built around liberating people from working on the farm. The colonial preconfigured linkage between education and social mobility failed in Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Cambodia. In a country where higher social status is perceived to be associated with working in government offices, which also paid well, it was difficult to convince graduates to accept low-status occupations. As a consequence, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmany young people refused to accept employment as subordinate factory workers or technicians, since these were low-status occupations. Instead, they formed a mass of unemployed intellectuals intent on becoming state officials, since this was the only profession in the country that paid well\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tomasi, 2000, p. 157). This was a continuation of a mindset introduced during the French colonial period. By the mid-1960s, open frustrations with Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s leadership, particularly rampant corruption and nepotism, were growing (Ayres, 2000). In addition, graduate unemployment was also on the rise, contributing to the waning of Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s power and influence (Ayres, 2000). As the 1960s were winding to a close, Sihanouk\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Cambodia was facing increasing problems, both at home\u00E2\u0080\u0093including growing graduate unemployment and the Communist movement in the countryside\u00E2\u0080\u0093and abroad, particularly the intensified Vietnam War east of the border (Ayres, 2003; Chandler, 2008; Martin, 1994). Sihanouk was ultimately deposed by a military coup in 1970. The Sihanouk regime reproduced and emphasized the linkage between schooling and social mobility introduced by the French decades earlier. The regime drew on French legacy and designed a higher education system that was aimed at training students to become civil servants 29 in government offices and leave behind lives on the rice fields, which was irrelevant to the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s local needs. It failed to develop an education system that promoted local community development. This failure of educational development was one of the causes that ultimately led to the collapse of the regime. 2.4 Khmer Republic (1970-1975): The end of the first phase of failed colonial education system Prince Norodom Sihanouk was succeeded by his general, Lon Nol, who formed the Khmer Republic backed by the United States. Commonly known as the Lon Nol regime, the Khmer Republic was not different from the regime it succeeded, at least in terms of its administrative structure and leadership. Cambodian leaders typically choose to be strong men rather than to build strong institutions (Slocomb, 2006), and that was what President Lon Nol chose to do. Similar to Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Lon Nol adopted authoritarianism in his leadership (Martin, 1994). He abolished freedom of speech and censored the press in 1973 (Martin, 1994). The army commanders were corrupt; the number of soldiers was exaggerated, for instance, to extract more financial aid from the US (Chandler, 2008; Kirk, 1974). Rampant corruption contributed to widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. General Lon Nol further perpetuated the regime inherited from Sihanouk. It may be described as a regime with high social reproduction at every level. While the rural poor lived an impoverished life, particularly those trying to escape from the Khmer Rouge movement in the rural areas, the elite in the urban lived a luxurious life and indulged themselves with ostentatious spending (Martin, 1994). Most of the elite from the previous regime remained in power during this regime. They continued to perpetuate the khsae networks and patronage practices. The royalty was not at the apex of the social hierarchy anymore. Instead, military generals and other elites connected to General Lon Nol represented the highest social class. They engaged in an endless cycle of perpetuating their social status, privilege and wealth. Women, especially young girls from rural areas, faced the threat of being kidnapped and sold to brothels by the Lon Nol soldiers (Jacobsen, 2008). Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social status continued to be undermined by the discourse used in the literature, such as novels and other publications from the previous regimes, which government magazines and the Buddhist Institute continued to 30 publish. Moreover, the Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Association continued to promote a discourse emphasizing that the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctrue\u00E2\u0080\u009D place of women was being in the home and taking care of household chores (Jacobsen, 2008). All these developments continued to disempower women and undermine their overall social status. In the area of education, although the leadership of the Khmer Republic tried to discredit its predecessor, the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education policies continued to reflect those of the past regime (Ayres, 2003). Essentially, the new regime, argues Ayres (2000), \u00E2\u0080\u009Creaffirmed its belief in the basic principles of modernization and human capital theories and committed itself to a continuation of the educational expansion pursued during the Sihanouk era\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 450). However, the social and political dynamics in Cambodia experienced a dramatic shift. With the Khmer Rouge solders taking control over the countryside and moving gradually into towns and cities, the country was overwhelmed by mass mobilization. The peasants escaping the fighting in the countryside flocked to towns and cities, causing a grave humanitarian crisis and presenting immense burdens on the government. Schools in Phnom Penh that were still in operation were struggling to accommodate students migrating from the rural areas. As for higher education, argue Fergusson and Le Masson (1997): \u00E2\u0080\u00A6higher education stagnated in the early 1970s, largely because what restricted funds were available to the government went almost exclusively into the war effort, and schools, particularly those in the eastern zone where fighting and bombing were heaviest, were badly damaged or destroyed. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6little or no progress in the areas of curriculum development, research or instructional methods was made. (p. 108) By 1973 most government institutions had ceased to function (Chandler, 2008; Martin, 1994); education was left to drift with the increasingly expanding armed conflict (Ayres, 2003). Added to this was the US bombing of some Cambodian provinces bordering South Vietnam against the Vietnamese Communists, resulting in the killings and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians (Chandler, 2008). The Khmer Republic was a period when education policies were announced but not achieved primarily due to increasingly intense armed conflict (Ayres, 2003). The political situation necessitated mobilization of students to participate in the fight against both the encroaching Khmer Rouge (KR) and the Vietnamese who were occupying large parts of the 31 Cambodian territory to the east. It was a period when students were politicized by different warring factions that tried to lure them into supporting their respective causes. Schooling was therefore provided to serve the political objective of the regime. It is not clear whether schooling was a pathway for social mobility given the short life of the regime and the crisis in the education system. However, it seems that khsae networks and nepotism were primary avenues for social class reproduction and social mobility. The Khmer Republic fell when the KR solders seized control of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. 2.5 Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979): A failed attempt to reconceptualize educational development project Officially known as Democratic Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer) regime is commonly called Pol Pot\u00E2\u0080\u0099s regime by Cambodians (Pol Pot, formally known as Saloth Sar, was the Prime Minister of the Democratic Kampuchea). Immediately after the Khmer Rouge soldiers marched into Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, city dwellers were evacuated to the countryside, marking the beginning of a three-year-eight-month-and-twenty-day regime, which caused the death of nearly two million Cambodians (when the total population was under 8 million). The Khmer Rouge movement emerged out of the growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots created by the Westernized educational development project initiated during the French colonial period. Particularly, the educational development project failed to live up to its stated goal of promoting improved living conditions and social advancement of those from the rural areas of the country (Ayres, 2003). Rampant corruption, nepotism, and unemployment since the later stage of Sihanouk regime and intensified during the Lon Nol regime had amplified the animosity felt by the peasants towards the urban dwellers and the regimes\u00E2\u0080\u0099 leaders. That is probably one of the reasons why the Khmer Rouge were able to inspire many rural peasants to join their movement. The movement may be considered a peasantry revolt against the colonial notion of social mobility that had widened the gap between the rural peasants and the urban dwellers. One of the primary goals of the Khmer Rouge movement was to \u00E2\u0080\u009Creturn Cambodia to its agrarian, communal roots, and to overturn what they saw as Western bourgeois practices\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997, p. 109) and to create a classless society by levelling the social 32 classes of the previous regimes. The Khmer Rouge sought to return Cambodia to the Angkor Empire and get rid of all sorts of remnants of the previous regimes they considered to be the products of colonial mindset and practices. The Khmer Rouge also adopted a Constitution aimed to undermine and abolish the hierarchical social arrangements of the previous regimes (Chandler, 1976). To abolish social classes and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpurify\u00E2\u0080\u009D the populace (Hinton, 2002, 2011; Mehmet, 1997), the Khmer Rouge first sought to eliminate the social structures of the previous regimes by targeting upper class families, which were considered a threat (Lawrence, 2008). Where one lived determined one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social status and destiny (McIntyre, 1996). The general populace was divided into two groups: the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cold/base people\u00E2\u0080\u009D and the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnew or 17 April people,\u00E2\u0080\u009D indicating the date when the Khmer Rouge regime was born. The base people referred to the rural peasants who, according to the Khmer Rouge, had been exploited by the elite of the previous regimes. The base people were thus the victims of the hierarchical social order. The new people were the city dwellers who were evacuated on 17 April 1975 from towns and cities to the countryside. They were considered part of the urban elites who constituted the discredited social hierarchy. The Khmer Rouge treated the old or base people better than they did the new people. As Martin (1994) notes, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf the \u00E2\u0080\u0098old people\u00E2\u0080\u0099 benefited from almost uniform treatment, the \u00E2\u0080\u0098new people\u00E2\u0080\u0099 encountered abuse\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 205). The \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnew or 17 April people\u00E2\u0080\u009D were the prime target in the Khmer Rouge\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agenda to clean up and eliminate the filth of the decayed old society (Ebihara, 1990). As Fergusson and Le Masson (1997, p. 109) describe: The primary targets of KR vengeance were Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u0098intellectuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (i.e. anyone who spoke a foreign language, or anyone with an education or Western training), the \u00E2\u0080\u0098bourgeois classes\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (i.e. those associated with former governments or the Royal family, and business people), and the so-called \u00E2\u0080\u0098people of April 17th\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (i.e. city-dwellers who \u00E2\u0080\u0098joined the revolution\u00E2\u0080\u0099 after the KR seized Phnom Penh). Students and teachers suffered particularly badly during this time: ownership of a pair of spectacles, utterance of a vaguely informed or learned phrase, or association \u00E2\u0080\u0093 whether real or imagined \u00E2\u0080\u0093 with anything cultural could, and often did, mean a death sentence. The colonial linkage between schooling and social mobility became a dangerous and even deadly relationship. Moreover, the KR regime sought to identify and eliminate those who had pursued this avenue in the previous regimes. 33 Institutions that promoted the social and cultural values of the previous regimes were also targeted. The KR destroyed educational infrastructures such as schools, universities, equipment; many educational buildings were transformed into prisons or factories for manufacturing grenades, shells, and other weapons (Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997). They took an extreme approach to eradicate not only human resources but also infrastructure deemed connected to the previous regimes. The top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime argued that all the destruction was \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca prelude to the construction of a new society, one that would be wholly self-reliant, both politically and economically\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 2005, p. 507). However, there existed no major educational development project that would enable the regime to achieve its stated goal. Formal education was essentially eradicated. Some basic schooling in factories and cooperatives was provided (Vickery, as cited in Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997, p. 111). Children received some sort of technical education (Martin, 1994), especially skills related to how to make fertilizers for enriching the rice paddies. The only other form of learning provided especially to children was singing revolutionary songs that emphasized community projects such as work on dikes and canals (Marston, 2002a, 2002b; Martin, 1994). This form of schooling was for the purpose of indoctrination in party ideology to raise political consciousness (Bit, 1991). In fact, based on the Khmer Rouge\u00E2\u0080\u0099s 1976 Four-year plan aimed at building socialism in all fields, education during the regime had two main goals: cultivating \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpolitical consciousness among students\u00E2\u0080\u009D and promoting \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceconomic independence\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 2005, p. 508). Schooling during the KR regime, therefore, served a different purpose; schooling was no longer for promoting social advancement and improving living conditions; instead, it was for promoting conformity to the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s political ideology and economic self-sufficiency. On top of that, despite the regime leaders\u00E2\u0080\u0099 general rhetoric about building an equal, classless society, practice on the ground was a different story, particularly at the leadership level. Most of the top leaders of the regime originated from humble families. However, once they were in the leadership positions, self-reproduction of wealth, status, privilege and power resumed. While the general population was forced to be equal in terms of social status, wealth and privilege, the top leaders of the regime made sure that they themselves and their family members benefited from the regime and the privileges attached to their status and positions (Thion, 1990). 34 Corrupt and nepotistic practices, and the assigning of different privileges according to one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position in the political hierarchy were evidenced in every aspect of the regime leaders\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives. For instance, those in the top positions possessed several cars, whereas those at the lower level travelled around by bicycle (Martin, 1994). The number of dishes per meal increased according to one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position in the hierarchy, with the top leaders having veritable feasts (Martin, 1994). In fact, the khsae network, either through kinship or marital relation, as a path to remain in the upper echelon of the regime or to rise to a higher status, was alive and widely practiced during the Khmer Rouge regime. For the majority of the non-cadre, general populace, social mobility took on a different meaning. Improving one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s status from the level of starvation to survival was a form of social mobility during the regime (Plowright, 2009). Survival here means not just having some food to eat but also not being sent for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cre-education,\u00E2\u0080\u009D the Khmer Rouge euphemism for execution. The path to survival was through spying on family members, relatives and neighbors and reporting back to the Angkar9, an all-pervasive system of surveillance the Khmer Rouge used to eliminate those associated with the previous regimes and those talking ill of the regime in private conversations. This opportunity was generally offered to the youngsters of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cold or base people\u00E2\u0080\u009D for their tendency to obey orders (Martin, 1994). The \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnew people\u00E2\u0080\u009D thus became the prime target. By making spying on one another a necessity for survival, individuals were compelled to choose between being victims or perpetrators. The path to survival as an avenue for mobility was being loyal to and spying for the Angkar. Overall, in spite of the claim made by the top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime to build a classless and equal society, inequality was a predominant feature of the regime, and social mobility continued to be pursued through such means as khsae and other forms of nepotistic practices. The Khmer Rouge tried to promote communist gender equality by stressing that men and women were of equal capacity in performing the same tasks (Bit, 1991; Frieson, 2011; Kent, 2011). This gender equality was also emphasized in the Khmer Rouge songs that positioned 9 Angkar [the Organization] was the political bureau of the central committee of the Communist Party that was running the Khmer Rouge regime (Martin, 1994). Angkar was omnipresent and, as Martin (1994) describes, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cembodied an effective and invisible power to which everyone owed total obedience\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 158). 35 women as a mass force parallel to that of men (Marston, 2002b). While both men and women, in general, seemed equal in all aspects of their lives, some women gained more prominence in relation to monitoring and controlling of food production and consumption, a newly created political role for women (Frieson, 2011). At the Khmer Rouge leadership level, women did not have a strong presence (Jacobsen, 2008). The few women holding high positions at the leadership level were primarily related to the male leaders by marriage or kin ties. For instance, Ieng Thirith, Minister of Social Affairs of the Khmer Rouge regime, was the wife of Ieng Sary, the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the sister of Khieu Ponnary, the first wife of the Khmer Rouge\u00E2\u0080\u0099s leader Pol Pot. Political power remained in the hands of male leaders, however. Women were expected to continue their supporting, nurturing, and domestic roles after they had contributed to accomplishing the revolutionary goals (Jacobsen, 2008). This added role of women in politics was, therefore, a third burden on their time after their \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D expected roles of reproductive and productive labor (Lyon, Mutersbaugh, & Worthen, 2017). The Khmer Rouge demonstrated an understanding of the local needs of Cambodians and the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic growth \u00E2\u0080\u0093 agricultural sector development. They did not draw on inspiration from the colonial educational policy for their reconceptualization of Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s development project. However, in spite of the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s outright rejection of the linkage between formal schooling and social mobility and its systemic approach to \u00E2\u0080\u009Celiminate\u00E2\u0080\u009D those who were socially mobile through education in the previous regimes, political education, patronage practices, and khsae networks were primary avenues for political advancement and social mobility of certain cadres within the regime. Moreover, despite having envisaged becoming a strong agrarian state resembling the ancient Angkor Empire, the KR did not pursue that objective. Instead, the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cleaders became consumed with paranoia about perceived enemies of their revolution\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ayres, 2000, p. 451). As a consequence of their brutality and paranoia, nearly 2 million people were dead due to execution, starvation, disease, or overwork. After a mere 3 years, 8 months and 20 days in power, the Khmer Rouge collapsed on 7 January 1979, and was replaced by a Vietnamese-installed government, commonly known as the People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). 36 2.6 People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1989): Education and social reproduction of the select few Cambodia was liberated from the Khmer Rouge regime on January 7, 1979. The liberation movement was led by former Khmer Rouge cadres, including current Prime Minister Hun Sen, who had fled to Hanoi, Vietnam, and returned with the support of thousands of Vietnamese troops. Millions of Cambodians moved back to settle in villages, provincial towns, and cities. A new Cambodian government was installed by the Vietnamese government, with Vietnamese technical advisors placed at all levels and in all government ministries to advise Cambodian officials (Chandler, 2008; T. Clayton, 2000; Martin, 1994). The leaders in the new government were drawn almost entirely from the ranks of former Khmer Rouge cadres who had fled to Vietnam. Officially known as the People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK)10, Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s central bureau of the government was the People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea, a communist party (Chandler, 2008). The atrocities and devastation caused by the Khmer Rouge regime were unimaginable. It was estimated that between 75 percent and 80 percent of Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s teachers and higher education students either fled the country or died, and approximately 67 percent of primary and secondary students were lost (Duggan, as cited in Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997, p. 111). An assessment by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) suggested that by 1979 there remained no more than 300 qualified persons from all disciplines left in the country, and all higher education institutions (except the University of Phnom Penh) were destroyed (Duggan, as cited in Fergusson & Le Masson, 1997, p. 111). The institutional infrastructure of higher education developed during the 1960s and 1970s simply disappeared. The grave destruction of human resources and education infrastructure by the Khmer Rouge had left a daunting task for the PRK in rebuilding Cambodian society (T. Clayton, 2000). This process was further affected by the fact that regional Asian and international communities did not recognize the Vietnamese-installed government. 10 Some scholars refer to this period as the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia due to a large presence of the Vietnamese troops and advisors in the country (Chandler, 2008). It was estimated that more than 100,000 Vietnamese troops were stationed in Cambodia from 1979 until their \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwithdrawal\u00E2\u0080\u009D in 1989 (Chandler, 2008). 37 However, the destruction by the KR did not deter Cambodians from aspiring for further education; instead, it further heightened their desire for higher education. As Fergusson and Le Masson (1997, p. 112) describe: the profound desire and determination for further education felt by many Cambodians was only heightened as a result of KR destruction, and higher education administrators had no difficulty in attracting tens of thousands of students back to school within months of reopening their institutions. According to T. Clayton (2005), the two primary objectives of education during the PRK were \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood technical training\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood political training\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 510). The overall purpose of education was articulated in November 1985 by Pen Navuth, PRK Minister of Education, as follows: The essential objective [of the education system] is to form new and good hard-working citizens with a baggage of culture, of technical awareness, of a capacity for work, of good health and of a revolutionary morality ready to serve the Kampuchean revolution. Our schools must be organized as cultural centers open to all, [and] as a system of defense against the propaganda of the enemies. (Ayres, 2000, p. 452) Educational development during the PRK was not conceptualized in relation to social advancement or socio-economic mobility. The education sector development was considered a means for state building (Ayres, 2003). Schooling was fundamentally aimed at indoctrinating the younger generations in Marxism-Leninism, socialist theories, and other Communist ideologies (Ayres, 2003). The structure of the education system during the PRK followed exactly the Vietnamese model (T. Clayton, 2005). At universities, lessons were taught in Vietnamese by Vietnamese lecturers and in Russian at the Institute of Technology. There were also German and Cuban instructors. Other foreign languages were forbidden. University curriculum reflected those of the Vietnamese universities (Tomasi, 2000). Thousands of scholarships were provided by Eastern-bloc countries to Cambodian students for overseas university study (T. Clayton, 2005). The regime \u00E2\u0080\u009Cembraced education as the means by which these new socialist workmen could be molded.\u00E2\u0080\u00A6us[ing] rapid educational expansion as the basis of nation building\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ayres, 2000, p. 452). 38 Tomasi (2000) argues that only the children of state officials and of the members of the Cambodian Communist Party benefited the most from educational opportunities during the regime. Thanks to their social origins, these students did not have to worry about being able to afford textbooks, which were very expensive at the time (Tomasi, 2000). Many of these students whose parents were connected to the ruling party were also the recipients of scholarships to study overseas (Martin, 1994). While education was not framed as an avenue for social mobility for the general populace, education was an avenue for social advancement for those connected to the ruling class. Social origins and social connections structure access to education and the economic benefits that this educational opportunity yields. Cambodian society during the PRK was organized with the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s leaders and high-ranking government officials at the top, followed by armed forces (Cambodian and Vietnamese), civil servants such as teachers, and the peasantry. The team of Vietnamese technical advisors was a unique and temporary addition to the social structure of Cambodia. The PRK government and its Communist party monopolized political activity and exercised severe repression on political opponents (Chandler, 2008). Not unlike the previous regimes, corruption committed by the top PRK cadres and high-ranking government officials was a defining feature of the regime (Chandler, 2008). Foreign aid rarely reached its intended beneficiaries as it was misappropriated by the different strata of the government, particularly high-ranking government officials, armed forces, police and other cadres (Martin, 1994). These major power-holders of the regime, as Martin (1994) argues, had \u00E2\u0080\u009Cno other goal but to enrich themselves as fast as possible and as long as the political situation permit[ed]\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 275). During the final years of the regime, the ruling elites were engaged intensely in \u00E2\u0080\u009Csell[ing] the public assets and natural resources without any benefit accruing to the state or the people\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Martin, 1994, p. 292). In addition, there emerged new elites with new hierarchies built upon traditional concepts of patron-client relations (Karbaum, 2015). The \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnew\u00E2\u0080\u009D hierarchical social order and patterns of patronage began to emerge in the 1980s with the rise to power of the current Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has held the position since 1985. Hun Sen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s approach to leading the country and personalizing his power, argues Gottesman (2003), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwas not based on ideology\u00E2\u0080\u009D for it \u00E2\u0080\u009Chad repeatedly failed to motivate state officials or to inspire loyalty\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 299). Instead, his approach \u00E2\u0080\u009Cevoked patterns of patronage that had existed in Cambodia long before the revolution\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 299). 39 There was no sign indicative of the weakening but rather the perpetuation of the entrenched hierarchical social order and patronage. As Karbaum (2015) asserts: In general, these patterns are not very different from the archetype, but have been introduced by new stakeholders. Although traditional or ritual hierarchies that put the king, monks, titulars, and elderly at the top still exist, de facto they have been superseded by those defined by the new ruling elites. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 there is no indication of an erosion of traditional patterns or of a change in values away from hierarchic preferences. (p. 244) The PRK was not very different from the regime it toppled. Although many of the leaders were from poor, farming family origins, the socio-cultural and political nature of the regime indicates that a very small number of ruling elites had a monopoly on all the benefits and economic resources available. Cambodian society during the PRK was organized around the reproduction of social status and privileges of the ruling elite (Martin, 1994). Social class differentiation was similar to the traditional social hierarchy, with the power centered in the hands of the Communist Party leadership (Bit, 1991). This social category was generally not open to those from the lower social strata. Joining the social category at the top of the social hierarchy was possible largely through political patronage or khsae with the top leadership of the Communist Party. In such a communist regime, social mobility was possible through patronage networks and political affiliations with the ruling Communist party. Women returned to their pre-war patterns of activities (Bit, 1991). They played an active role in contributing directly and materially to rebuilding Cambodian society (Jacobsen, 2008). However, in spite of their contribution to rebuilding the country after the war, an important development that is worth mentioning is that there was lack of women in political positions in this period (Bit, 1991; Jacobsen, 2008). While the main argument for this is the low level of education that the surviving women had attained (Jacobsen, 2008), it reflects the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnormative\u00E2\u0080\u009D patterns of treatment for women that had existed in the previous regimes. Women continued to be treated the same ways they had been treated over the past centuries \u00E2\u0080\u0093 playing domestic roles in the household. There were virtually no opportunities for women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility. Buddhism was banned and Buddhist monks were defrocked and forced to labor during the Khmer Rouge regime. In the PRK, Buddhist sangha continued to be sidelined. Buddhist monks were not able to play the educational role they did prior to the 1970s. The Buddhist 40 sangha was not a path for promoting social mobility, either. The sangha was treated like an enemy of the state. The Vietnamese advisors imposed the perspective that religion was a poison for society (Martin, 1994). This was reflected in the ways the sangha and Buddhist monks were treated during the regime. Although some Buddhist temple members contributed to reconstructing roads, schools, medical and social services after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, the state apparatus exercised tight control over the sangha throughout the 1980s (Kent, 2008). The state also restricted the number of temples and monks for each commune (Martin, 1994). Monks\u00E2\u0080\u0099 travels were also supervised; generally, they had to secure permits from concerned authorities to travel. Only after the withdrawal of the Vietnamese troops from Cambodia in 1989 and the renaming of the PRK to the State of Cambodia, were these restrictions lifted and Buddhism announced as the state religion (Chandler, 2008). Therefore, in addition to being suppressed and monitored, Buddhist monks were not able to play the educational role they did in the regimes prior to the war. An important motto during the PRK regime read: \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthose who know more teach those who know less, and those who know less teach those who know nothing.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The regime inherited from the Khmer Rouge regime the severe destruction of not only infrastructure but also human resources. Nonetheless, only the children of the high-ranking officials of the regime benefited the most from emerging educational opportunities available at the time. The sangha, which once played a key role in schooling and social mobility, was severely restricted. Khsae networks and patronage practices continued to be a major pathway for class reproduction and social mobility. 2.7 From the State of Cambodia (1989-1993) to the Kingdom of Cambodia (1993-present): Transitioning towards reviving and morphing a failed colonial educational development project Immediately after the Vietnamese withdrawal in 1989, the Cambodian government renamed the country the State of Cambodia and announced the transition to democracy and the free market (T. Clayton, 2005). With the Paris Peace Accord signed on 23 October 1991, 41 signaling the end of the prolonged civil war, and the national election11 organized in 1993 by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), the new government of the newly born Kingdom of Cambodia \u00E2\u0080\u009Cofficially embraced these goals\u00E2\u0080\u009D of economic liberalization and democratization (T. Clayton, 2005, p. 512). The country adopted, at least on paper, a multi-party liberal democracy based on a constitutional monarchy. The country opened up to the global system and was now able to accommodate some of the values and practices of liberalism (Sisowath, 2006). Despite the brief collapse of the coalition government due to a coup d\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00C3\u00A9tat in July 1997 (Chandler, 2008; Peang-Meth, 1997), the 1998 national election was viewed as the beginning of an emerging stability in Cambodia. Efforts to \u00E2\u0080\u009Creconstruct\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia began through democratization, economic liberalization, and massive foreign aid (Chandler, 2008; Hughes & Un, 2011; Slocomb, 2010). Over the past two decades, Cambodia has been one of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world, with the poverty rate falling drastically from 50 percent in 2005 to 13.5 percent in 2014 (IMF, 2017). Economic growth has been very impressive, sustaining an annual average growth rate of 7.6 percent, ranking sixth among the most rapidly growing economies in the world between 1994-2015 (World Bank, 2017b). The country has now been classified by the World Bank as a lower-middle income economy. These achievements have been possible thanks to the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s political stability (Hughes & Un, 2011), its openness to trade and capital flows, preferential trade treatment, large development assistance, and foreign direct investment inflows (among the highest in the world at 7.9 percent of GDP on average in 2005-15) (Slocomb, 2010; World Bank, 2017a). The country has also benefited from a large structural transformation \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the reallocation of economic activity across the three broad sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, and services, which has created 0.7 million net jobs in agriculture and fisheries and 3.6 million in industry and services (World Bank, 2017a). In 2014, the employment-to-population ratio was 82 11 It is important to note that the Khmer Rouge faction did not participate in the 1993 national elections, although they signed the Paris Peace Accord on 23 October 1991. It was not until the end of 1998 that the remaining Khmer Rouge soldiers laid down their weapons, defected to the Royal Government of Cambodia, and were integrated into the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. Technically, the civil armed conflict in Cambodia, which started in the early 1970s, did not end until the end of 1998. 42 percent, and female labor force participation ratio was 79 percent, among the highest in the world (World Bank, 2017b). Employment in civil services and civil society organizations (CSOs) has also increased considerably. The number of civil servants expanded markedly from approximately 150,000 in the mid-1990s to 210,000 in 2014 (World Bank, 2014). Rapid increase in the number of CSOs through international financial assistance has also created employment and improved living conditions for many. A 2012 CSO census showed 1,315 confirmed open CSOs registered in Cambodia, dispersing approximately USD600-700 million and directly employing 43,000 staff, of which about 24,000 were paid staff, with 13,000 of these Cambodians, nearly half of whom were female (Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, 2013). Most of the new recruits hold higher education degrees (bachelor or postgraduate degrees). All these developments indicate the significant role played by the education sector. Education has, indeed, been embraced as a fundamental sector for post-conflict reconstruction. The new regime emphasized human resources development to be integrated into the regional and global economies. Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s leaders have and continue to proclaim educational development as one of their fundamental priorities (Ayres, 2000; Voun, 2019). Since the mid-1990s, Cambodia has become a credentialed society, driven largely by the rapidly expanding employment opportunities in the new Cambodia and the public\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perception of the role of higher education in promoting social mobility and improved living conditions. With private participation in the provision of higher education beginning in 1997, Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher education system has experienced a rapid expansion, particularly in terms of the number of higher education institutions (HEIs) and student enrolments. The number of HEIs has increased many-fold, from 10 in the 1990s (Pak, 2011) to 125 in 2018, 77 of which are private HEIs (MoEYS, 2019). Student enrolments have increased from about 10,000 in the 1990s to 211,484 in 2018 (MoEYS, 2019). In addition to the domestic educational opportunities, there are many scholarship opportunities to study overseas at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels through bilateral agreements with donor countries. This massification of higher education has presented increasing prospects for highly educated people to obtain better-paying jobs, which offers an opportunity for them to improve their social status and socio-economic mobility. 43 However, the educational development project in Cambodia has followed a trajectory charted in the French colonial period. The overwhelming presence of foreign donors, including the United Nations agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as part of the post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Cambodia has fundamentally shaped the policy directions in all sectors, including education. Of all countries in Southeast Asia, \u00E2\u0080\u009CCambodia has the most NGOs per inhabitant and,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as Prigent (2019) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis particularly influenced by international education policies\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 2). For this reason, Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational policy trajectory was and continues to be driven by external agencies that provide assistance toward rebuilding the country after the prolonged armed conflict (Courtney, 2017; McCormick, 2012; Tan, 2010). Like other \u00E2\u0080\u009Cheavily indebted poor countries caught in a neo-colonial context\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tan, 2010, p. 467), Cambodia does not have much room to negotiate its educational policy direction with the international donor community. Largely driven by the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s heavy dependence on foreign assistance (Ayres, 2003; Khieng, 2014), Cambodia has become a site of policy experiment for different policy ideas and discourses imported by donors and other international actors in the country, similar to the experiences of many other developing countries (McCormick, 2012; Steiner-Khamsi, 2014; Yang, 2010). For example, one of the first faculties opened in 1993 at the largest public university in Cambodia (the Royal University of Phnom Penh) was the Faculty of Sociology (Tomasi, 2000). While this field of study is important, it has little relevance to the economic needs of the country where more than 80 percent of the population works in the agricultural sector. Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s present education system is based on a Westernized education system \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplanned by Western consultants from international organizations and external donor agencies\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tan, 2010, p. 470). The educational reforms in Cambodia are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprimarily guided by the belief, held by external organizations such as the World Bank, that human resources development, underpinned by free trade and minimum state intervention, is the recipe for progress for Third World nation-states\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tan, 2010, p. 473). In this context where the influence of international aid agencies is dominant, Cambodia has missed another opportunity to reconceptualize the trajectory of its educational development project independently of the colonial legacy. 44 In addition to perpetuating the colonial conditions in new forms and reproducing irrelevant Westernized educational policies in Cambodia, the aid agencies introduced neoliberal ideology in the conceptualization of the purpose of education, the educational policy direction, and the curricula reforms. As Courtney (2017) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMulti-lateral organizations became instrumental in promoting neoliberal policies and a culture of performativity\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Cambodia (p. 894). An analysis of Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational policies since the 1990s reveals a strong conceptualization of the purpose of education and the educational reforms along the ideological framing of neoliberalism (Sen, 2019). Curricula analysis of courses offered at HEIs \u00E2\u0080\u009Creveals a strong neo-liberal focus, notably through coursework concerned with the principles and practices of the market economy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 2005, p. 515). T. Clayton (2005) argues that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cat least at the university level, the government has redefined education as a commodity whose value will be determined by supply and demand\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 515). Another development in the context of post-conflict Cambodia is the role of English language as a cultural capital that presents enormous potential for employment and education opportunities. The rise of English language in contemporary Cambodia was driven by three major developments: the opening in the mid-1980s of an English Language Training project by the Quaker Service Australia (QSA) at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the first aid-funded English teacher training project in Cambodia; the teaching and learning of English in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodia border regions in between 1970s and 1990s and their repatriation and integration into Cambodian society in the 1990s; and the influx of foreign aid agencies and NGOs, following the massive arrival of UNTAC personnel in Cambodia in 1991 and the 1993 UN-organized elections (S. Clayton, 2008; T. Clayton, 2006). These developments contributed to weakening the colonial language of power, French, and privileging the English language (Tan, 2010). English language was equated, discursively, to \u00E2\u0080\u009Creconstruction and development\u00E2\u0080\u009D that Cambodia and Cambodians \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E2\u0080\u0098need\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u00A6to be able to access global free markets and global knowledge\u00E2\u0080\u009D (S. Clayton, 2008, p. 145). In fact, English was, argues S. Clayton (2008), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cviewed as a natural requirement for Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s development\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 145). English was framed as important for post-conflict Cambodia to integrate into the regional and global economies (T. Clayton, 2006). As Vira Neau (2003), one of the early graduates from the QSA-supported English language training program, argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe English language is highly valued. It 45 is felt to be crucial to the future development of the country, and to the personal development of the individual\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 267). All these developments have \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccreated the context in which Cambodians are choosing English\u00E2\u0080\u009D (T. Clayton, 2006, p. 245). In both urban and rural areas of the country, English language has been perceived as a cultural capital that offers increasing opportunities for better employment prospects and improved socio-economic status (S. Clayton, 2008; T. Clayton, 2006; Hashim, Leong, & Pich, 2014; Neau, 2003; Piquemal, 2017). Advanced English language proficiency also provides more opportunities for further education overseas through scholarships (T. Clayton, 2006). The status of the English language as a crucial cultural capital in contemporary Cambodian society has given rise to a number of phenomena in the context of higher education in the country (Hashim et al., 2014, pp. 498-499). More and more students are taking multiple concurrent degree programs to build good prospects for the future; there has been a proliferation of English teaching positions in the capital city and, increasingly, in provinces; English language has had a primary communication function in higher education and at work; and there is a perception of improved socio-economic status of teachers of English. The widespread demand of English has sustained a rapidly growing private sector providing English language teaching (S. Clayton, 2008). However, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cchoosing\u00E2\u0080\u009D to pursue English language not only is driven by but also contributes to creating inequalities in society. As S. Clayton (2008, p. 158) rightly argues: The ability to choose English, and to access the economic and other benefits stemming from this choice, was also shaped by existing socio-economic, political and geographic differences. In this case, those in urban areas, who were educated beyond primary level and who had some existing knowledge of English were the main beneficiaries. What is clear is that these choices were not ones open to all in Cambodia regardless of their socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity or geographical location. There exists an urban-rural divide in terms of opportunities to learn English and affordability to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cchoose\u00E2\u0080\u009D to learn the language (S. Clayton, 2008; Moore & Bounchan, 2010). English lessons offered in public schools were limited, especially in rural areas of the country (T. Clayton, 2006). Not everyone is able to afford private English classes. Therefore, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cchoosing to learn English remains the privilege of a limited section of the population\u00E2\u0080\u009D (S. Clayton 2008, p. 46 160). Moreover, the privileging of English language in reconstruction efforts in post-conflict Cambodia is set within the neoliberal economic model and contributes to widening social inequalities and restructuring local labor markets (S. Clayton, 2008, p. 162). English language is increasingly used mainly in urban areas and among the small but growing middle class (Hashim et al., 2014; Moore & Bounchan, 2010). As a result, only certain urban, privileged groups stand to benefit more from the utilities that English language provides (S. Clayton, 2008; T. Clayton, 2006). The advantages that the privileged groups gain are not only cultural but also economic. As T. Clayton (2006) asserts, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprivileged groups ultimately benefit in several ways over others, including symbolically (in terms of increased knowledge and skills) and materially (in terms of increased salaries or improved career trajectories)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 262). What is also missing in this process of this privileged \u00E2\u0080\u009Cchoosing\u00E2\u0080\u009D of English language in rebuilding and modernizing Cambodia is not only a threat to the government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agenda to maintain and strengthen Khmer culture (T. Clayton, 2007), but also drains the resources that would have otherwise been invested in improving literacy in Khmer language (S. Clayton, 2008). In the context of post-conflict educational reforms influenced by external forces, lessons have not been learned from the failure of educational development project since the colonial period (Ayres, 2000). On the one hand, educational development was shaped by foreign consultants who failed to understand the local context and local needs. On the other hand, these educational opportunities have been largely an urban phenomenon, specifically in the Capital City of Phnom Penh (MoEYS, 2017). While those from rural areas believe that completing education and finding employment will help them to achieve economic prosperity (Piquemal, 2017), their family backgrounds continue to disadvantage them (Chea, 2019). Although more students from disadvantaged social origins, usually those from rural areas of the country, have been able to access higher education, Chea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) analysis reveals, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe situation has become worse as the higher education expansion is in favor of children from well-educated household heads and affluent families in urban areas\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 7). Within this context, pursuing higher education for social mobility and the meaning of social mobility itself suggest spatial mobility; that is, moving to the urban centers. Therefore, the rural-urban divide was and continues to be a predominant feature in Cambodian society, with more than 70 percent of the population still residing in the rural society (National Institute of Statistics, 2013). The economic and political 47 changes beginning in the 1990s have further exacerbated uneven development between rural and urban areas (Peou, 2016). While urban centers have benefited from expanding economic development, including industry, services, finance and banking; rural areas have continued to suffer from little investment in the agriculture sector and increasing poverty, widening the gap between rural and urban society (Slocomb, 2010). Although still at its early stage, Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s urbanization is taking place rapidly, particularly in the major cities of Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Reap, where there are more opportunities and prospects for improved living conditions, better social status, and social mobility (World Bank, 2017b). Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s urban population was estimated at 21 percent in 2015 and is trending upward (World Bank, 2017b). As a regional economic center, Phnom Penh, in particular, has become the main destination for young male and female labor migrants from across the country who seek employment in garment factories and construction-related jobs, as well as for educational and employment opportunities (Cambodia Development Resource Institute, 2007; Peou, 2016; World Bank, 2017b). Phnom Penh has become the reference point for modernity, higher social status, and upward social mobility in contemporary Cambodian society (Paling, 2012). Within this context, post-conflict educational reforms in Cambodia have inspired students to pursue further education in the fields of studies in which employment opportunities are in non-agricultural \u00E2\u0080\u0098modern sector\u00E2\u0080\u0099 associated with the civil service and urban economies, which are limited and are not relevant to the needs of the majority of the population, which is agricultural development (Ayres, 2000, 2003; Tan, 2010). Moreover, what is missing in the current education system is, as Tan (2010) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe traditional conception of education in Cambodia that emphasizes moral and religious inculcation as a community endeavor\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 470). Post-conflict Cambodian society has witnessed a marked change in the status of the sangha and its role in schooling. The sangha in Cambodia has been patronized by the powerful and the elite for moral legitimacy for centuries (Heng, 2008; Kent, 2007). However, the recent involvement of the sangha leadership in politics and some monks\u00E2\u0080\u0099 participation in the democratization process in the country has weakened its religious legitimacy (Kent, 2008). On the one hand, this has made the sangha vulnerable to manipulation by politicians, thus losing its ability to mediate between the people and their leaders (Kent, 2007, 2008). On the other hand, fear by politicians that Buddhist monks may become leaders of popular movements against them 48 has resulted in stricter control on and more politicization of the sangha (Heng, 2008). The significance of the sangha in people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s everyday life is further weakened by the anecdotes of corruption in Buddhist institutions (Nissen, 2008). Moreover, with the rapid expansion of state school system, the sangha and the wat school system no longer play a role as a provider of education the same way they did during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. This development has contributed to reducing the status of the sangha to just the religious realm. The sangha no longer plays an important role in promoting upward mobility as it did in the past. Buddhist temples in contemporary Cambodia, especially those located in urban centers and the capital city, offer some housing to male students from rural areas to stay while pursuing higher education. Meanwhile, as Cambodia has become a highly credentialed society, many Buddhist monks have actively pursued university education in addition to fulfilling their religious duties. In contemporary Cambodia, the gender discourses in the chbab continue to play a fundamental role in shaping the mentality, subjectivity and practice of Cambodians. These codes of conduct \u00E2\u0080\u009Chave been taught to children for centuries, both at home and in school, and are passed down through the generations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Lilja, 2016, p. 683). The various chbab continue to shape the contemporary discourses on femininity in Cambodia (Lilja, 2016). In addition to parents informally \u00E2\u0080\u009Cschooling\u00E2\u0080\u009D their children in these codes at home, they are taught as part of official curriculum until today (Rogers & Anderson, 2019). For example, chbab srey continues to impact girls and women fundamentally (Jacobsen, 2008). Although the full-length version of the text was removed from school curriculum in 2007 following a push by the Ministry of Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Affairs, the government introduced an abridged version that continues to be taught in grades 7 to 9 as part of the curriculum of Khmer literature studies (Derks, 2008; Rogers & Anderson, 2019). Parents still continue to show lack of support for their daughters to go to school or pursue further education (Rogers & Anderson, 2019). The \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender role expectation for women, as articulated in the various literary works and the chbab, still continues to be embraced as the yardstick to define \u00E2\u0080\u009Cideal\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodian women, which limits their opportunities to be the agents of their own life and to contribute on equal terms to the socioeconomic development of the country (Jacobsen, 2008). Because of this \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D role assigned to them, some women are not motivated to leave home and seek employment opportunities that might improve their living conditions, although they face difficult living circumstances (Bylander, 2014). In the political 49 realm, despite government\u00E2\u0080\u0099s efforts to promote more representation by women at all levels of the government, the number of women elected and the quality of their participation after they are elected are still limited due to the social, economic and political challenges attached to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D role of women (Chhoeun, Sok, & Byrne, 2008). Women account for only 7 percent of ministerial posts (World Bank, 2017a). Not unlike women in many developing countries (Lyon et al., 2017), Cambodian women continue to juggle a triple burden of labor \u00E2\u0080\u0093 domestic chores and childcare, career, and community service (Maxwell, Nget, Am, Peou, & You, 2015; World Bank, 2017a). Persistent gender gaps in earnings and job quality for women continue to be a major challenge (World Bank, 2017a). For example, the gender earnings gap in 2014 was up to 30 percent among those with low education; women working in the garment industry are mostly engaged in low-wage assembly; and female owned businesses are generally smaller, less profitable, and less likely to be registered than male-owned businesses (World Bank, 2017a, p. 15). However, these traditional codes of conduct are increasingly \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccontested and challenged because of recent developments in Cambodia, including the increasing participation of women in the labor force\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Lilja, 2016, p. 683). For example, female labor force participation in 2014 was at 79 percent (versus 82 percent of men), among the highest in the world, and female-owned enterprises comprised more than half of all business establishments in Cambodia (World Bank, 2017a, p. 15). More and more young women choose to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cignore some of the rules\u00E2\u0080\u009D in chbab srey (Lilja, 2016, p. 683). Women who decide to pursue opportunities, such as moving from rural areas to work in garment factories in towns and cities, become the agents of their own life opportunities, creatively shaping their own stories and charting a pathway that might allow them to rise to better positions in the male-dominated employment landscape (Derks, 2008). Although employment for women in the garment factories represents the feminization of labor (80 percent of garment-factory workers are young women) (Frieson, 2011), women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s participation in this sector has contributed to empowering women, improving their living condition and that of their families back home, and enabling them to attain some upward mobility. Therefore, Cambodian women are sometimes depicted as \u00E2\u0080\u009Csymbols of progress and modernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Derks, 2008, p. 13). These changes indicate emerging developments that seem go against the ideals in chbab srey and the traditional socio-cultural norms. 50 In contemporary Cambodian society, patronage or khsae networks continue to be a predominant practice in the social and political landscape. They are the central element for the ruling elite to consolidate power from the top to the lower administrative levels of the government (Un, 2006). While the majority of the population is struggling to survive on a day-to-day basis, the senior government officials and well-connected businesspeople are becoming millionaires (McCargo, 2014). In addition to the patronage practice within the administrative system, mass patronage has emerged. Hun Sen\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ruling party (the Cambodian People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Party) has been at the forefront in fostering mass patronage through the practice of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgift-giving\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hughes, 2006b). Through this practice, the ruling party has \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmastered the ability both to co-opt customary ideas of power and to transcend them through entangling them with modern forms of control\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 476). In addition, carefully arranged marriages among families of the ruling elites represent a mechanism to strengthen and reproduce their social status, wealth, and privilege. These practices have taken deep roots across government institutions and \u00E2\u0080\u009Chave created a web of alliances which many fear, if dismantled, would bring down with it the whole structure of the state\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Slocomb, 2006, p. 390). At the same time, this form of marriage facilitates a smooth rise to higher social positions largely through political appointments of the elite interlinked in this pattern of marital relations. Wealth or economic capital is playing an increasingly important role in the process of social mobility in contemporary Cambodian society. There is a growing realization of how economic capital allows people to be able to accumulate other forms of capital, such as cultural and symbolic capital. Those from better-off family origins are able to pursue further education at better higher education institutions, either locally or overseas. This in turn opens up more career options for them and allows them to get ahead in society. In addition, a growing number of entrepreneurs, especially those of Chinese heritage (Verver, 2012), and the recent revitalization of oknha as a title bestowed to those economically wealthy, have opened the pathway for the economically well-off to gain higher social status and prestige (Verver & Dahles, 2015). 51 Oknha12, which could be translated as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctycoon\u00E2\u0080\u009D or equated to the English title \u00E2\u0080\u009CLord,\u00E2\u0080\u009D was traditionally bestowed by Khmer kings to such individuals as religious leaders, governors, ministers or personal councilors who provided exceptional services to the throne (Verver & Dahles, 2015). Oknha as a title \u00E2\u0080\u009Chas become a vehicle for accessing, acquiring and distributing riches\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Verver & Dahles, 2015, p. 59). Further, many of these businesspeople holding the oknha title have become members of the Senate of Cambodia. This institutionalization of the title oknha is both a political and economic practice that functions to perpetuate the existing social and political hierarchy, allowing the political elites to maintain their high status and privilege and at the same time open pathways for wealthy businesspeople to attain more privileges, higher social status and prestige. The institutionalization of oknha functions as a reciprocal patron-client network in which the patrons as the political elites will be supported economically by the clients as businesspeople. In exchange, the economic interests of the clients will be protected by the political elites (Verver & Dahles, 2015). Since the 1990s, oknha has been utilized to identify and recruit businesspeople to join what Verver and Dahles (2015) call the \u00E2\u0080\u009Celite pact.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Businesspeople who are able and willing to deploy their social, symbolic and material resources to establish their connections with the ruling elite; namely, the Cambodian People\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Party (CPP), are recruited to join the \u00E2\u0080\u009Celite pact.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This form of patronage network functions to maintain the existing hierarchical power structure. Moreover, the continuity and perpetuation of this traditional form of patronage practice paints a particular image about how one should approach a path towards a better socio-economic status. 12 Up until the nineteenth century, there were an estimated 200 oknhas remaining, who had to renew their commitment to the throne bi-annually by drinking \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwater of allegiance\u00E2\u0080\u009D at the royal palace (Chandler, 2008). In return, they were allowed to collect taxes from their areas of control and round up labor for public work or warfare (Verver & Dahles, 2015). While the bond between the king and the oknha could be characterized as a reciprocal patron-clientship, the relationship between the oknha and the general populace could be described as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbonds of terror, affection, duty, and contempt\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Chandler, 2008, p. 133; Slocomb, 2010, pp. 51-52; Verver & Dahles, 2015, p. 51). In post-conflict Cambodia, the title of oknha is bestowed upon businesspeople who contribute in excess of USD100,000 to national development projects. In early 2017, Prime Minister Hun issued a sub-decree raising the minimum contribution required to receive the honorific title from USD100,000 to USD500,000 (Kijewski & Touch, 2017). There are about 700 oknhas in present-day Cambodia, compared to about five before 1975 (Kijewski & Touch, 2017). 52 The educational development project in post-conflict Cambodia is embraced as a crucial sector for reconstruction. However, coupled with the rising influence of the English language as a cultural capital for socio-economic betterment, and the creeping domination of neoliberal globalization and capitalism brought in by such agencies as the World Bank and IMF, post-conflict Cambodia not only reproduces but also perpetuates the preconfigured linkage between education and social mobility introduced by the French a century ago. 2.8 Summary To make sense of the process that underpins the social mobility trajectories of Cambodian men and women in contemporary Cambodian society, it is essential to understand the historical and socio-cultural context within which this process takes place. This chapter has provided an overview of the characteristics of Cambodian society, its socio-cultural norms and values, as well as the various mechanics, such as the sangha (Buddhism) that intertwine with schooling and play a crucial role in structuring the path and opportunity for social mobility. Historically, Cambodian society was highly hierarchical, with limited social mobility. Socio-cultural reproduction was a predominant feature of the society over the centuries. One common feature among the various regimes throughout the past century is the rigidly hierarchical social order. Contemporary Cambodian society is increasingly open to regional Asian and global values and norms. Socio-economic transformations over the past two decades have created new contextual realities that have impacted traditional socio-cultural norms, beliefs, and practices. However, patronage/khsae practices continue to persist and evolve but still play a fundamental role in structuring life chances and widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Gender relations continue to be influenced by the rules in the various chbab written centuries ago. Recited by their parents as a way to socialize their children into the norms of the society and learned as part of school curriculum, these chbab have been influential in shaping the dispositions of Cambodians, both young and old. However, the external forces that have imported or imposed Western discourses on gender have slowly redefined the gender discourse and gender relations in contemporary Cambodia. As Cambodian society is increasingly integrated into the regional and global systems, the role of the sangha in relation to schooling has changed drastically over the decades. The 53 traditional wat schools, which played an important role in schooling Cambodian children from the pre- to colonial periods, have transitioned into a mere housing space for male students from rural areas who are pursuing studies at higher education institutions in the capital city and urban centers. There is a rapidly growing rural-urban migration to pursue these opportunities. This has, in turn, driven increasing urbanization. However, those with economic means, or with the right connections, have been able to benefit more than others from these emerging opportunities. Those with little or no schooling or with very limited economic resources, especially women, are only able to benefit minimally from these opportunities. The configured linkage between schooling and social mobility continues to capture the mindset of Cambodians aspiring for better lives and improved social status in the urban centers. One important aspect that continues to inspire Cambodian students, especially those from rural areas, to go to school and pursue higher education is their hope of better employment in the urban areas, one perceived to be better and of a higher status than working on the rice fields \u00E2\u0080\u0093 an imagination dating back to the French colonial period. Although the French left Cambodia almost seven decades ago, the French colonial discourse and policy continue to colonize the mind of Cambodians, shaping their inspiration for further education. This coloniality has been influential in charting the trajectory of educational development in Cambodia since the colonial era. Cambodian leaders of several successive regimes since the colonial era, with the exception of the Khmer Rouge regime, have continued to draw upon the colonial inertia of educational development and policymaking along this trajectory. The Sihanouk regime planned and developed an educational development project based on the groundwork set up by the French colonial administration and reproduced the colonial doxic linkage between schooling and social mobility. The regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s failure to develop an equitable and relevant national educational plan led to its collapse in 1970 and ultimately ushered in an extreme communist regime \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the Khmer Rouge \u00E2\u0080\u0093 that aimed to establish a classless, agrarian society and to \u00E2\u0080\u009Celiminate\u00E2\u0080\u009D educated Cambodians from the previous regimes. However, despite the atrocities caused by the Khmer Rouge and the regime\u00E2\u0080\u0099s effort to de-link the colonial doxic linkage between schooling and social mobility, the regime did not discourage surviving Cambodians from pursuing education for social mobility. Unfortunately, the post-conflict educational development continues on the same path of failure it did in the 1960s. The post- 54 conflict reconstruction has further perpetuated the French legacy with the massification of access to higher education, especially through privatization of higher education, which has resulted in the influx of rural Cambodians to urban centers hoping to capitalize on the widespread availability of educational opportunities to better their employment prospects in urban centers, to improve their lives, and to elevate their socio-economic status. Meanwhile, the neoliberal ideology and discourse injected into the post-conflict Cambodian society by such agencies as the World Bank and IMF, whose presence in Global South countries such as Cambodia constitutes a new form of colonialism or neo-colonialism, have not only reframed education as a commodity to be consumed and utilized for the betterment of oneself, but also shaped the mentality and practice of post-war Cambodians in their pursuit of education as a form of capital accumulation. Within this context, English language, as a form of cultural capital, has played an important part in further stratifying Cambodians and perpetuating the growing inequalities among the privileged and the largely rural marginalized groups. This study is situated within this historical and socio-cultural context of Cambodia. The research investigates the journey of men and women with no or little economic means who pursued higher education in the hope of obtaining good employment and improving their socio-economic status. Specifically, the study examines how the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 schooling experiences, their families, social networks, and other socio-cultural forces, both internal and external, shaped their social mobility and life trajectories, and what meaning(s) their social mobility journey meant for them, their families and Cambodian society. The next chapter situates this study within a broader body of scholarship by reviewing the literature on higher education and social mobility from both Global North and Global South societies. 55 Chapter 3: Higher Education and Social Mobility: A Review of the Global North and Global South Perspectives The colonization of the mind, in an earlier era, produced a feeling of inferiority and a desire, on the part of the colonized, to adopt the ideas of the colonizers. The recolonization of the mind today is having the same consequences. (deSouza, 2020, p. 200) The linkage between schooling and social mobility in general, and higher education and social mobility in particular, is a configured relationship that is perceived to be universal across the globe. To simplify Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing, educational capital gained through schooling or university education is a form of cultural capital which one could use to obtain salaried employment. In this sense, cultural capital is converted into economic capital, which can in turn be utilized to improve one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status. This process signals one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s movement from one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social class of origin to another social class. However, this view of the configured linkage between higher education and social mobility is too simplistic to capture the full dynamic and complex process of a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s journey of social mobility through pursuit of higher education. The complexities become multi-layered and multi-dimensional in Global South societies because, on top of their unique socio-cultural norms and politico-economic systems, these societies have been shaped in one way or another by long histories of colonialism, conflict, capitalism, globalization, and other forces of influence imposed by the Western/European/North American powers of the Global North. This chapter reviews literature on the dynamics and complexities that shape the processes of social mobility, in particular the linkage between higher education and social mobility. Specifically, the chapter attends to Global North and Global South perspectives on this linkage to draw important insights that will be useful for crafting the study's conceptual framework in the next chapter. The chapter is organized as follows. First, I present an overview of the linkage between higher education and social mobility from a Global North perspective. I then provide an overview of studies on the linkage between higher education and social mobility in Global South 56 societies, including important details that will be useful for the development of a conceptual framework for this study. I conclude the chapter by highlighting the key conceptual perspectives from both Global North and South to be considered for the development of the conceptual framework for this study. 3.1 Global North perspectives 3.1.1 Linkage between higher education and social mobility In the Global North context, the question about what factors influence a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility has been an area of research of interest of scholars since the 1920s, as evidenced in the work of Sorokin (1927). It continues to remain so at present, as indicated by recent publications (i.e., Berthold & Grundler, 2014; P. Brown et al., 2013; Francis & Wong, 2013; Pfeffer, 2014). For nearly a century now, scholars have debated the main factors that underlie a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility. A review of social mobility research shows that there are two main sides to this debate. One stream of social mobility research posits that pursuing higher education is the single most important pathway towards one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s occupational attainment and subsequent social mobility (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Kerckhoff, 2001). Another stream focuses on the important role of other factors, including social origins, parental backgrounds, and personal networks in the process of social mobility (Bison, 2011; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Breen & Goldthorpe, 1999; Granovetter, 1995; Lampard, 2007; Lin, 1999, 2001; Mouw, 2003). The first stream of scholarship argues that the role of education, particularly higher education, as a means of upward social mobility started to become a major area of research among both sociologists and economists interested in social mobility since the 1950s (Burlutskaia, 2014; Grusky & Weeden, 2006). As ascribed status such as social origin diminished over time (Bell, 1973; Jonsson, 1992), higher educational attainment was seen to increase one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s chances of attaining a higher class or status position (Heath et al., 1992; Whelan & Layte, 2002). Because educational systems can serve as a primary determinant of merit, rendering it legitimate to offer differential rewards to individuals based on their merits (Goldthorpe & Jackson, 2008), more schooling was found to have a stronger effect on the likelihood of a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s moving to a higher level occupation (Sicherman, 1990). 57 That education is found to play an intermediary role between one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social origin and destination (Breen & Karlson, 2014; Iannelli & Paterson, 2005) helps to explain the reason for educational expansion in Britain, Sweden and Germany during the 20th century (Breen, 2010). A number of studies showed that education was a means of vertical social mobility for masses of people, especially for people from the lower social strata to move up to the middle class. Goldthorpe (1980), for instance, found in his large-scale 1972 and 1983 mobility surveys in Britain that education and subsequent training were the main factors for people from lower social strata to move into the upper social classes. Other research confirmed this relationship between more education and upward social mobility (Blau & Duncan, 1978; Breen, 2010; Breen & Karlson, 2014; Heath et al., 1992; Sicherman, 1990). However, recent research shows that education is not the only factor that explains a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s occupational attainment and upward social mobility. In fact, in a changing higher education landscape in which the massification of higher education is mediated by the privatization of higher education provision, everyone from the lower to the higher social strata now has access to higher education of some sort, making higher education lose its differentiating function to increase upward social mobility (Burlutskaia, 2014). This shift has had its effects on the current debate about the role of higher education in promoting a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s upward social mobility. Part of the argument around the declining importance of higher education in social mobility is the saturation of the labor market caused by an influx of graduates driven by more expansive access to higher education (Burlutskaia, 2014). The current situation where everyone holds a higher education degree has resulted in an influx of graduates into the labor market, rending educational qualifications less important and less reliable as quality signals to employers (Ganzeboom & Luijkx, 2004; Tholen et al., 2013). That is, higher education does not offer potential employers a clear signal of the quality of graduates (Burlutskaia, 2014). As a result, employers have resorted to other non-educational or non-cognitive signifiers, such as social skills, soft skills or manners (Breen & Goldthorpe, 2001), to distinguish suitable from non-suitable candidates in their hiring decisions (P. Brown, Hesketh, & Williams, 2004; Farkas, 2003; Jackson, 2006). 58 3.1.2 It takes more than higher education Another body of scholarship contends that, in addition to pursuing higher education, there are a number of other processes and dynamics that account for one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s occupational attainment and subsequent upward social mobility. Research shows that informal channels such as family, friends and other personal contacts are very important for one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s occupational attainment, job-change opportunities, increased wages and occupational prestige (Granovetter, 1995; Lin, 2001; Montgomery, 1991; Mouw, 2003). Personal networks and connections are crucial for gaining access into the labor market and integral for labor market outcomes and occupational attainment and chances for upward social mobility (Tholen et al., 2013). Parental backgrounds are found to play an important role in shaping their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s status even when their education variable is controlled (Breen & Goldthorpe, 1999; Lampard, 2007; Savage & Egerton, 1997; van de Werfhorst, 2007). Further, social origins, as Bison\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2011) study shows, influence the career patterns of young people and are important in modifying the chances of highly educated people and their subsequent entry into upward career patterns and social status. Other scholars (e.g., Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; DiMaggio, 1982) have argued that certain status groups, with the benefits of their social origins and resources, accumulate the desired capital to maintain or create an advantage over other groups in reproducing their social status or advancing their social mobility. The review above shows that higher education is important but not necessarily the only condition for upward social mobility. The process of social mobility is a journey undergirded by a dynamic and complex interface between different forms of historical and socio-cultural factors, and personal, agential factors. The existing scholarship on the linkage between education and social mobility has drawn on two major theoretical frameworks: first, Pierre Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts such as habitus and capital (Bourdieu, 1984, 2007); second, individualization theory, in particular its associated concepts of reflexivity, choice biography, or do-it-yourself biography of Margaret M. S. Archer (2003, 2007, 2010, 2012), Ulrich Beck (1992), and Anthony Giddens (1991). 59 3.1.3 Bourdieusian contributions Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1984, 2007) concept of capital and the conversion/reconversion mechanism of the different forms of capital shed light on social and cultural reproduction and the way in which symbolic capital and privileges are reproduced. This is also a process that explains social inequality as well as social mobility. Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts enable one to explain the inter-generational transmission of real and symbolic capital of social groups and the reproduction of their social status and social class (Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). With habitus as the important form of cultural inheritance carrying the cultural codes and practices that a person internalizes and embodies through socialization and upbringing in the family from an early age, those from middle or upper class families have the means to maintain and even perpetuate the structures of dominance (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Differential amounts of forms of capital possessed by different occupants of social positions demonstrate different distinction and privileges. The effective conversion and reconversion mechanism of these species of capital enables social groups to preserve their social locations, power and privilege, which contributes to the reproduction of social inequalities across time and over generations. In other words, this process of cultural reproduction and capital reconversion reproduces social class relations in the social structure and contributes to perpetuating social inequalities. A number of qualitative research studies on social networks (social capital), for instance, shows that this form of capital enables a person to attain labor market entrance and occupational mobility, which contributes to upward social mobility (Aguilera, 2008; Fernandez et al., 2000; Lin, 1999; Tholen et al., 2013). Other studies that focus on higher education as a form of cultural capital show that, those from the modest backgrounds can improve their social status through accessing higher education (cultural capital) (Breen, 2010; Breen & Karlson, 2014; P. Brown et al., 2013; Sicherman, 1990; Stuart, 2012). 3.1.4 Contributions of the individualization thesis A second body of scholarship on social mobility draws on the individualization thesis and the concept of reflexivity. These studies usually employ in-depth qualitative life history interviews as their methodological tool. Margaret Archer\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2007) study on human reflexivity and social mobility represents one of the major studies that demonstrate the crucial role 60 reflexivity plays in a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility. By means of conducting life and work histories of research participants, Archer has shown how reflexivity or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinternal conversation\u00E2\u0080\u009D guides a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decision on occupations, their stance towards socio-structural constraints and opportunities, and the resultant social mobility. Other studies point to the contextual circumstances that lead to the emergence of individual reflexivity in their social and economic mobility. For example, Laughland-Boo\u00C3\u00BF, Mayall, and Skrbi\u00C5\u00A1\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2015) research, which examines the question of young people making future career choices and the role of their reflexivity in an increasingly individualized world, shows that young people from less privileged backgrounds tend to demonstrate more reflexivity in their career planning. Laughland-Boo\u00C3\u00BF et al. (2015) argue that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit is \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 the lack of material and/or social resources that is driving young people on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum to actively acknowledge barriers, and take personal responsibility to find ways of negotiating those boundaries to ensure that they live up to the expectations of a more individualized society\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 597, original emphasis). Similarly, a study by Farrugia (2011), who explored the question of youth homelessness in Australia by examining the identity construction of young people, shows that the emergence of reflexive subjectivity is a response to structural inequality. Farrugia (2011) concludes that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstructural insecurity compels the construction of individualized, reflexive subjectivities. In the absence of collective structures on which to draw for identity and material support, young people feel personally responsible for the events in their lives that are the outcomes of structural processes\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 772). McDermott and Graham\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2005) research on the emergence of reflexivity and individualism of young, working-class British women as they raise their children in impoverished circumstances and live outside the discursive boundaries of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnormal\u00E2\u0080\u009D motherhood, suggests that the women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s impoverished situation enabled them to become \u00E2\u0080\u009Cself-reflexive agents using the resources available to them to make their lives, and their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lives, happy and meaningful\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 76). Their poor socio-economic circumstances and their being positioned outside the boundaries of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnormal\u00E2\u0080\u009D motherhood forced these young, working-class mothers to develop \u00E2\u0080\u009Cresilient mothering practices\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 76). The studies reviewed above present a summary of the research on the linkage between higher education and social mobility in the Global North context. As illustrated above, the studies present Western/Eurocentric understandings and interpretations of social experiences. 61 Moreover, the studies show not only the individualistic pursuit of social mobility but also the growing disintegration of support systems or social structures that may provide support to young people during the contemporary increasingly globalized world. In contrast, the development in the Global South societies, as will be discussed below, reveals a different picture of societal changes in light of the histories of colonialism, capitalism, and neoliberal globalization. The next section reviews research on the linkage between higher education and social mobility in the Global South context. It focuses specifically on what constitutes the Global South, what external forces have shaped the socio-cultural, economic, and political dimensions of the Global South societies, and what are the implications for understanding the linkage between higher education and social mobility in this context. 3.2 Global South experiences 3.2.1 Constructions of the Global South My study is situated in Cambodia as a Global South society. \u00E2\u0080\u009CGlobal South\u00E2\u0080\u009D in this study is defined in epistemological rather than geographical terms (Santos, 2018b; Santos & Meneses, 2020a). In this sense, the epistemologies of the South \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconcern the production and validation of knowledges anchored in the experiences of resistance of all those social groups that have systematically suffered injustice, oppression, and destruction caused by capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Santos, 2018b, p. 1). Due to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe uneven development of capitalism and the persistence of Western-centric colonialism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Santos (2018b), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe epistemological South and the geographical South partially overlap, particularly as regards those countries that were subjected to historical colonialism\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 1). This overlap is only partial because the epistemological South is also found in the geographical North (i.e., the struggle against capitalism and colonialism in Europe and North America), and vice versa (Santos, 2018b; Santos & Meneses, 2020a). The epistemologies of the South are struggles against \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe colonial modes of interpreting the world\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Santos & Meneses, 2020a, p. xix), which posits that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe only valid understanding of the world is the Western understanding of the world\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Santos, 2018b, p. 6), and require \u00E2\u0080\u009Can epistemic decolonization of the world of human experiences\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Santos & Meneses, 2020a, p. xviii). Interpreting the world and human experiences from the standpoint of the epistemologies of the South opens up the possibilities of approaching \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconcepts and realities 62 such as class, labor, and family from a different angle, permitting the identification of new problems and new approaches to old problems\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Santos & Meneses, 2020a, p. xxxii). Not unlike many other Global South societies, Cambodia has had a fair share of the burden of historical legacies marked by colonialism and its continuity, patriarchy, and a more recent pull into the regional and global economic and political landscape of capitalism and neoliberal globalization. In addition to being constituted by its own traditional socio-cultural norms and values of patriarchy, Cambodian society has been constantly (re)defined by these external forces of colonialism and capitalism. To gain an understanding into the dynamics and complexities of social mobility in Cambodian society, it is essential to learn from the insights of existing body of scholarship conducted within other Global South societies with similar historical, economic, and socio-political developments. This approach is mutually beneficial: while my study stands to learn from and build on the insights of existing studies in the Global South, it also contributes to enriching the scholarship on this topic in the Global South context. This scholarship is a contribution to a movement that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconfer[s] political, epistemic, and ontological meaning to the South, the South as an active subject of struggles and resistance, and the non-imperial South\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Santos & Meneses, 2020a, p. xxix). This review of the existing literature on higher education and social mobility in the Global South focuses on social mobility research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where colonial legacies, capitalism, and neoliberal globalization represent an influential force in shaping the dispositions and perspectives of people in these societies. The review is not aimed to be exhaustive, but to provide an overview of the complexities and underpinnings that are at play in connection to the linkage between higher education and social mobility in Global South societies. This review also sheds light on some of the major conceptual and analytical perspectives I will consider when undertaking my investigation in the context of Cambodia. Moreover, it not only sheds light on the limitations of Western/Global North concepts in making sense of the problematic in the Global South, it also contributes to decolonizing social thought in theory, research and application (Connell, 2014), while simultaneously fostering epistemologies of the South (Santos, 2016, 2018a; Santos & Meneses, 2020b). Similar to the development in the Western/Global North context, higher education is perceived as an avenue for social mobility in many Global South societies. In fact, the 63 massification of higher education across the Global South is largely driven by increasing demand from different segments of the population who view higher education as a necessary condition for improved living standards and upward social mobility (Altbach, 2004; Altbach et al., 2009; Harman, 1994). From Benin, West Africa (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012) to South Africa (Webb, 2018), from Brazil (Duryea et al., 2019) and Colombia (Marzi, 2018) in Latin America to Iran (Harris & Kalb, 2019; Hashemi, 2012) in the Middle East, from Pakistan (Arnot & Naveed, 2014) in South Asia to the Philippines (Cruz, 2019) in Southeast Asia, education, particularly higher education, is considered to be a crucial capital for improving one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status. Research on women, minorities and lower castes in India (Chanana, 1993), underrepresented social groups such as workers and the rural population in Russia (Smolentseva, 2003), poor segments of the population in Pakistan (Khan, 1991), and the general population in China (Cheng, 1995; Li & Bray, 2007; J. Liu, 2012; Seeberg, 1993) has shown that (higher) education has contributed to upward social mobility for the lower strata of society. In the smaller region of the Southeast Asian countries, the promise of (higher) education for upward social mobility continues to remain strong (Boyden, 2013; Fuwa, 1999; Selvaratnam & Gopinathan, 1984; Ser, 2004). Similarly, formal (higher) education is viewed as a means for upward social mobility in Cambodia (Kalab, 1976; Peou & Zinn, 2014). In contrast to countries such as China and South Korea with a long Confucian tradition that underpins the pursuit of education for social advancement (Marginson, 2011), countries such as Cambodia (Ayres, 2003) were introduced to this preconfigured linkage between higher education and social mobility by colonial powers. A closer examination into the complex dynamics of higher education for social mobility in these Global South societies provide nuanced understandings of the socio-cultural complexities, situated agency of the people, and the burden of historical legacies of colonialism, conflict, capitalism, neoliberal globalization that interplay and shape their endeavors. 3.2.2 A tale of two opposing views Scholarship on education and social mobility in the Global South societies indicates two opposing trends. On the one hand, research evidence suggests that colonial legacies and emerging neo-colonialism and neoliberal globalization are increasingly influencing the mindset 64 of the people in the colonized societies about the value of pursuing schooling and higher education for social mobility. A new form of colonialism, or neo-colonialism, is shaping the direction of higher education development and its connection to social mobility in former colonies. In contemporary times, meanwhile, capitalism and neoliberal globalization are influencing not only the value of university and knowledge as a tradable commodity but also the dynamics and complexities of relationships in families in relation to their aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility. On the other hand, there is increasing evidence of growing resistance to the historical legacies of colonialism and the hegemonic influence of neoliberal globalization on the people in the Global South societies in their pursuit of higher education for social mobility. Their socio-cultural resilience and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D local responses to these external colonial forces provide insights into the strategies people deploy to pursue higher education for social mobility and the collective nature and meaning of social mobility. In light of these insights, therefore, this study adopts a conceptual framework that allows for a possibility to capture the dynamics and complexities of these opposing perspectives. 3.2.2.1 Constitutive effects of colonial legacies, neo-colonialism, and neoliberal globalization on the linkage between higher education and social mobility Santos and Meneses (2020a) argue that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccentral to the colonial mission is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe conquest of not only goods and lands, but also of cultures and mindsets\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. xxiv). It is this enslavement of the mind (deSouza, 2020) that feeds the continuity of colonialism despite the abolishment of colonial administrations almost throughout the world. As deSouza (2020) puts it, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe colonization of the mind, in an earlier era, produced a feeling of inferiority and a desire, on the part of the colonized, to adopt the ideas of the colonizers. The recolonization of the mind today is having the same consequences\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 200). The continued embrace of colonial systems of education is a danger as this Eurocentric lens filters our minds and dominates our way of making sense of the world (deSouza, 2020). Our adoption of colonial concepts, idioms, and vocabulary, as if they were free of the cultural markers of their historical origin, signals that we have abandoned our own socio-cultural and epistemological schemata, and lost our self-worth (Fanon, 1967). 65 In addition to the legacies of colonialism and its persistent effect through the colonial enslavement of the mind, neoliberal globalization has contributed to reframing higher education (Tilak, 2008). The widespread neoliberal economic policies and globalization spearheaded by such agencies as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the OECD are redefining the meaning and purpose of higher education as a public good and legitimizing knowledge as a tradable community (Bergeron, 2008; Davies & Bansel, 2007; Olssen & Peters, 2005; Peters, 2007; Tilak, 2008). The Western/Eurocentric influence and supremacy over the knowledge production and meaning of higher education in the Global South societies represents a new form of colonialism, a neo-colonialism (Altbach, 1971; Anwaruddin, 2014; Bray, 1993; Gyamera & Burke, 2018; Nguyen et al., 2009). Gyamera and Burke (2018) argue that neo-colonialism promotes economic and cultural dependence of former colonized societies on their former colonial masters, enabling them to exercise control and influence on former colonies. In the area of higher education, neo-colonialism \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinvolves continuing in the legacy of colonial education and emphasizing models derived from former colonial masters\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 454). As a case in point, Papoutsaki and Rooney (2006) shows how Papua New Guinea (PNG)\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher education development project is shaped by not only the colonial legacy but also the neo-colonial rationality through its relationship with its former colonial power. The authors argue that PNG, which has inherited its colonizer\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education system, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis still facing the challenge of shaping its higher education system that is adapted to its national needs\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 421). Not unlike other postcolonial countries within the current context of globalization, PNG\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher education is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexperiencing the same pressures and challenges, amplified further by colonial legacies and the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s neo-colonial relationship with its previous colonial master; a lack of indigenous intellectual traditions; a rather anomalous situation where Christian churches have become major education providers; and a difficult socio-economic and cultural environment that promotes inequalities in terms of access\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Papoutsaki & Rooney, 2006, p. 422). Moreover, the approach the country has taken to develop its education system, which is based on the colonial tradition, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbuilds on and is reinforced by the new international trends in higher education that follow the market needs, giving a false guarantee that HE is contributing to the economic growth 66 of the country\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 421). This increasingly globalizing world has perpetuated \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmany of the negative patterns established by colonialism\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 431). In the context of postcolonial Timor-Leste, in another example, research by King, Forsey, and Pegrum (2019) reveals that colonial conditions continue to shape individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 agency in their pursuit of schooling and further education as an avenue for a better life and social mobility. Their aspirations for further education are shaped by their colonized mentality that educational qualifications in the Global North are better, one that will provide them \u00E2\u0080\u009Clife-changing power\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 294). This mindset, in turn, shapes their practices in terms of preparing themselves to satisfy the entry requirements of higher education institutions in the Global North to win a scholarship to study overseas. This is a step toward gaining Western oriented cultural capital as a resource for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgeographic and social mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 294). This practice reproduces \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe North-South power imbalances typifying the colonial condition\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 294). An understanding of how this colonial legacy continues to shape individuals in the Global South societies in their desire for higher education in the Global North as a cultural capital for social mobility provides an insight into the continuity of colonial conditions in these post-colonial societies long after the colonial administration had been eradicated. In South Africa, according to Shrivastava and Shrivastava (2014), government policy regarding higher education is increasingly driven by a neoliberal logic defining the nature and role of higher education in market terms, rather than as a public good. Despite much potential for South African higher education in contributing to social equity, economic and social development and democracy, as well as the development needs of the Southern African region and the African continent as a whole, neoliberal and market forces shaping higher education in South Africa are widening social inequality, with potential negative consequences for socio-political stability and economic sustainability in the region (p. 820). Similarly, in Indonesia, within the context of neoliberal globalization, a study by Sakhiyya and Rata (2019) shows that the value of knowledge and higher education is shifting from a collective, societal meaning of knowledge to one that is reframed as instrumental commodity to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpriced\u00E2\u0080\u009D and sold in the global higher education marketplace within the era of global knowledge economy. The value of higher education has shifted from the creation of social 67 meaning for human life to one that is priced to be sold and accumulated for serving individualistic consumption and private good. Within such contexts, aid agencies such as the World Bank are playing a crucial role in reframing the role of higher education. For example, in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, as Lebeau (2008) argues: given their history of institutional and academic dependency on external support and standards, African higher education systems offer a neat illustration of the impact of changing educational priorities of international donors. Now that changing technology and a rapid increase in knowledge are seen by the World Bank and the bilateral donors as the key priorities for development, African universities are presented with revitalization plans that are interesting reflections of current international development agendas but could put at risk the wider benefits and functions brought by universities to societies in their existing relationship. (p. 140) These donors are transforming the institutions of higher education through their neoliberal agenda instead of meeting the development needs of the local contexts. In Myanmar, in spite of the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s historical influence of Buddhist values and principles that underlie the provision of education that reflects the Buddhist values of service to the community, a study by Howson and Lall (2020) reveals that neoliberal policy solutions to current challenges faced by the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher education system, influenced by the donor community and international organizations such as the World Bank have promoted \u00E2\u0080\u009Cneoliberal policies can function to recreate dependent relationships, especially if international standards become the domestic benchmarks and links with global universities are the main medium for quality enhancement\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 120). This neoliberal influence on higher education in Myanmar \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis at odds with local needs for higher education to promote integration and social justice across ethnic regions and conflict-affected regions within the country\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 119). In this neoliberal era, the English language is also playing an influential role in the higher education landscape. In Saudi Arabia, according to Phan and Barnawi (2015), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe fast-growing international role of English in HE has both been a product and a promoter of neoliberalism. English has often been associated with social, linguistic, political, cultural, intellectual, and economic advantages, especially within the practice of neoliberal transformations of global HE systems\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 545). 68 3.2.2.2 Global South epistemologies and agency: An indigenous response/resistance to the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility The aforementioned studies point to a growing constitutive influence of capitalism and neoliberal globalization in redefining the purpose of education in Global South societies and in shaping individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education and social mobility in terms encapsulated in capitalist and neoliberal rationality. At the same time, however, there is a growing body of scholarship that demonstrates the socio-cultural resilience of the Global South societies in the face of hegemonic capitalism and neoliberal globalization. The scholarship that illustrates the Global South resilience and response to the colonial doxa and the rising influence of capitalism and neoliberal globalization may be organized into the following three areas. 3.2.2.2.1 Inter-generational dependency and collective endeavor Unlike some of the studies discussed above in the Global North societies where individuals are portrayed as autonomous and self-driven beings capable to liberating themselves by themselves from the marginalized living, and the disintegration of the traditional support system such as families and communities, research in the Global South societies present evidence of increasing intergenerational relationships and interdependence among siblings in supporting those who are capable to go for higher education that they believe will help improve the living conditions of all members of the families. For instance, recent ethnographic research on family investments in children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education in rural Cambodia within the context of deep economic uncertainty and increasing precariosness shaped by neoliberal capitalism shows increasing intergenerational and kinship dependency (Estes, 2019; Green & Estes, 2019). Estes (2019) argues that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CBy providing money for their children or studying hard in the present, respectively, both generations hope that in the future young people will be able to secure lucrative, stable jobs and contribute money to increase the standard of living for their entire families\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 150). By securing necessary financial support for their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of tertiary education, Estes (2019) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Csome families adopt a strategy in which older siblings find wage labour jobs in order to pay for their younger siblings\u00E2\u0080\u0099 education. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Moreover, as they made plans to attend university in the future, they [young siblings] were counting on their cousins to support them as well\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 151). Within this context of 69 increasingly insecure financial capitalism, argues Estes (2019), \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckin have become ever more dependent upon one another and intergenerational relationships have been reworked as youth and their families respond to economic pressures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 188). Examining the nature of financial subjectivity of rural Cambodians who finance their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education so that they pursue schooling and complete tertiary education and obtain white-collar jobs, Green and Estes (2019) found that in the context of increasing precarious labor markets linking rural homes and villages to Phnom Penh and abroad microfinance \u00E2\u0080\u009Chas contributed to a reworking of intergenerational relations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 143). In fact, as the authors argue, \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial relations of dependency are not necessarily destroyed by finance, but are incorporated into the fabric of finance itself\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 143). Neoliberal capitalism and globalization are increasingly reframing the social relationships among family members and the kinds of strategies they adopt in financing young people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education for a stable economic future and better lives (Estes, 2019; Green & Estes, 2019). Research by Estes (2019) suggests that exploring relations of dependency provides useful insights into the context of changing social relations wrought by economic transformation in the age of neoliberal globalization. While much of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccritical scholarship on neoliberal capitalism suggests that it tends to radically flatten dense social ties to individual self-interest,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Estes (2019) argues: rather than erode social ties between kin and neighbors, the transformations within Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s new political economy have reworked these ties. Certainly these changes benefit capitalist growth. But in terms of the experiences of the youth and their families I came to know, their daily lives are not so easily reduced to cold market logics. Rather, I have shown how intergenerational relations between kin have in many ways become more dependent, even as they are becoming increasingly monetized. (p. 188) Similarly, in the context of postwar Philippines, Cruz\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) study on schooling and social mobility reveals complex intergenerational relationships, and solidarity and sacrifices among siblings. Education is considered an inheritance. One of the recurring statements made by the parents reads: \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve got neither money nor land to leave behind, only your schooling (edukasyon). It will be your inheritance. No one will be able to steal it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 896). So, for the parents who have no inheritance for their children, exhorting them to study hard is a kind of 70 inheritance that they can leave for their children. Schooling and social mobility in this context also reveals reciprocal relationships between parents and children. Cruz (2019) argues that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhile people emphasize children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s debts of gratitude to parents, they also describe postwar schooling in terms of children redeeming their parents. Here, what the parents are passing on is something they never had themselves. Rather than a unidirectional, top-down relationship between older and younger generations, redemption posits a two-way relationship between parents and children\u00E2\u0080\u009D (pp. 908-909). Pursuing schooling and higher education for social mobility is an act of redeeming their parents who had never had the chance themselves. There exist \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmutually constitutive flows and exchanges\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 917) between different generations in this journey for social mobility. It is similar to the situation in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe global south, and also immigrants in the global north, who see children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s successful schooling as both a route to upward mobility and an appropriate response to parental hardships\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 909). This is an instance of collective nature of social mobility. Similar findings are evidenced in a study in the context of South Africa. In a study by Webb (2018) in the context of South Africa, university students from working class protested the rise of student tuition fees and how this debt would impact them and their families. It revealed that \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhile geographers have shown how young people's aspirations are frequently shaped by neoliberal rationalities, in which education is a meritocratic and individualized pursuit, these reflections reveal how education also generates desires for collective social mobility and family well\u00E2\u0080\u0090being\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 628). The author argues that \u00E2\u0080\u009C#FMF [#FeesMustFall] protests reflected collective aspirations toward social mobility among poor and working\u00E2\u0080\u0090class students and concerns over the threat that high levels of student debt posed to this mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 627). This case study shows that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstudents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 motivations for pursuing higher education were connected to desires for social and spatial mobility, moving out of poverty and, in some cases, out of life in the township. This hope was not merely conditioned by dominant neoliberal rationalities but also by the particular history of racialized poverty under apartheid, which limited social mobility and enforced educational and residential segregation for their parents\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 631). In West Africa, a study by O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil (2012) examining the relationship between higher education and social mobility and the shifting family relationships, reveals the dynamic and complex relationships among family members and the aspirations for upward social mobility. In 71 the context of Beninese society, childrearing is not merely the responsibility of biological parents. \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn Benin, as elsewhere in West Africa,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil (2012), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cchildren are not seen as the sole concern of their biological parents, but in many senses belong to the entire family\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 90). In the process of schooling and pursuing university education, the students have benefited from the support of older members of their large extended, often polygamous, families who provide for them and offer them an environment conducive for their studying. Therefore, the endeavor for social mobility is collective. The expectation for sharing the fruit of this social mobility is also collective (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012). The family members who have supported the students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of higher education expect to be reciprocated in some way upon graduation. However, within the context of limited formal employment opportunities for university graduates in the region, the pressure is enormous on the students. Despite a growing informal economy in their community, it is the perception of the students that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe informal sector is beneath the social status that university students enjoy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 7). This added layer of complexity related to the linkage between higher education and social mobility is predicated on a colonial model that promotes white-collar occupations, usually in the urban centers, as an indication of upward social mobility for university graduates. This educational development project is structured that way largely because donors such as the World Bank have played a significant role in educational reforms in Benin, West Africa (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012). This study challenges the assumption that parental education levels play an overriding role in determining their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s cultural capital. Because children in this context spend a considerable amount of time living and learning in households other than that of their parent(s), the children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s cultural capital and even their aspirations for higher education and social mobility are also influenced by other members of the extended families (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012). Neoliberal capitalism is shaping the social relationships among family members in their collective efforts to support their young children to pursue further education, viewed as a necessary step towards securing a white-collar job in urban centers, which they hope will provide them with a better income that will contribute to increasing the living standards of the entire family. As discussed above, a growing body of research suggests an important role for family members and the strategies they adopt in educational financing. Young people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education for social mobility is underpinned not only by collective endeavor but also collective 72 social mobility. It seems, therefore, the rationality of capilism and neoliberalism premised upon rendering individuals as individualistic self-interest persons is instead fostering a more collective and familial interdependence in seeking a better life for themselves and their families in the era of precariousness driven by neoliberal capitalism. 3.2.2.2.2 Southern epistemologies Pursuing education for social mobility within the Global South is not only a form of resistance to hegemonic neoliberal discourse, but also an act of emancipation against patriarchal norms, and the attainment of collective societal goals. The nature of this response/resistance to rising influence of neoliberal globalization and capitalism may be better understood from the lens of Southern epistemologies, as evidenced in the studies below. For example, in a study in Mexico, Cervantes-Soon (2016) examines the unique forms of intelligence of young, working-class women in one of the most poverty-stricken and marginalized areas of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Based on the concept of mujeres truchas, which is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca set of intelligences that stem from a life at the margins and a struggle for survival and hope\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 1209), and informed by Chicana/Latina feminist theory, the study provides a way of understanding how the intersections of racism, sexism, and classism affect the everyday lives of Chicana/Latina/Mexicana women. The findings reveal that within the context of neoliberalism and an unequal educational landscape, the women exercised their subaltern forms of intelligence and agency not merely for individual social mobility as a form of self-advancement or personal success; but that they demonstrated \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstrategic survival undertakings in oppressive and precarious contexts\u00E2\u0080\u00A6toward communal uplift and social justice\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 1210). Despite the neoliberal model of education which reframes education as a commodity to be accumulated and distributed for personal success, in their pursuit of education, the women exercised their smartness (i.e., mujeres truchas) in ways that challenged not only this model of education but also male-dominated notions of intelligence. The study also challenges the Western notion of agency that is individualized, self-driven, self-made, or success-oriented. Instead, this Southern agency originating from life at the margins is situated within their socio-cultural context and oriented towards communal betterment and collective societal goals. 73 Similarly, research by Hashemi (2012) in Iran examines the intersection between socio-cultural and religious forces, poverty, motivations and aspirations, and strategies for social mobility of young people. Aspirations for and being able to pursue higher education represents one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s honor and pride and is an increase in their social status in the community. Social mobility in this context is defined not only in relation to improving social standing but also the honor of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family within the community. Findings show how three interrelated elements explain not only the ways in which poverty and socio-economic deprivation underpin the process of individual and collective pursuit of social mobility, but also how these elements characterize the meaning of this process. The first element is the moral compass that guides their action and pursuit of social mobility. This moral compass is comprised of two moral systems that provide them with a sense of right and wrong and a guidance for their code of conduct: (i) honor and (ii) the Muslim work ethic. These two moral systems serve as intangible resources for the marginalized youth in their pursuit of the good life, which is the second element. The good life is their conception of the desirable goal that the youth considered to be the meaning of their pursuit of social mobility. Within the purview of their moral compass, socio-economically marginalized youth can still lay claim to the respect and honor that is accrued to the honorable in spite of their social origins. The third element refers to the strategies that they deploy to attain their desirable goals by accumulating various forms of capital, including schooling and pursuing higher education. The strategies they adopt are shaped, again, by the moral codes of Muslim work ethic and of honor. Hashemi (2012) argues that, for the former, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceffort is instrumental to socio-economic achievement; for the latter, undertaking strategies to escape poverty is critical for the young person to be able to support his family in order to maintain his honor and subsequently enhance his social standing\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 2). This finding suggests not only the collective pursuit but also the collective goal of social mobility. The moral compass is a salient cultural system of the Iranian society and fundamental in shaping poor youth\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strategies to pursue the desirable goal of living the good life. At the same time, this desirable end goal of living the good life is a collective outcome not merely for the youth themselves, but for their families. This study also sheds light on the struggles and agency of marginalized young people who resist the constraints of their poor and marginalized social 74 environments. This study, as Hashemi (2012) argues, challenges many classical sociological studies of youth from socio-economically marginalized backgrounds (i.e., Cloward & Ohlin, 1960; MacLeod, 1987; W. Miller, 1958; Willis, 1981), which posit that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstructurally determined constraints on social mobility are internalized by poor youth and give rise to these youths\u00E2\u0080\u0099 frustration, hopelessness and leveled aspirations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 2). This body of scholarship points to the importance of employing Global South epistemologies and conceptual perspectives to make sense of the life experiences of people living in the Global South context. 3.2.2.2.3 Rethinking Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts to fit the Global South context There are studies on Global South societies that employ Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts. However, for the concepts relevant and robust for the context, scholars had to reconceptualize them. For example, in a study in rural Pakistan that examines the linkage between education and social mobility, Arnot and Naveed (2014), drawing on Bourdieusian concept of habitus, conceptualize \u00E2\u0080\u009Crural family habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D in recognition of the collective, relational, and dispositional dimensions of families in particular conditions of development contexts in such Global South societies as Pakistan. The authors argue that the notion of rural family habitus denotes not only \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe element of \u00E2\u0080\u0098relationalism\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the corporal, organic nature that Bourdieu intended \u00E2\u0080\u0093 while, at the same time, appreciating the individual diversity and social/psychological dynamic within different family cultures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 508). Moreover, informed by feminist scholarship (Lovell, 2000, 2003; McCall, 1992; McLeod, 2005; McNay, 1999; Thorpe, 2009) about the complexity of power, gender, subjectivity and its effects on self-understanding and motivation, the notion of rural family habitus situates \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindividuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 dispositions and personal agency within the strong socio-psychological dynamics of gendered relational worlds\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 509). Therefore, the concept of a rural family habitus presents enormous potential to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cidentify the different ways in which schooling acts on but is also acted on by young men and women\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 509). Findings show that for parents who did not get education themselves consider making sure their children get education is an obligation to fulfill, not for the purpose of individual social mobility. Research by Arnot and Naveed (2014) reveals the intersection of education, gender, poverty and rurality. The study also suggests that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe economically poor are not homogenous. 75 \u00E2\u0080\u00A6the social aspirations, occupational and educational dispositions and values and intimate gender relationships play out in different ways amongst those who may have started poor and remain so, those families who have made some headway economically and those whose families have used schooling as a form of social mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 506). Arnot and Naveed (2014) also show that poverty limits people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s vision of what schooling could do for them and lowers their expectations, albeit not without regret; in this sense, rural poverty imprisons them. In this case, poverty is a form of reproductive habitus. Drawing on the work of C. Mills (2008a) on reproductive and transformative habitus, Arnot and Naveed (2014) argue: Those members of the family with a reproductive rural family habitus are likely to \u00E2\u0080\u0098feel the burden of their circumstances\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and read \u00E2\u0080\u0098the future that fits them\u00E2\u0080\u0099. They could fail to appreciate the \u00E2\u0080\u0098arbitrariness of the social world\u00E2\u0080\u0099 considering their circumstances to be natural. In line with the material conditions, they lower their aspirations, \u00E2\u0080\u0098they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have goals, they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have dreams.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (p. 510) There was also evidence of transformative family habitus among the rural poor families and a recognition of the role of schooling in fostering self-development and social mobility. As Arnot and Naveed (2014) asserts: those with a transformative rural family habitus (with its gendered and intergenerational elements) act in the ways that \u00E2\u0080\u0098transform the situation\u00E2\u0080\u0099, and \u00E2\u0080\u0098make things happen rather than have things happen to them\u00E2\u0080\u0099. They might look into the possibilities within social situations in such a way that invokes their agency, seeing the \u00E2\u0080\u0098generative\u00E2\u0080\u0099 opportunities for \u00E2\u0080\u0098self-enhancement or self-renewal\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in the wake of \u00E2\u0080\u0098incapacitating\u00E2\u0080\u0099 experiences. (p. 510) Schooling also changes durable gendered and generational dispositions of individuals, fostering individual agency and negotiations of gendered choices. As education takes roots in rural areas, it disrupts the village tradition of early marriages for girls and allows them to develop themselves. People from poor rural areas who have no inheritance such as land or property for their children, view education as enabling their children to get good jobs and improve their financial situation in the future. However, lack of employment opportunities for the educated also makes some consider that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgetting education is a loss of time and resources\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 520). 76 Similarly, in an ethnographic study in Cartagena, Colombia, examining the relation between young people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sense of belonging to their localities in marginalized communities (i.e., barrios populares) and their aspirations for social mobility, Marzi (2018), drawing on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relational concepts of habitus and \u00E2\u0080\u009Csense of place,\u00E2\u0080\u009D reveals that young people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirations for and strategies to achieve upward social mobility are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cembedded in, and mediated through, the people and places featuring in their everyday lives\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 15). The study challenges the economic perspective of poverty acting as a brake on social mobility and offers a more comprehensive picture of the way societal structures shape the development of aspirations. The author concludes that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWith respect to aspirations, a sense of belonging may affect young people in different ways. On the one hand, it can provide them with a feeling of safety and comfort. On the other hand, it can constrain their social and spatial mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 18). This study shows that aspirations for social mobility are socially situated and collectively oriented. These studies point to the potential and usefulness of applying Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts in the Global South context. However, the concepts need to be recontextualized to fit the specific setting within which they are applied. 3.3 Towards a conceptual framework There are a number of useful insights and concepts emerging from the literature review, which provides me with several conceptual perspectives I have drawn on in the conceptual framework for my own study in Cambodia. 3.3.1 Colonial legacy, coloniality, neo-colonialism, and neoliberal globalization The literature review above points to the persistent impact of colonialism on the mindsets of the people and on the educational systems in many Global South societies. Colonial legacies continue to shape people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirations for and pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility. Moreover, a new form of colonialism, or neo-colonialism, is increasingly influential in Global South societies and perpetuates patterns of asymmetric power relations similar to those during the past colonial period. On top of that, growing neoliberal globalization is shaping the purpose and the meaning of higher education in the Global South. Therefore, an investigation into the linkage between higher education and social mobility in the Global South context would 77 not make sense without drawing on the conceptual lenses of colonialism and its legacy, neo-colonialism, and neoliberal globalization. 3.3.2 Global South, indigenous, local epistemologies Some of the studies above demonstrate the value of the epistemologies of the South for making sense of the meaning of social mobility. Two examples are the concept of mujeres truchas in Mexico (Cervantes-Soon, 2016), and the notions of honor and the Muslim work ethic in the Iranian society (Hashemi, 2012). It is, therefore, important to draw on \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D or local concepts that will provide insights into the connection between higher education and social mobility. 3.3.3 The family, community, and collective Southern agency Numerous studies presented above illustrate the salient roles of the family and the community in individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 schooling and pursuit of higher education for social mobility. The review also points to the nature of collective agency that defines the process, outcome, and meaning of social mobility in the context of the Global South. Changing family forms, dynamics in the context of neoliberal globalization necessitates a consideration of how these changes shape family dynamics, individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perspectives, and their effects on traditional familial obligations and socio-cultural norms and values. Therefore, it is essential to draw on relational conceptual perspectives connected to the notions of the family, the community, and collective agency when making sense of the process of social mobility in the Global South. 3.3.4 Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts Pierre Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts, as indicated by some of the research reviewed above, are useful for making sense of the linkage between higher education and social mobility in both Global North and Global South societies. However, given the socio-cultural markers of their places of Western/Eurocentric origin, these concepts have their limits in explaining the lived experiences of the people in the Global South. For instance, the concept of rural family habitus as used in a study in rural Pakistan (Arnot & Naveed, 2014) and the notion of reproductive and 78 transformative habitus as used in research in Australia (C. Mills, 2008a, 2008b) are two examples of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts refined to reflect the specific context of the research. I will make use of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts as part of my conceptual framework, but they will be subjected to critiques, scrutiny and expansion by drawing on the feminist, postcolonial, and Global South scholarship, so that they are robust and appropriate for examining the linkage between higher education and social mobility in the context of my study in Cambodia. 3.4 Summary This literature review summarizes existing research on the linkage between higher education and social mobility in both the Global North and the Global South societies. I have drawn attention to both Global North/Western-centric and Global South studies on higher education and social mobility. I have argued towards the end of the chapter that Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts are helpful for making sense of the process of pursuing higher education for social mobility; however, these concepts need to be sensitized to the context of the study and critiqued and expanded drawing on the epistemologies of the Global South, as well as the feminist and post-colonial perspectives. I have also argued that to examine the linkage between higher education and social mobility in the Global South societies such as Cambodia, it is essential to situate the analysis within the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s historical and socio-cultural contexts and the ways in which these dynamics have shaped the dispositions and practices of the indigenes, as well as the challenges and the opportunities that facilitate and/or constrain the processes of and the aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility in the contemporary societal environment. Drawing on these conceptual perspectives, I present my conceptual framework in the next chapter. 79 Chapter 4: Conceptual Framework The educational systems of most developing countries, on almost all levels, remain rooted in the administrative structure of the former colonial rulers. The colonial power may not be the direct cause of this situation, but the fact that the structure and organization of the schools reflect a foreign model necessarily has an impact on the nature of the education provided. (Altbach, 1971, p. 237) In this chapter, I develop a conceptual framework for examining the perceived linkage between higher education and social mobility in Cambodia and the experiences of Cambodian young men and women in their pursuit of higher education perceived as an avenue for social mobility in the contemporary postcolonial context. In doing so, I build on concepts related to education and mobility from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. I then develop these ideas to form a more relevant and robust conceptual framework to analyze the experiences of the research participants whose lives are situated within Cambodia as a Global South society. This conceptual framework will also be useful and relevant to research and analysis in the context of Global South societies more broadly. The chapter is organized as follows. I begin by discussing the relevance of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing in making sense of (post)colonial life experiences. This task is aimed at contextualizing some of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more well-known constructs (i.e., habitus and field), and, drawing on some of Bourdieu's earlier work, addressing critiques of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing as irrelevant or unhelpful for analyzing social practice in colonial or postcolonial Global South societies. Next, I present and expand Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theory of social practice by delving into each of the key constructs of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing (i.e., doxa, illusio, field, habitus, and capital). Each concept is critiqued as a way for me to present new conceptual perspectives to add to the conceptual framework. In discussing the concept of doxa, I introduce my own notions of traditional doxa and colonial doxa. I then present the concept of illusio. When discussing the concept of field, I introduce multiple kinds of social field, including the local and the colonized 80 field, as well as the family as a social field. Following on, I discuss Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of the habitus. In so doing, I also introduce Ayling\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) concept of colonial habitus and my own concept of indigenous or local habitus. The last concept of capital is then discussed. In this part, I also draw on the scholarship of feminist thinkers, the community cultural wealth perspective, and the working-class cultural complements to add more relevant variants of the concept of capital to the conceptual framework. In discussing Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts of doxa, field, habitus, and capital, I highlight the persistence of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial condition\u00E2\u0080\u009D sustained through coloniality in postcolonial Global South societies and the necessity to retheorize Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing to make it more relevant and robust for research in the Global South context. Finally, I discuss the concept of Southern agency to situate the way in which social agents in Global South societies navigate the socio-cultural and structural constraints of their conditions in their social mobility journey. 4.1 Bourdieu: A (post)colonial thinker? In using Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts to make sense of postcolonial societies, it is essential to note that his writings have been critiqued by all sorts of scholars \u00E2\u0080\u0093 from Edward Said (1989) to less well-known scholars \u00E2\u0080\u0093 for not mentioning colonialism or colonial conditions in his work. For instance, Said (1989) commented: The Arabs of La Peste and L\u00E2\u0080\u0099Etranger [by Albert Camus] are nameless beings used as background for the portentous European metaphysics explored by Camus. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Is it farfetched to draw an analogy between Camus and Bourdieu in Outline of a Theory of Practice, perhaps the most influential theoretical text in anthropology today, which makes no mention of colonialism? (Said (1989), as cited in Go, 2013, p. 49, original emphasis) Other scholars posit that Bourdieu is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cessentially a continental thinker\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that his \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwork largely remained ensconced in that geography\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Gaztambide-Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez, 2019, p. ix). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s overarching focus on class, as opposed to race (i.e., the work of Fanon), is argued to blindside his conceptualization of the colonial experience, which has been critiqued by a number of scholars (e.g., Ayling, 2019; Curto, 2016). Moreover, as Bourdieu went on to refine his earlier 81 concepts and further developed new ones, as Gaztambide-Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez (2019) asserts, he did not adequately attribute his theorizing to the historical roots of the concepts: while his [Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s] ethnographic work with the Kabyle in Algeria directly informed Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s landmark Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977), the context of the war and his broader analysis of colonialism largely disappear in this text and, subsequently, from the vast majority of the works that mobilize Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theoretical concepts. (p. viii, original emphasis) Many of these critiques are valid, particularly in relation to Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s latter theorizing. However, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early writings in fact provide insightful theorizing of the colonial conditions and prefigure postcolonial studies. Said\u00E2\u0080\u0099s critique, for example, does not appear to take into account Bourdieu's early theorizing. In fact, Bourdieu theorized colonial domination, coercion, racial privilege, and culture as part of an overarching colonial system in his early writings published between the late 1950s and the early 1960s (Go, 2013). There are numerous other writings and theorizing that place Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work as a cornerstone of the fields of Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, which I now briefly elaborate. First, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts of habitus, field, and reflexive sociology, in fact, emerged from his early work in Algeria. Although these concepts appeared in his seminal work Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977) and some of his earlier works, which focused on the peasantry class in his native B\u00C3\u00A9arn region of France, Bourdieu theorized these concepts in his early work in Algeria when he wrote about the Algerian peasants between the late 1950s and the early 1960s even before he used the concepts (i.e., habitus, field) (Calhoun, 2006; Curto, 2016; Go, 2013). It was in a book (Le D\u00C3\u00A9racinement: La Crise de l\u00E2\u0080\u0099Agriculture Traditionnelle en Alg\u00C3\u00A9rie [Uprooting: The Crisis of Traditional Agriculture in Algeria] published in 1964), which Bourdieu co-authored with an Algerian scholar, Abdelmalek Sayad, about the peasants in Algeria, that the word habitus was first used (Go, 2013). Second, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early writings not only predate but also prefigure some of the later developments of the fields of colonial and postcolonial theories (Go, 2013). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theory of the colonial system as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfounded on privilege and coercion prefigures [and predates] Ranajit Guha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1997) theory of the colonial state as based on \u00E2\u0080\u0098dominance without hegemony\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Go, 2013, p. 67). Similarly, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural sabir\u00E2\u0080\u009D (theorized as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctwo different 82 and even opposing logics\u00E2\u0080\u00A6double-sidedness expressed itself in all realms of existence\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu & Sayad, 2004, p. 465)), a publication he co-authored with Algerian scholar Abdelmalek Sayad and originally published in French in 1964 (Puwar, 2009), predates postcolonial theories of hybridity and mimicry by Bhabha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1994) in The Location of Culture. As Go (2013) explains: Just as Bhabha writes of how the colonized are condemned to be \u00E2\u0080\u0098not white, not quite,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 trapped \u00E2\u0080\u0098betwixt and between,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 so do Bourdieu and Sayad\u00E2\u0080\u00A6speak of the sabir as the \u00E2\u0080\u0098new type of men and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099 who are \u00E2\u0080\u0098defined negatively, by what they no longer are and by what they are not yet.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (p. 67) In fact, Bourdieu theorized the cultural sabir in his 1959 publication of Le Choc des civilisations [The Clash of Civilizations], which he referred to as a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cduality of social regulations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (as cited in Go, 2013, p. 59). Third, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s first major work, Sociologie de l\u00E2\u0080\u0099Alg\u00C3\u00A9rie [The Sociology of Algeria] (1958), written based on his fieldwork in Algeria, and his other works, including The Algerians (1958) and Le Choc des civilisations [The Clash of Civilizations] (1959), reveal his theorizing of colonialism, racial domination, and his critique of modernization theory for overlooking colonialism (Go, 2013). Analyses by Curto (2016) and Go (2013) show that Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of colonialism, race and violence not only most closely approximates but also predates Fanon\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing (Fanon\u00E2\u0080\u0099s A Dying Colonialism and The Wretched of the Earth were published in 1959 and 1961, respectively). Finally, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early work meets the criteria to be considered a theory of the Global South. Connell (2007) conceptualizes the notion of Southern theory as that which draws on non-European, non-U.S. thinkers and that should attend to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe power, violence and pain of colonialism\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 165-191). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early work \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconfronted, theorized, and critiqued colonialism directly \u00E2\u0080\u0093 theorizing colonialism as a racialized system of oppression based on violence. And it analyzed the cultural shifts and associated pains of colonial identity that followed from colonial intrusion\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Go, 2013, p. 68). For this reason, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early theorizing \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccan rightfully be seen as a type of southern theory\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Go, 2013, p. 68). Moreover, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early theorizing of colonialism \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdid not emerge from a Parisian office but from an analysis within Algeria of colonialism on the ground\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Go, 2013, p. 68). His 83 early work, which contains the seeds for his concepts of habitus, field, and reflexive sociology, is more than just an ethnography of the Kabyle or Algeria or the Algerian revolution; it is also about \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial rule, racial domination, and colonial cultures. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6a systematic theory of colonialism that entailed insights on colonial social forms and cultural processes\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Go, 2013, p. 51). The analyses by Calhoun (2006), Curto (2016), Go (2013), Puwar (2009), and Rapini (2016) shed light on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early theorizing, which not only draws on but also extends the scholarship of colonial studies, prefigures and predates postcolonial studies, and theorizes certain conceptual elements that would qualify his theory as a kind of Southern theory. Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing has much to offer to research in postcolonial Global South societies, including Cambodia. Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s scholarship originates from the colonial context and has much to contribute to the analysis of colonization and its impacts on the experiences of the colonized. However, it is important to note that Bourdieu came from a privileged position as a Frenchman intellectual, as a colonizer. Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus shaped the way he viewed the world, both his own and the world of the Other. His worldview and positionality, therefore, framed and colored his analyzing and theorizing of the Others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 society. Despite the usefulness of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early theorizing about colonial conditions and colonial/postcolonial societies, it is important that scholars using Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts and theories keep in mind the socio-cultural positionality of his theorizing and his privileged status as a Global North scholar. In the context of my study, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing does have many conceptual sensibilities that provide useful analytical insights into the lived experiences of the research participants in Cambodia as a former French colony. That said, in drawing on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing, I will point to the limitations of his concepts throughout this chapter and propose additional conceptual lenses to address those limitations. 4.2 Social practice in postcolonial Global South societies Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorization is practice-oriented (Bourdieu, 1977). At the heart of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theory of practice is a complex interplay of his notions of habitus, field and capital. In this theorizing, \u00E2\u0080\u009Crelations of privilege and domination are produced through the interaction of habitus with capital (resources \u00E2\u0080\u0093 which can be economic, cultural, social, and symbolic) and field (social contexts)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (L. Archer et al., 2012, p. 884). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing enables understandings of 84 social and class mobility because his concepts facilitate an exploration of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural and symbolic configurations of class\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Lawler, 1999, p. 3). His theorizing provides an important understanding of the structurally embedded social practice of a person, and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis useful in explaining how the social field shapes and influences individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 actions, decisions and lifestyle choices\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ayling, 2019, p. 31). A large body of sociological scholarship reveals the mutually constitutive and complex interface between the social and the personal (Bateson, 1989; Bertaux, 1981b; de Bruijn et al., 2007; Hainsworth et al., 1981; C. W. Mills, 1959; Schaie & Elder, 2005; Shanahan & Macmillan, 2008). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing provides important insights in this respect. Moreover, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts are useful because they emphasize elements of \u00E2\u0080\u009Crelationalism\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Arnot & Naveed, 2014), which is well aligned with the collectivistic aspects of the Cambodian society in particular, and the Global South epistemologies in general. Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of social practice is expanded by incorporating various conceptual perspectives, as detailed below, to make it more relevant, robust, and useful for analyzing the social practice in postcolonial Global South societies. Figure 4.1 provides a visual representation of the theorization of social practice in postcolonial Global South societies. The case of Cambodia is then used to illustrate the concepts. In this theorizing, an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social practice is situated within a broader interface between the internal socio-cultural framework constituted by the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D social order and gender norms and external forces. The latter are shaped by the continued coloniality sustained by colonial legacies, presence and policy agendas of neocolonial agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF and their increasingly neoliberal discourses and policies imposed upon the Global South societies such as Cambodia. While the external forces colonize the social field and aim to cultivate a colonial habitus, the internal forces impose \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D structures of the local field and inculcate an indigenous habitus. Within the broader social field, the two opposing fields interface and present two competing doxic orders (i.e., traditional and colonial) concerning the higher education and social mobility linkage. An individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social practice in relation to their pursuit of higher education for social mobility is shaped by the dynamic and complex relationships between the multiple and competing social fields framed by these competing doxic understandings. In addition, which forms of capital they consider useful for their social mobility journey are shaped by which doxa they uphold and which habitus (i.e., indigenous or colonial) 85 they embody. In this sense, their agency is situated within the broader socio-cultural framework. Each of the conceptual perspectives employed in developing this conceptual frame is elaborated below. Figure 4:1: Visual representation of the conceptual framework 86 4.2.1 Doxa: Traditional and colonial Bourdieu (2000) defines doxa as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca set of fundamental beliefs which does not even need to be asserted in the form of an explicit, self-conscious dogma\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 16). Doxa is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe cornerstone of any field\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Maritz & Prinsloo, 2019, p. 565). It is the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctaken-for-granted fundamentals of a field\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Petzke, 2016, p. 124). Doxa is reinforced when there exists \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe near perfect correspondence between the social structures [i.e., field] and mental structures [i.e., habitus], between the objective order [i.e., field] and the subjective organizing principles [i.e., habitus], mak[ing] the natural and social world unquestionable\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Deer, 2008, p. 121). The near perfect fit between the established social order and the subjective experiences of people, a common feature of ancient societies, Bourdieu (1977) posits, renders \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe natural and social world appear as self-evident\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 165). Doxa is characterized by \u00E2\u0080\u009Cunanimity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 168). Unlike his other concepts, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of doxa has not appeared in much scholarship, particularly in relation to social mobility. This is an area of research to which my study will make contributions, especially the notions of traditional and colonial doxa. In this study, traditional doxa refers to the traditional doxic relationship between (higher) education and social mobility whereby there was no linkage between schooling and social mobility; schooling was meant to socialize young generations (i.e., boys) into the societal norms and values before they were sent back home to work on their rice fields and remain in their social class. The aim of schooling, as Ayres (2003) argues, was predicated on the perpetual \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnotion of taking the children from the rice-fields and giving them back to the rice-fields\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 28). In pre-colonial Khmer society, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csense of reality\u00E2\u0080\u009D was that each social class reproduced itself, as supported by the coherence between what people experienced and what they internalized or socialized to believe. As a consequence, this social order is naturalized as the only order. Social reproduction was a normal fact of life (Ebihara, 1984). Therefore, schooling functioned primarily to reinforce the established social order overseen by the monarchy and legitimized by the Buddhist monastic order; the doxic order was that schooling was not meant to be an avenue for social mobility (Ayres, 2003). However, doxa is not static, not set in stone. Doxa can transform when a new doxic order emerges. This is revealed by a number of studies (Bourdieu, 1977; Nimer, 2020; Petzke, 2016; Yadav, 2016). Doxa is shaped by members of the social field within which it is situated (Kopty, 87 2018). Bourdieu (1977) argues that doxic eruption/disruption is possible in moments of crises when a doxic order is questioned. \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn these moments,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Qadir (2015), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe doxic boundary is questioned and pushed back in a space of extraordinary discourse by \u00E2\u0080\u0098heterodoxy\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a deviation from the established order (p. 158). In contrast to the traditional doxa, the doxic order about the linkage between schooling and social mobility is conceptualized as colonial doxa in this study. The French colonial power introduced in the Khmer a colonial doxic understanding of schooling as an avenue for social mobility, which disrupted the traditional doxic order and has since shaped the Khmer societal landscape and its traditional social field. The colonial introduction of a new doxa in Cambodia created a disjuncture between the objective structures and the subjective experiences of the Khmer people, rupturing the traditional doxic order and opening up the possibility for the new doxa to emerge and calcify. This colonial doxic order is premised upon the logic and rationality of colonialism. Within this framing, colonialism operates from, first, introducing \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca systematic repression\u00E2\u0080\u00A6of beliefs, ideas, images, symbols or knowledge\u00E2\u0080\u009D to, next, controlling the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodes of knowing, of producing knowledge, of producing perspectives, images and systems of images, symbols, modes of significance\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Quijano, 2007, p. 169). The process is then followed by \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe imposition of the use of the rulers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 own patterns of expression, and of their beliefs and images\u00E2\u0080\u00A6served not only to impede the cultural production of the dominated, but also as a very efficient means of social and cultural control\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 169). These forms of colonial repression and imposition function not only to co-opt some of the dominated into the colonizers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 power institutions but also to inspire them to participate in (re)producing European culture, knowledge, meaning, and being (Quijano, 2007). 4.2.1.1 Continuity of colonial doxa The colonial doxa is sustained in postcolonial societies by coloniality through the persistence of colonial legacies and new modes of colonialism (i.e., neocolonialism and neoliberalism). Coloniality and its logic \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconstruct subjects, knowledges and institutions within a Western template, while denigrating anything else that did not conform to that mold\u00E2\u0080\u009D (H. M. A. Williams, 2019, p. 94). Because former colonies continue to organize their societies and social 88 institutions according to the colonial logic, colonialism, though largely destroyed throughout the world, continues to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe most general form of domination in the world today\u00E2\u0080\u009D under the guise of coloniality (Quijano, 2007, p. 170). Because it is rooted in schooling where \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe persuasion lies in the education system\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ghiso & Campano, 2013, p. 254), colonialism continues to have \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccomplex and far-reaching\u00E2\u0080\u009D implications on the education sector of former colonies (Bray, 1993, p. 334). Research shows that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmany existing education systems still bear the hallmarks of the colonial encounter in that they remain elitist, lack relevance to local realities and are often at variance with indigenous knowledge systems, values and beliefs\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Crossley & Tikly, 2004, p. 149). In many parts of Asia, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe legacy of colonial power can still unwittingly undermine or negate indigenous educational patterns, many of which are closely linked to cultural norms and values\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Nguyen et al., 2009, p. 111). By following the dominant Euro-centric discourses of their former colonizers, states that had been colonies \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconstructed ideologies of national identity, development, and sovereignty that produced an illusion of independence, development, and progress\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Grosfoguel, 2002, p. 208). Furthermore, the colonial doxa is sustained by the presence of neocolonial agencies in former colonies, particularly for post-conflict reconstruction efforts, and the imposition of neoliberal educational reform agendas by these neocolonial agencies. The continuity of the colonial situations is sustained and reinforced in former colonies through the presence of neocolonial agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are operating in these so-called developing countries in the name of supporting national development and progress (Altbach, 1971; Anwaruddin, 2014; Bray, 1993; Grosfoguel, 2007). Unequal neocolonial and neoliberal power structures remain to be dominant and dominating globally (Achera\u00C3\u00AFou, 2011). Within this framing, the neocolonial/neoliberal doxa continues to be an influential frame of reference that is shaping the social field and the habitus of people across the world and more so in postcolonial societies given their residue of colonialism that remains persistently present in their societies. As Anwaruddin (2014) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctoday\u00E2\u0080\u0099s neocolonial powers adopt similar strategies of domination and dictate the education policies in the so-called developing countries in various ways such as providing loan money and technical assistance for educational reforms\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 145). In addition to sustaining the colonial condition, neoliberalism itself has moved from a mere hegemonic set of discourses and practices to being a doxa (Chopra, 89 2003; Patrick, 2013). Coupled with the increasingly globalizing discourses of globalization and the knowledge economy, neoliberalism \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexert[s] considerable shaping force on education systems in many developed and developing countries\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Patrick, 2013, p. 1). Deer (2008) posits that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe doxa takes the form of a misrecognized unconditional allegiance to the \u00E2\u0080\u0098rules of the game\u00E2\u0080\u0099 on the part of social agents with a similar habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 122). The colonial doxic linkage between pursuing (higher) education and social mobility as conceptualized through the colonial lens (i.e., the asymmetric metropole-colony principle of educational development) continued to be (mis)recognized and adopted as the main organizing principle underpinning everyday perceptions of social categorization in postcolonial societies (Um, 2014; Vubo, 2011). In the context of this study, the colonial configured relations between higher education and social mobility cannot be disconnected from their historical and colonial antecedents. At one level, the persistence of colonial inertias, coloniality, remains to be practiced in the ways the institutions are structured and rationalized. At another level, the post-conflict reconstruction, especially the influx of foreign donors and other aid agencies (such as the IMF and the World Bank) into Cambodia, has brought along the discourse and new modes of thinking that perpetuates the existing coloniality. While the traditional doxa continues to persist, the colonial doxa continues to be reinforced by the colonial condition that remains persistent in the forms of the colonial institutional arrangements, neocolonial presence, and neoliberal capitalism (Ayres, 2003; Brehm, 2019; Chandler, 2008; Um, 2014). 4.2.2 Illusio The colonial doxa creates an illusio perceived worthy or significant enough to be pursued and invested in. As \u00E2\u0080\u009Can investment in the game\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 98), illusio \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdenotes how we are caught up in the game, our belief that it is worth playing, our commitment to it, and our investment in its stakes: those objects that are considered of value in the field\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Colley, 2012, p. 324). Within the context of this study, illusio refers to the investment in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplaying the game\u00E2\u0080\u009D of pursuing higher education predicated on the colonial doxic order (i.e., the taken-for-granted beliefs) that promises that one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life would be better and social status improved as a result of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s obtaining an educational credential and salaried employment. Wrapped in this 90 colonial doxa, the illusio is significant enough for those from poor, rural backgrounds to strive to pursue higher education (i.e., to play the game) that they hope will enable them to achieve the stakes of improved living conditions and social standing. In this sense, social agents \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconcur in their belief (doxa) in the game and its stakes; they grant these a recognition that escapes questioning\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 98). Their illusio \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceffectively forbids questioning of the principles of belief, which would threaten the very existence of the field\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 2000, p. 102). Engaging in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplaying the game\u00E2\u0080\u009D does not mean the field participants support the rules of the game; it simply means the participants consider the stakes as significant enough for them to play the game (Bourdieu, 1998; Rowlands & Rawolle, 2013). The concepts of doxa and illusio cast light on the misrecognition of the nature of colonial domination, particularly the colonial enslavement of the minds of the colonized through education systems. Schools under colonial administrations were \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprimarily designed to meet the conceptions and needs of the colonizers rather than the colonized, and this influenced the amount, type and availability of education\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bray, 1993, p. 334). Rather than preparing the colonized to become scientists or experts in key sectors in their societies, argues Altbach (as cited in Anwaruddin, 2014), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmost colonial education systems focused on the needs of the metropolitan powers and aimed at developing an administrative cadre\u00E2\u0080\u00A6for secondary positions in the bureaucracy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 145). Colonial culture, knowledge, and meaning were imposed in colonized nations through the education systems. Colonial schooling was a mechanism to establish \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca desired social order\u00E2\u0080\u009D that instills into \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe colonized a world view of voluntary subservience to the ruling groups\u00E2\u0080\u009D and to \u00E2\u0080\u009Creinforce colonial values and hierarchies of power\u00E2\u0080\u009D (H. M. A. Williams, 2019, p. 96). The conditions in colonized Cambodia are therefore not an exception. In the context of this research, the concepts of doxa and illusio provide insights into the perpetual enslavement of the minds of Cambodians throughout the past centuries. Colonial doxa sheds light on how Cambodians remain \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial captives\u00E2\u0080\u009D whose minds are enslaved by the colonial mentality. Illusio illustrates the extent to which they \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbuy into\u00E2\u0080\u009D the game of pursuing higher education as a means for social mobility and remain subject to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfield effects\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the postcolonial social environment. With increasingly dominant neo-colonization and neoliberal globalization in contemporary society, illusio illustrates how one pays \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctribute to specific norms 91 and the dominant worldview in a field regardless of their geographical location\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Petzke, 2016, p. 125) or their geographical origin. Each field has its own doxa. There is a national doxa (Karner, 2005), and there is also a family doxa, with the family itself being a field of relations defined by power struggles (Atkinson, 2014). A family may adopt a particular doxic order, either traditional or colonial, depending on what the habitus of the family and/or the habitus of the dominant members of the family is. The next section attends to the concept of field and how it is reframed in this study. 4.2.3 Field: Local and colonized Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of field provides a useful analytical lens on how the rules and logic that underpin the operation of different fields structures the practices that the research participants undertook in their pursuit of higher education for social mobility. Bourdieu defines field as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca network, or a configuration, of objective relations between positions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 97). Each field has its own internal rules and logic about the definition and valuation of different forms of capital. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) posit that each field is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe site of a logic and a necessity that are specific and irreducible to those that regulate other fields\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 97, original emphasis). For example, the field of economy is constituted on the appreciation and valuation of material profit which is rejected or reversed by the logic of the field of religion. A field is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca social arena within which struggles or maneuvers take place over specific resources or stakes [capital] and access to them\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Jenkins, 2002, p. 84). It is a social space within which social agents engage in power struggle to accumulate various kinds of capital in their social position-taking because it is organized around \u00E2\u0080\u009Cspecific forms of capital or combinations of capitals\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Edgerton & Roberts, 2014, p. 195). As social agents move between fields, their position is determined by what forms of capital they possess. Fields \u00E2\u0080\u009Coverlap and exist at various levels,\u00E2\u0080\u009D i.e., a smaller field such as family being encompassed in a larger field such as education or economy (Edgerton & Roberts, 2014, p. 195). In the process of social mobility, individuals draw on and/or accumulate various kinds of capital as they navigate different social fields to position themselves in relation to others. In the family as a social field, a person may draw on certain kinds of capital as he or she positions him/herself 92 in relation to his/her parents and other siblings. Not all forms of capital, which may work effectively for him/her in the family, are still useful in his/her position-taking in other fields, such as the educational or occupational field. This may require the individual to draw on and/or accumulate other specific forms of capital that he/she considers useful to be had in that particular field in order to position him/herself within it. Individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 perceptions about the value of different forms of capital and practices within a particular field are shaped by the field\u00E2\u0080\u0099s internal logic and the dominant doxa. In the context of this study as a Global South, postcolonial society, for Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of field to be useful analytically, it is reconceptualized as local field and colonized field. The concept of local field refers to a social space organized around particular internal logic, power relations, doxic order, and field structures that are based on the traditional Khmer social hierarchy, gender relations, and socio-cultural codes, norms, values, and practices. Within the local field, where the doxic order establishes no relationship between schooling and social mobility, educational capital is not valued as an important resource for social mobility. Instead, because this is a social field where strong patron-client patronage is widely practiced, other forms of capital (for instance, khsae, a form of social capital) is considered very important for social mobility (Ebihara, 1984). This overarching field logic seems to be dominating other smaller social fields, from education to the family. In the context of Cambodia as a postcolonial society, the term colonized field is another concept that provides a useful analytical lens for this study. In conceptualizing the notion of colonized field in my study, I drew on the work of Ayling (2019) in her study in postcolonial Nigeria. As defined by Ayling (2019), a colonized field is: a social field whose \u00E2\u0080\u0098intrinsic properties\u00E2\u0080\u0099 are not organically rooted in the broader socio-cultural context/society within which it is situated. To put another way, the colonized field could be broadly described as an artificial field whereby the dominant doxa and internal logic that governs and shapes the practices and sensibilities of the occupants of such social field or fields are largely foreign to them (because they have been inherited from and determined by the dominant race or class) yet provides the conceptual foundation of said field(s). Additionally, the \u00E2\u0080\u0098rules of the game\u00E2\u0080\u0099 that the occupants of the colonized field must play by and are subjected to are often determined by those belonging to the privileged class or race. (p. 37) 93 Based on this definition, the colonized field in Cambodia is characterized by the colonial doxic linkage between schooling and social mobility. The internal logic of the colonized field is different from that in the local field, so is the valuation of different forms of capital. Educational capital has been embraced as an important cultural capital that could be converted into economic capital. Within the colonized field, the social agents have to play by the new \u00E2\u0080\u009Crules of the game\u00E2\u0080\u009D defined by the colonial power. A colonial habitus has also emerged (see discussion of habitus below). Although the colonized field emerged during the colonial period, it continues to persist today, long after the eradication of the colonial administration. Its internal logic and rules of the game continue to be shaping the social field within which social agents are engaged in the struggles for capital accumulation and for position-taking, which reflects the colonial enslavement of the mind of the people in postcolonial societies (Ayling, 2019). In the context of this study, the continuity of the colonial condition sustained by coloniality, as discussed above, keeps the colonized field alive despite the eradication of the French colonial administration in Cambodia. The residue of colonialism, reproduced by former colonies through, for example, the ways by which educational system is organized, the presence of neocolonial agencies such as the World Bank and IMF in post-conflict Cambodia, and their imposition of neoliberal reform agendas, including neoliberal educational reform, have sustained the colonized field in contemporary Cambodian society. This study will shed light on how this colonized field shapes the field of the families of the research participants (discussed below) and structures their family dynamics and the processes that underpin their social mobility journey. 4.2.3.1 Family as a (local or colonized) field In any study on social mobility, it is essential to examine the role of the family as a social field in this process. Bourdieu (1996) argues that the family: plays a decisive role in the maintenance of the social order, through social as well as biological reproduction, i.e. reproduction of the structure of the social space and social relations. It is one of the key sites of the accumulation of capital in its different forms and its transmission between the generations. (p. 23) 94 The family is the core site of biological and social reproduction. Biologically, it is a site where continuity of the family is reproduced not only in the biological sense of the term, but also in the anthropological sense of the term in relation to offspring, family name, family reputation, and tradition. Socially, it is a site where the transmission of capital and privileges takes place. Atkinson (2014) argues that the family field is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca central plank in the reconstruction of individual lifeworlds and life histories\u00E2\u0080\u009D because it is a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmicrocosm condensing and mediating the determinations of the social macrocosm\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 231). Therefore, to make sense of social mobility, it is essential to understand the family as a field and the dynamics of power relations and struggles within this field. While some scholars rush to argue that Bourdieu has little to say about the family as a field (Atkinson, 2014), Bourdieu sets out some of the fundamental elements that characterize the family as a social field. Bourdieu (1996) posits that the family functions \u00E2\u0080\u009Cas a field, with its physical, economic and, above all, symbolic power relations (linked, for example, to the volume and structure of the capital possessed by each member), its struggles for conservation and transformation of these power relations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 22, original emphasis). Similarly, Atkinson (2014) argues that as a field, the family: comprises a \u00E2\u0080\u0098community of dispositions and interests,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 a set of \u00E2\u0080\u0098self-representations\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and efforts to maintain itself as a united and solidary \u00E2\u0080\u0098group,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 including with a specific constructed past which dominant agents within profess, but also displays internal \u00E2\u0080\u0098power relations,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u0098conflicts of interest,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u0098tensions\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and struggles over membership and boundaries. (p. 224) As a field, the family is a contested social space filled with struggles for domination shaped by the volume and forms of capital possessed by each family member. While there are struggles by the dominant members within the family field to maintain the past according to its reproduction role and to conserve its unity, there are also struggles and tensions to transform the field and to break the pattern of reproduction. The family field operates under its own internal logic and symbolic power relations determined by age, gender, and ethnicity (Atkinson, 2014). In most societies, it is normative that masculine domination is paramount (Atkinson, 2014; Bourdieu, 1996). 95 Atkinson (2014) argues that family fields are \u00E2\u0080\u009Conly relatively autonomous from external fields and systems of power, meaning that the distribution of familial symbolic capital is heavily influenced by the exterior powers possessed by each member\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 228). The family field is not fully independent of the external fields of power and structures of domination. The fact that the family field is not fully autonomous but is constantly influenced by the external fields and systems of power makes it more useful analytically in terms of how the internal logics of the external, broader fields overlap, contradict, or perhaps influence the internal logic of the family field and how that shapes the struggles for domination within the family. Atkinson (2014) argues further that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cjust as with any field, the impacts from the wider universe are translated into the internal logic of the local family field, and that\u00E2\u0080\u00A6some regions of the universe are more dominant, and thus more influential over local field conditions, than others\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 231). As a field, the family has its own doxa, and this family doxa is shaped not only by the external dominant doxic order but also by the dominant member(s) within the family field (Atkinson, 2014; Bourdieu, 1996). In this sense, the field of the family may be local or colonized, shaped by the nature of the broader dominating social field within which the family field is situated, as well as by the habitus of the dominant family member(s). This is an area where insights may be gained about how the internal logic and structure of the family field are formed and who and/or what influences their constitution. Ayling (2019) argues that the internal logic and doxic order of the family field are shaped by not only the colonial doxa but also the parents as the dominant agents in the families. The macro-level structural changes and value systems and ideologies are transforming the internal logic and the nature of kinship ties, intergenerational obligations, dispositions, and practices within the family field (Edirisingha, Aitken, & Ferguson, 2018). While the families are not exempt from this external domination, they are in an ongoing process of negotiating these dominating forces and forming a particular internal logic that makes sense for each family. In some family fields, as Atkinson (2014) argues: the doxa may be firmly policed by parents presenting a \u00E2\u0080\u0098united front,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 the struggles may be minimal, the sense of possibilities and search for recognition may be channeled toward an (or multiple) endorsed field(s) and the end result may be more or less a reproduction of social position. (p. 229) 96 In this framing, parents are the dominant agents within the family field shaping the doxic order, resulting in less struggle within the field. However, Atkinson (2014) warns that family members are not equal in terms of constructing the doxic order within the family field. As Atkinson (2014) argues: Agents united by a family-specific doxa are not all equal co-constructors of it, nor are their subjective experiences and perceptions within it unconstrained. Instead, insofar as they possess different levels of authority to set and enforce its elements (i.e. symbolic capital) and engage in struggle over them, they constitute a system of objective, structural relations of domination. (p. 228) This framing opens the possibility for different family members to influence the construction of the family field and its doxa, hence its position-taking within the broader social field. This notion of family as a field is a useful analytical perspective for me to examine the power dynamics and tensions within the families of the research participants in my study and the ways in which decisions were made and by whom in relation to education and social mobility. Exploring the family as a field also sheds light on how gender norms are applied and perhaps imposed in the family field, as well as how different forms of capital are converted into a particular kind of capital deemed necessary for influencing which decisions are made in the field. This analytical lens is also useful for me to examine how the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 families were shaped by the external field logics and domination and how they collectively interpreted those external forces and perhaps developed a family field with a particular internal logic, particularly in relation to the linkage between higher education, social mobility, and their living conditions. 4.2.4 Habitus: Individual and family 4.2.4.1 Individual habitus The concept of habitus is central in Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of practice (Bourdieu, 1977, 1990b). Bourdieu (1990b) defines habitus as \u00E2\u0080\u009Csociety written into the body, into the biological individual\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 63). According to Bourdieu (1984), \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe cognitive structures which social agents implement in their practical knowledge of the social world are internalized, \u00E2\u0080\u0098embodied\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social structures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 468). Habitus represents a system of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccognitive schemata or structures of perception, conception and action\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 2002, p. 27). In this sense, habitus is a set of 97 internalized or learned preferences that structures a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s orientation to the social world and his or her social practice. In other words, a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social practice is mediated by his or her habitus. Habitus provides the logic for his/her course of action. This suggests that because habitus is an important form of cultural inheritance that carries the cultural codes and practices that a person internalizes and embodies through socialization and upbringing in the family from an early age, those born into middle or upper class families tend to have the means and benefits that their social classes offer to maintain and even perpetuate the structures of dominance (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). This line of reasoning means that those from lower social class are disadvantaged by their lower social class dispositions (habitus), and so are their opportunities for social mobility. If Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptualization of habitus is interpreted as deterministic, that is, one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus cannot change over time, then there is no opportunity for mobility. Through the magic of habitus, those born into poor social class are condemned to reproduce their social status, so are those born into middle or upper social classes. That argument holds some truth, as evidenced in some of the classic sociological works such as Learning to Labor by Willis (1981). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s own work (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990) also emphasizes that habitus perpetuates social inequality instead of promoting social mobility. However, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of habitus is not overly deterministic, as has been portrayed by a number of scholars (i.e., Adams (2006); Bottero (2010); Jenkins (1982); R. Nash (1990)) and Bourdieu himself (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992). Although Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) posit that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthere is a relative irreversibility to this process\u00E2\u0080\u009D in which the already constructed categories of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprior experiences\u00E2\u0080\u009D prioritize the \u00E2\u0080\u009Coriginary experiences\u00E2\u0080\u009D and, as a consequence, present \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca relative closure of the system of dispositions that constitute habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 133, emphasis in original), there is room for habitus to transform thanks to changing field structures (Hardy, 2008; Thorpe, 2009; Threadgold, 2019). Bourdieu himself argues that habitus is \u00E2\u0080\u009Can open system of dispositions that is constantly subjected to experiences, and therefore constantly affected by them in a way that either reinforces or modifies its structures. It is durable but not eternal!\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 133, emphasis in original). Therefore, while habitus prioritizes the earliest socialization as the durable structuring frame of practice, it is not a closed system of disposition. New experiences that social actors encounter as they navigate different social fields modify individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 systems of disposition (i.e., habitus). This relationship 98 between habitus and field (discussed below), presents a great potential for the utilization of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts in social mobility research. In fact, a large body of scholarship has shown that habitus can transform as one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social position changes (Crul, Schneider, Keskiner, & Lelei, 2017; Horvat & Davis, 2011; E. M. Lee & Kramer, 2013; Lehmann, 2009). In considering the potential of habitus to transform, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptualization of habitus could benefit from a more nuanced conceptualization by Horvat (2003), which posits habitus as \u00E2\u0080\u009Can individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s internalization of possibility\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 7). Similarly, a revised conceptualization of habitus by E. M. Lee and Kramer (2013) defines habitus as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca fluid set of dispositions that are constantly changing as individuals go through different experiences and interact within and with new fields\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20). This revised conceptualization is based on a more accurate interpretation of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of habitus, which indicates both continuity and change, as elaborated by one of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s co-authors (Wacquant, 2006): Habitus is\u00E2\u0080\u00A6a principle of both social continuity and discontinuity: continuity because it stores social forces into the individual organism and transports them across time and space; discontinuity because it can be modified through the acquisition of new dispositions and because it can trigger innovation whenever it encounters a social setting discrepant with the setting from which it issues. (p. 268) Therefore, habitus as conceptualized in this study has the potential of being transformative; while it carries the imprints of earliest socialization, it is also transforming when exposed to new experiences. The work of C. Mills (2008a) on reproductive versus transformative habitus provides a useful analytical framework for making sense of people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s practice. Albeit presented as two separate categories, reproductive habitus and transformative habitus are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdialectically related; they are potentials within each agent\u00E2\u0080\u009D (C. Mills, 2008a, p. 100). They represent two ends of a continuum. People with reproductive habitus recognize the burden of their social conditions and have a tendency to read the future that fits their circumstances (C. Mills, 2008a). Community, parents, and teachers play an important role in developing a reproductive habitus in children, especially the value they place in education and the level of expectations they communicate to the children. The lower the value they place in education and the level of expectations they have of the children, the more the children read the future that fits them; that is, their current circumstances 99 are made for them and they are made for these circumstances; thus, they take things for granted, believing that their circumstances cannot be transformed or improved. As a consequence, their self-esteem and future ambitions are shaped by their seemingly \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnatural\u00E2\u0080\u009D behaviors, which renders them \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconsenting victims to bleak futures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 102). Those with a reproductive rural family habitus, argue Arnot and Naveed (2014), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfail to appreciate the \u00E2\u0080\u0098arbitrariness of the social world\u00E2\u0080\u0099 considering their circumstances to be natural\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 510); consequently, they \u00E2\u0080\u009Clower their aspirations, they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have goals, they don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have dreams\u00E2\u0080\u009D in accordance with their material conditions (p. 510). Those with transformative habitus, argues C. Mills (2008a), \u00E2\u0080\u009Crecognize the capacity for improvisation and tend to look for opportunities for action in the social field\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 100). They recognize possibilities in their social conditions and act in ways to transform their circumstances rather than read their social conditions as made for them. Therefore, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe transformative habitus \u00E2\u0080\u0098acts on\u00E2\u0080\u0099 rather than simply being \u00E2\u0080\u0098acted on\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 106), indicating agency and inventiveness. Again, community, schools/teachers, and parents could be instrumental in nurturing a transformative habitus. Holding high expectations of children and exposing them to possibilities and opportunities beyond what their current circumstances can offer are some of the ways to cultivate a transformative habitus. People with a transformative rural family habitus act on their situation in ways that transform it because, as Arnot and Naveed (2014) argue, they \u00E2\u0080\u009Clook into the possibilities within social situations in such a way that invokes their agency, seeing the \u00E2\u0080\u0098generative\u00E2\u0080\u0099 opportunities for \u00E2\u0080\u0098self-enhancement or self-renewal\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in the wake of \u00E2\u0080\u0098incapacitating\u00E2\u0080\u0099 experiences\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 510). 4.2.4.2 Family habitus Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of habitus is usually conceptualized as individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s dispositions and practices. This has been critiqued by some scholars as one of the weaknesses of his conceptualization (Arnot & Naveed, 2014; Meinert, 2004). For example, Meinert (2004) argues that Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptualization of habitus and capital as \u00E2\u0080\u009Canchored in individuals\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 13) do not \u00E2\u0080\u009Crhyme well with the social and intersubjective nature of African understandings\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 13). A growing body of scholarship has revealed the increasing importance of family habitus in shaping individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 dispositions and their aspirations for higher education and better living conditions, a 100 path for social mobility (Arnot & Naveed, 2014; D. Liu & Morgan, 2020; Reay, 1998). The concept of family habitus is a crucial conceptual addition to the framework because of the important role of the family dynamics in shaping the habitus of individuals. Similar to Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1984, 1996) assertion, Patricia Collins (1998) posits that families \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconstitute important sites for inheritance, not solely of cultural values, but of property. Families use wealth to create opportunities, secure a desired standard of living, and pass their social class status to their children\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 73). Families are fields within which \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender relations are transmitted both structurally through the sexual division of labor and the division of sexual labor but also through the dispositional framing of male/female relations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Arnot & Naveed, 2014, p. 506). In the context of Cambodia, the family (or kruasa in Khmer language) has been the most influential social unit in Cambodian society. As Karbaum (2015) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfor the vast majority of Cambodians, the family (kruasa) is the most important social group in their whole life\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 238). The family plays a central role in the study of social mobility (Tach, 2015). Bourdieu does not expressly conceptualize the term family habitus (L. Archer et al., 2012; DeLuca, 2016; Reay, 1998). However, his works have laid the necessary groundwork for the concept of family habitus, particularly his theorizing of the family as the most influential and deeply embedded element of a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus, operating as both an individual and collective set of dispositions governing one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behaviors and practices (Bourdieu, 1977, 1984, 1996; DeLuca, 2016). One\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus is born out of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cformative experiences of earliest infancy, of the whole collective history of family and class\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 1990a, p. 91). For Bourdieu (1996), the family is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca set of related individuals linked either by alliance (marriage) or filiation, or, less commonly, by adoption (legal relationship), and living under the same roof (cohabitation)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 19). The family operates as a social mechanism that structures and contributes to the development of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s dispositions, practices, beliefs, tastes, lifestyle patterns, and social class (Bourdieu, 1977, 1984, 1996). Unlike the habitus, the concept of family habitus is understudied and undertheorized (DeLuca, 2016), and this is an area of research to which my study will make contributions. The family habitus, sometimes referred to as familial habitus, was first introduced by Diane Reay (1998) in her study examining how family habitus informs young people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher education choice-making in Britain. Reay (1998) defines the family habitus as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe deeply ingrained 101 system of perspectives, experiences and predispositions family members share\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 527). A person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s choice to pursue higher education is perceived as an impossible, a possible or an entirely natural future is grounded in whether or not this aspiration is shared by his/her family members (Atkinson, 2011; Reay, 1998). Thus, the family habitus influences a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s choice to pursue higher education. However, Reay (1998) cautions that in addition to the family, the school, peer group, and wider consumer culture also influence a student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher education choice. The notion of family habitus encompasses not only the dispositional values the family shares but also the everyday practices in which the family engages (L. Archer et al., 2012). The family habitus indicates \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe extent to which families construct a collective relationship\u00E2\u0080\u00A6and the extent to which this [relationship] is shaped by their possession of particular sorts of economic, social, and cultural capital\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 886). The family habitus not only \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdefines the allocation, distribution and the use of family resources and thereby structures the everyday life of children\u00E2\u0080\u00A6[but also] activates different kinds of capital for (and by) children and thereby constructs different childhood practices\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Tomanovi\u00C4\u0087, 2004, p. 356). This conceptualization sheds light on whether and how the family habitus facilitates or constrains individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations, depending on family resources, practices, and values. However, not unlike individual habitus, the family habitus is not deterministic (L. Archer et al., 2012; Tomanovi\u00C4\u0087, 2004). Despite the important influence of the family habitus, individual members of a family have room to exercise their agency and pursue their interests/aspirations, which might go \u00E2\u0080\u009Cagainst the grain of family expectations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (L. Archer et al., 2012, p. 889) because, as noted above, the family is not the only force shaping individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations. Moreover, the process by which children draw on and contribute to family habitus (values and resources) to construct their individual practices gives rise to the development of their agency (Tomanovi\u00C4\u0087, 2004). In this study, the notion of family habitus is incorporated into the conceptual framework because it provides an important analytical perspective for examining the dynamics within the family as well as the collective pursuit of higher education for social mobility. The term family habitus extends the concept of habitus, which is individually oriented, to explain life experiences of men and women and their families in a more collective Global South society such as Cambodia. 102 4.2.4.3 Colonial and indigenous habitus In this study, it is my contention that in order to make sense of the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility, particularly the interface between the traditional socio-cultural processes and the colonial dynamics that shape Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education and the choices that they make, it is crucial to expand Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of habitus. Two forms of habitus (i.e., colonial habitus and indigenous habitus) are added to the conceptual framework as a more robust set of conceptual perspectives that will aid my analysis of the experiences of the research participants in my study. 4.2.4.3.1 Colonial habitus I draw on the works of Vivek Dhareshwar (1989) and of Pere Ayling (2019) to conceptualize the notion of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D in this study. Vivek Dhareshwar (1989) conceptualized the term colonial habitus based on the notion of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmimicry\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bhabha, 1994). According to Dhareshwar (1989), the colonial habitus \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgenerates the symbolic structure that subjects the colonized to an internalization of the asymmetries, both material and ideological, between metropolis and colony\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 85). Colonial habitus emerges from the process of colonization in which the colonized are conditioned not only to mimic the colonizers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 habitus but also to internalize those dispositions, values, and practices; this is a process characterized as asymmetric given the nature of the relationship between the colonized and the colonizers and the process of colonization itself. As Rub\u00C3\u00A9n Gaztambide-Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez (2019) states, colonization is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe violent imposition of a foreign logic that ruptures the very existence of the colonized and of the social and cultural orders that give them meaning and through which they navigate and exist in the world\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. viii, original emphasis). This view echoes the view of Frantz Fanon (2004), who posits that: colonization has not simply depersonalized the colonized. The very structure of society has been depersonalized on a collective level. A colonized people is thus reduced to a collection of individuals who owe their very existence to the presence of the colonizer. (pp. 219-220) Drawing on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of the habitus, Pere Ayling (2019) expands on Dhareshwar\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1989) conceptualization of colonial habitus by incorporating the element of 103 subconsciousness. For Ayling (2019), the colonial habitus \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis produced by and reproductive of internal racism and functions below consciousness\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 38, original emphasis). The emphasis on the subconscious in the conceptualization of the colonial habitus is important as it points to the symbolic violence inherent in this power relation and the colonized\u00E2\u0080\u0099s complicity in their own domination. The colonial habitus derives from \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe internalization of racialized schemas or embodied past [i.e., colonialism] and present class and racial histories [i.e., coloniality]\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ayling, 2019, p. 38). In this case, the colonial habitus develops in \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca (colonial) field where the doxa are inherited from the colonizers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 habitus, irremediably rupturing the local (pre-colonial) habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Gaztambide-Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez, 2019, p. x). 4.2.4.3.2 Coloniality: The perpetuation of the colonial habitus The colonial habitus continues to shape and perpetuate the dispositions, worldviews, and practices of many in the postcolonial Global South societies due to the persistence of the colonial conditions sustained by coloniality. Despite the abolishment of the colonial administration, the colonial habitus is well alive in contemporary times because it has been sustained through and by coloniality (Ghiso & Campano, 2013; Grosfoguel, 2002; Maldonado-Torres, 2016; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013; Quijano, 2007). While colonialism refers to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial situations enforced by the presence of a colonial administration such as the period of classical colonialism,\u00E2\u0080\u009D coloniality is defined as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial situations in the present period in which colonial administrations have almost been eradicated from the capitalist world-system\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Grosfoguel, 2007, p. 220). Coloniality has perpetuated and solidified what Bhabha (1994) calls the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial condition\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 114) or what Grosfoguel (2007) refers to as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial situations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 220). Colonial situations are the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural, political, sexual, spiritual, epistemic and economic oppression/exploitation of subordinate racialized/ethnic groups by dominant racialized/ethnic groups with or without the existence of colonial administrations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Grosfoguel, 2007, p. 220). They continue to shape \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe formation of agents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 habituses in postcolonial contexts\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ayling, 2019, p. 26). The colonized\u00E2\u0080\u0099s internalization of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonial condition\u00E2\u0080\u009D or the colonizers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccolonization of the mind\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Fanon, 1967) of the colonized, argues Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013), is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe worst form of colonization of a people\u00E2\u0080\u009D for it creates \u00E2\u0080\u009Cepistemological mimicry and intellectual dependency,\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit deal[s] with and shape[s] people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s consciousness and identity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 38). Coloniality sustains and 104 perpetuates the colonial condition through various mechanisms and processes, including the residue of colonialism, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism (Altbach, 1971; Anwaruddin, 2014; Bergeron, 2008; Bray, 1993; Crossley & Tikly, 2004; Dei, 2019; Grosfoguel, 2002, 2007; Gyamera & Burke, 2018; Nguyen et al., 2009; G. Williams, 2000; H. M. A. Williams, 2019). Residue of colonialism. The residue of colonialism is maintained through colonial cultures and structures in the modern/colonial world-system (Grosfoguel, 2007) and inscribed in the production of knowledges and subjectivities (Grosfoguel, 2002). In the process of nation building, nation-states in postcolonial stage continue to draw on colonial legacies and culture developed during centuries of European colonial expansion (Grosfoguel, 2002). Institutions such as education continue to be structured following colonial ways of knowing and rationality because, as Grosfoguel (2002) posits, European knowledge continues to be treated as superior in many areas of life, whereas former colonies\u00E2\u0080\u0099 knowledges are considered \u00E2\u0080\u009Cunderdeveloped and backward\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 221), thus sustaining the colonial condition. The residue of colonialism in education is strong and widespread in former colonies across the globe. As Altbach (1971) argues: The educational systems of most developing countries, on almost all levels, remain rooted in the administrative structure of the former colonial rulers. The colonial power may not be the direct cause of this situation, but the fact that the structure and organization of the schools reflect a foreign model necessarily has an impact on the nature of the education provided. (p. 237) Crossley and Tikly (2004) concur Altbach\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1971) viewpoint, arguing that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cat the most basic and obvious level the vast majority of the education systems that we study as comparativists have their origins in the colonial era\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 149). By following the dominant Euro-centric discourses of their former colonizers, former colonies \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconstructed ideologies of national identity, development, and sovereignty that produced an illusion of independence, development, and progress\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Grosfoguel, 2002, p. 208). The residue of colonialism remains an instrumental force in shaping the habitus of the elites in postcolonial countries such as Nigeria (Ayling, 2019). Similarly, the habitus of students pursuing education for social mobility in such postcolonial societies as Timor-Leste continues to be shaped by the colonial conditions such as their desire 105 for education in the Global North universities perceived to be better and to offer life-changing opportunities and their valuing of and acquiring the languages of the colonial powers (King et al., 2019). Neocolonialism. In addition to the residue of colonialism that remains embedded in independent nation-states\u00E2\u0080\u0099 institutions such as education, the colonial condition is sustained through neocolonialism. Neocolonialism is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe control of states by external powers despite the formal appearance of constitutional independence\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bray, 1993, p. 334). It solidifies and calcifies the residue of colonialism (H. M. A. Williams, 2019). The \u00E2\u0080\u009Clack of solid and sustained socio-economic, political and technological advancement in most postcolonial societies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Ayling (2019), \u00E2\u0080\u009Chas further helped to legitimize and solidify Western hegemonic discourses and racial myths\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 39). The presence of agents of coloniality, such as the World Bank and the IMF, which are operating in these so-called developing countries in the name of supporting national development and progress (Altbach, 1971; Anwaruddin, 2014; Bray, 1993; Grosfoguel, 2007), sustains and perpetuates the colonial condition in the former colonies. These external powers, argues Anwaruddin (2014), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cadopt similar strategies of domination and dictate the education policies in the so-called developing countries in various ways such as providing loan money and technical assistance for educational reforms\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 145). These loans and foreign assistance are not without strings attached. \u00E2\u0080\u009CBy tying funding to explicit conditions,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argue Nguyen et al. (2009), these aid agencies \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccan impose a particular (western) view of education and development on debt-receiving countries and reinforce neocolonialism by further limiting the capacity of these countries to determine their own educational agendas\u00E2\u0080\u009D (pp. 110-111). The acceptance of foreign aid and technical assistance, including colonial concepts and models of education systems, not only makes these countries remain \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdependent on the former colonial powers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Anwaruddin, 2014, p. 143); it also \u00E2\u0080\u009Cprovides the opportunity for mental colonialism to continue and neocolonialism to triumph\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Nguyen et al., 2009, p. 112). As a consequence, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctheir colonized minds [of people of ex-colonies] will always situate them in the shadow of the west\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Nguyen et al., 2009, p. 111). Neocolonialism, thus, continues to be constitutive in the formation of the colonial habitus of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cformer\u00E2\u0080\u009D colonized. This \u00E2\u0080\u009Crelationship of colonial domination gets 106 perpetuated,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Dhareshwar (1989), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cas agents internalize and constantly reiterate the norms of another culture and its superiority\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 85). In relation to educational development, neocolonial discourses that emphasize colonial legacies and supremacy of the West/North underpin postcolonial Southern countries\u00E2\u0080\u0099 higher education reforms and privilege the instrumental purposes of students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 accumulation of knowledge, which contributes to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmarginalizing local and indigenous forms of knowledge and understanding\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Gyamera & Burke, 2018, p. 463). The neocolonial logic that undergirds educational reform in postcolonial societies also perpetuates the colonial rationality of hierarchization, epistemological dependence, and biopolitical utilization of disciplinary technologies that continue to shape the habitus of students and their educational experiences, as well as the institutional processes and discourses (H. M. A. Williams, 2019). Neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is another process through which coloniality is sustained and perpetuated in contemporary times. Neoliberalism is a force that is increasingly shaping societies the world over (Harvey, 2005). One of the central presuppositions of neoliberalism is the constitution of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cself-interested individual: a view of individuals as economically self-interested subjects\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Olssen & Peters, 2005, p. 314). Neocolonial agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF bring to the postcolonial developing countries a market-oriented or neoliberal capitalist view of education (Anwaruddin, 2014; Nguyen et al., 2009; Olssen & Peters, 2005; H. M. A. Williams, 2019). In addition to recreating the colonial condition through their presence and asymmetric relationships with the postcolonial Global South countries, these agencies are playing a significant role in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpromoting and legitimizing the ideologies of neoliberal capitalism through its education policies in the developing countries\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Anwaruddin, 2014, p. 151). Neoliberalism is a new form of colonialization through the way in which it creates \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca conduit for Euro-colonial modernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D and Western imperialism to spread across the globe, particularly in ex-colonies (Dei, 2019, p. 47). The intertwining of capitalism and colonization and the imposition of Western hegemonic values, ideas, and discourse through neoliberalism are a process of universalizing \u00E2\u0080\u0093 i.e., colonizing \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the global community (Dei, 2019). Coloniality is sustained through neoliberalism in five interrelated areas (Dei, 2019, pp. 48-53). First is the knowledge base of neoliberalism and the power of its ideas. This base is grounded in promoting 107 and imposing individual freedoms, autonomy, competition, equality and choice, while devaluing and marginalizing communal knowledge base and local cultural knowledges, worldviews, and ways of being. Second, the source of neoliberal values based in Western philosophical assumptions is presented as universal knowledge and a way to read the world through a Eurocentric lens. Third, the process of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cneoliberal exports of education\u00E2\u0080\u009D involving commercialization and privatization of education in the Global South has created a colonial model of metropolis-colony asymmetric power relations, not only at the global level but also, internally, within each society. Fourth, globalization as a vehicle for exporting to the Global South a Western colonial education as a commodity reproduces neoliberal systems of thought and spreads Western hegemonic domination. Finally, the race and chase to internationalize education in the Global South, which is driven by neoliberal globalization, is a process of colonizing relations and practices and invokes the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccoloniality of power and ideas\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Dei, 2019, p. 53). Neoliberalism is also creating what may be called \u00E2\u0080\u009Cneoliberal habitus,\u00E2\u0080\u009D characterized as one with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdistinct dispositional values, attitudes, and practices\u00E2\u0080\u00A6[enforced by] prevalent neoliberal norms and discourses\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Leyva, 2019, p. 250). Neoliberal habitus is a habitus that incorporates neoliberal rationality and self-interested, competitive orientation. The family and individual family members with a neoliberal habitus are thus shaped by these neoliberal dispositions, values, and practices. In relation to the linkage between higher education and social mobility, a neoliberal habitus perpetuates an aspirational construct that everyone can acquire credentials (Stahl, 2015, p. 111), a form of cultural capital which one can utilize or convert to other forms of capital to improve one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status and social mobility. A neoliberal habitus posits that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfailure to do so [acquire credentials] lies in the individual, as opposed to wider societal structures\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Stahl, 2015, p. 69). Thus, a neoliberal habitus promotes a doxic assumption that everyone competes on a level playing field. This is symbolic violence when individuals \u00E2\u0080\u0098buy in\u00E2\u0080\u0099 to this assumption and consider the practice imposed upon them as legitimate experience (Stahl, 2015). Neoliberal policies are reshaping all aspects of social behaviors of people in the Global South countries, including their collective, community-oriented mindset. As Davies and Bansel (2007) argue, individuals in these countries \u00E2\u0080\u009Chave been seduced by their own perceived powers 108 of freedom and have, at the same time, let go of significant collective powers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 249). Every pursuit they undertake is primarily \u00E2\u0080\u009Cto further their own interests and those of their family\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 249), often to the detriment of collective interests. In particular, the pursuit of education is viewed \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot so much as a right, a joy, a tool for liberation and empowerment,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argue Nguyen et al. (2009), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbut rather as an investment\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 112). In their efforts to try to keep up with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D and to have a place in the global arena, it seems, countries in the Global South, particularly those known as postcolonial ones, remain trapped in what Mignolo (2011) calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca double colonization, of time and of space\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 6). Reflecting on the implications of Global South countries\u00E2\u0080\u0099 subscriptions to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D to position themselves in the global arena, H. M. A. Williams (2019) states: Developing countries (like Trinidad) subscribe to these [Western European/American] metrics\u00E2\u0080\u00A6to gain \u00E2\u0080\u0098legitimacy\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in the global arena. These subscriptions to modernity are perhaps Sisyphean, developmentalist efforts in a game inaugurated and stacked by the logics of imperialism and coloniality, and now by the logics of neoliberalism and contemporaneous globalization. (p. 95) This \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdouble colonization\u00E2\u0080\u009D of time and space is shaped and enforced by a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cresilient colonial and colonizing epistemology\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Nyamnjoh, as cited in H. M. A. Williams, 2019, p. 95), which is sustained by the residue of colonialism, neocolonialism, and globalized neoliberal capitalism. Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education system since independence has been organized in a manner that mimics the French colonial configuration in terms of the linkage between pursuit of (higher) education and social mobility\u00E2\u0080\u0094social mobility that means leaving behind lives on the rice fields and moving to urban centres as a signifier of modernity and higher socio-economic status. Whether Cambodia and Cambodians are trapped in this \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdouble colonization\u00E2\u0080\u009D in their pursuit of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D is a question that was partly addressed by Ayres (2003) and will be further examined and updated in this study. This study will also shed light on the ways in which the colonial habitus, which is sustained by the colonial legacies, neocolonialism, and neoliberalism, shapes Cambodian men and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirations for and pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility. 109 4.2.4.3.3 I(i)ndigenous habitus The habitus is not carved in stone and is generative based on emerging experiences. After all, the habitus itself is not merely reproductive, it is transformative, as well (Arnot & Naveed, 2014; C. Mills, 2008a, 2008b; Wacquant, 2006). The process of \u00E2\u0080\u009Csense-making within the habitus where there are disjunctures between habitus and field\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Stahl, 2015, p. 66) and where individuals feel like a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfish out of water\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 127), opens up the possibility for the habitus to transform. Changing field structures may create moments of crisis and open up opportunities for a new form of habitus to emerge. While colonial habitus persists and continues to be perpetuated, the indigenous habitus is still in existence as the traditional field structures remain present. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate into the conceptual framework of this study the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D and to articulate the ways in which this habitus interacts with, counters, or shapes the colonial habitus in the context of Cambodia, which has experienced frequent successive regime changes since its independence. Internal forces such as traditional cultural norms and values are fundamental cultural codes that shape the dispositions and behaviors (habitus) of individuals in their societies. After all, each society has its own process of socializing its younger generations into its societal socio-cultural norms. These local or indigenous norms and values are constitutive forces that shape the habitus of the indigenes and at the same time provide resilience, guide their pursuit of success and define its meaning, and serve as a source of resistance to external forces that influence their worldviews, dispositions, and behaviors. My concept of indigenous habitus is proposed to account for these local socio-cultural codes, worldviews, norms and traditions that shape the habitus of Cambodians. In conceptualizing the concept of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous habitus\u00E2\u0080\u009D in this study, I drew on the conceptual inspirations and sensibilities from the scholarship of Brar (2016), J. C. Nash (2001), Pidgeon (2008, 2009), and Rusack et al. (2011). Their collective scholarship situates the concept of Indigenous habitus (note the capital \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u009D in Indigenous) in specific reference to Aboriginal peoples or First Nations. Brar (2016) and Pidgeon (2008, 2009) focus their work on Indigenous students in Canada; J. C. Nash (2001) on the Maya peoples in Latin America; and Rusack et al. (2011) on the Noonga people in Australia. Collectively, the Indigenous habitus as conceptualized in these studies characterize the habitus that embodies the worldviews, ways of being, 110 perceptions, values, and practices of the Indigenous peoples in their respective geographic regions. In my study, however, the concept of indigenous habitus (note the small \u00E2\u0080\u009Ci\u00E2\u0080\u009D in indigenous) does not necessarily refer to the Indigenous people in Cambodia; rather, it describes the Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u0099 embodiment of the worldviews, perceptual schemata, ways of being, norms, and practices underpinned by their traditional socio-cultural norms, social order, and gender relations. While there are no such things as pure Cambodian traditions, socio-cultural values, and worldviews, the concept of indigenous habitus is positioned in contrast to the colonial habitus described above. Based on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of the habitus, the indigenous habitus operates below consciousness. 4.2.4.3.4 Fundamentals of the indigenous habitus In the context of my study, there are internal forces that shape the indigenous habitus of the family and the individuals within. Internal forces such as the hierarchical social order and traditional patriarchy (gender norms) are primary forces that are shaping the family habitus and that of the individuals. These forces are cultural codes that continue to shape the dispositions of the family and its members. Cambodian and foreign scholars alike (Anderson & Grace, 2018; Bit, 1991; Brickell, 2007; Chandler, 2008; Derks, 2008; Ebihara, 1966, 1968; Karbaum, 2015; Ledgerwood, n.d.; Ledgerwood, Ebihara, & Mortland, 1994; Ovesen, Trankell, & \u00C3\u0096jendal, 1996; Peang-Meth, 1991; Rogers & Anderson, 2019; Scopis, 2011; Slocomb, 2010) have persistently emphasized how Khmer society\u00E2\u0080\u0099s rigid hierarchical social order, patronage system, and traditional gender norms remain the fundamental internal forces that shape the dispositions, cognitive schemas, and behaviors of Cambodians and constitute the foundation for organizing the socio-cultural and political life at all levels in contemporary Cambodian society. These socio-cultural elements are the cultural codes that shape Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u0099 dispositions, their sense of social location and social status, and their pursuit (or lack thereof) of social mobility. These cultural codes also shape, facilitate, or constrain not only their aspirations but also their opportunities to improve their social status/mobility. These constitutive socio-cultural forces influence the habitus of individual members of the society who are socialized to learn and embody these socio-cultural norms since the early age through their upbringing, schooling, and daily interactions and practices. 111 The Khmer social order. Cambodia is a society where social hierarchy was traditionally organized around absolute monarchy and entrenched patronage practices (Ayres, 2003; Bit, 1991; Chandler, 2008; Ebihara, 1968; Gottesman, 2003; Hughes, 2006a; Ledgerwood, n.d.; Osborne, 1973; Ovesen et al., 1996; Scopis, 2011; Slocomb, 2006; Smith, 1970; Steinberg, 1959; Winter & Ollier, 2006). This form of socio-cultural and political organization points to the kind of power configuration governing the relationships between the ruler and the ruled. These cultural values and practices constitute a system of thought or episteme that orients the mindset and behavior of Cambodians in their everyday life and interactions \u00E2\u0080\u0093 from the trivial, everyday social encounters to government, management and decision making at the national level. Their habitus is shaped by this social order, dispositioning their behavior and practices. These traditional socio-cultural norms continue to have significant bearings on the habitus of Cambodians. In present-day Cambodia, the continuing predominance of the tradition of patron\u00E2\u0080\u0093client relationship is viewed as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnormative ways\u00E2\u0080\u009D the power relations and social order are supposed to be structured \u00E2\u0080\u0093 ones that are predicated on unequal power relations and hierarchical social order. The fundamental principle that underpins this \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstrict and pervasive hierarchy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ovesen et al., 1996, p. 81) is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdeeply fixed in virtually all social interactions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Karbaum, 2015, p. 243) and is profoundly \u00E2\u0080\u009Cingrained throughout all sections of the population\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ovesen et al., 1996, p. 84). One of the means through which Cambodian social order and socio-cultural worldviews are passed on and reproduced from one generation to another, as elaborated in Chapter 2 above, is the chbab (normative poems). According to David Chandler, a prominent historian on Cambodian history, the chbab, which were the principal texts in pre-colonial Cambodia, are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconcerned with the activity of the entire society, and not merely the ceremonial behavior of the elite\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Chandler, 1984, p. 271). In addition to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cemphasiz[ing] the propriety of hierarchies, rote-learning, and tradition,\u00E2\u0080\u009D these normative poems also stress \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe maintenance of social relationships that keep hierarchies in place\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Chandler, 1984, p. 272). Moreover, as Chandler (1984) explains: Discovering one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s place in society and acting in accordance with it is one of the messages of the chbab. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 One virtue imparted by the poems is sociability, which implies the acceptance of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s status and obligations, as well as those of other people, cementing 112 connections \u00E2\u0080\u0098upwards\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and \u00E2\u0080\u0098downwards\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in the family, the village, the capital, and the state. (p. 274) The chbab, hence, aim to socialize the Cambodians to accept their social location within the social hierarchy and to act according to what is expected of them based on the wisdom of the chbab. The chbab and their wisdom survive through the colonial period and nearly three decades of war, genocide, and civil armed conflict. This is perhaps because the wisdom of the chbab is usually called upon by generations of Cambodians to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconfront, evade, or better the harsh conditions of everyday life\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Chandler, 1984, p. 277). The Khmer traditional social order continues to persist and to be practiced despite these socio-cultural disruptions and political turmoil. In fact, the fear of the loss of their traditional cultural norms and practices by the survivors of the genocide heightened their concern and, in turn, led them to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe conviction that nothing should be changed\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ledgerwood et al., 1994, p. 7). As Ledgerwood et al. (1994) argue, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIn the face of a threatened loss of their culture, Khmer emphasize certain cultural symbols as the embodiment of \u00E2\u0080\u0098Khmerness\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 9). It is common among war and genocide survivors like the Khmer that they need to reorganize their lives around an \u00E2\u0080\u009Corderly universe\u00E2\u0080\u009D and for Cambodians it was about recreating their \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D cultural norms and practices that they feel would allow them to reorganize their lives. The chbab represent a collection of key texts that help keep the social order and socio-cultural norms and values of Cambodians alive. The hierarchical, patronage-entrenched nature of Cambodian social order and power relations not only structure the habitus of Cambodians but also have important implications for not only what social mobility means but also how social mobility should be pursued. As Karbaum (2015) posits, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFor many Khmer it is crucial for their self-image to know their individual position in the hierarchy within their community and, even better, to improve their position, which is mostly defined by the socio-economic status\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 243). Therefore, for the vast majority of Cambodians social mobility is about climbing up that social hierarchy within different social fields, from small local community to the society at large. Moreover, connecting to the right patron represents an important means through which one is able to attain a position within this hierarchy. The indigenous habitus of Cambodians is shaped by these traditional socio-cultural norms, which are informally taught at home in the families through parental upbringing 113 and taught and emphasized at school in official school curriculum (Anderson & Grace, 2018; Ledgerwood, 1994). Gender norms. In addition to the hierarchical social order, gender norms represent another layer of cultural framework that shapes the dispositions and practices (i.e., indigenous habitus) of Cambodians and their social relationships (Anderson & Grace, 2018; Booth, 2014; Brickell, 2007, 2011; Derks, 2008; Eisenbruch, 2018; Filmer & Schady, 2008; Fiske, 1995; Frieson, 2011; Jacobsen, 2008; Kent, 2011; Ledgerwood, 1995; Ledgerwood et al., 1994; Lilja, 2016; Maxwell et al., 2015; Rogers & Anderson, 2019; Sandy, 2007; Smith-Hefner, 1993; Tuy, 2019; Ward & Mouyly, 2013). Gender symbolism in Cambodian society \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconstitutes a set of social relationships, the preservation of which Khmer consider critical to the retention of Khmer cultural identity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ledgerwood et al., 1994, p. 25). According to Khmer gender norms and values, women are expected to not only perform domestic duties within the household, but also to assume accommodating, submissive, and virtuous behaviors in their interaction with men (Anderson & Grace, 2018; Ledgerwood, 1994). One of the ways through which gender norms are enforced in Cambodia is through stories and normative poems, such as chbab srey (normative poems/codes of conduct for girls) and chbab bros (normative poems/codes of conduct for boys). Chbab srey was orally passed down from the 14th to 19th centuries and was later codified in written form (Anderson & Grace, 2018, p. 216). Chbab srey provides a guideline for girls on \u00E2\u0080\u009Chow to become virtuous wives through their embodiment of the characteristics described in the poem,\u00E2\u0080\u009D focusing on their duties and obligations in all social spheres, from the family to society (Anderson & Grace, 2018, p. 227). Based on the norms and values articulated in this normative poem, women are positioned to be more influential than their husbands in the family, but their status in public is defined through the status of their family, particularly their husband (Karbaum, 2015). These normative poems and the Khmer gender-related norms and values embedded in these poems are usually recited as part of parenting practices in Cambodia (Anderson & Grace, 2018; Bit, 1991). They are also implemented in school curriculum and taught in Khmer literature subject (Anderson & Grace, 2018; Ledgerwood, 1994). Therefore, through family socialization and schooling, Cambodian women and men are oriented towards their traditional socio-cultural 114 norms and values and gender role expectations early on, which has a fundamental impact on their habitus and practice later on in life. This process has important implications for this study as the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mindset and behaviors (i.e., habitus) are in one way or another shaped by their socio-cultural values and gender role expectations, which in turn influences the processes and opportunities of their social mobility. In short, the different layers of socio-cultural codes shape the indigenous habitus of Cambodian men and women. The gender norms add yet another layer of cognitive schema that Cambodian women and men are socialized to embody and practice in their daily lives. The concept of indigenous habitus, thus, expands on Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of habitus to be sensitive to and incorporate these context-based socio-cultural codes and is potentially useful in aiding the analysis of men and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of social mobility in Cambodian society. In relation to schooling and social mobility, the indigenous habitus formed through adopting an indigenous form of intelligence shapes working-class people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s dispositions and behaviors in their pursuit of education for social mobility, the kinds of strategies they adopt in their pursuit of success, and the meaning they attribute to their success and social mobility (Cervantes-Soon, 2016). Success and social mobility through education is defined in terms of community uplifting, social justice, and realization of collective goals. Similarly, Hashemi (2012) argues that the indigenous habitus underpinned by particular indigenous/local moral principles shape young people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s journey of social mobility and define the meaning of their mobility. Local norms and values are cultural codes that not only characterize what constitutes a good life but also serve as a resource for them to guide their pursuit of success defined as collective or community socio-economic improvement. In this study, the colonial habitus and the indigenous habitus do not operate as two extreme ends of the continuum. Rather, they are intertwined and exist simultaneously. Insights from the scholarship of Ingram (2011), Jin and Ball (2019), Lahire (2011), and Nimer (2020) reveal the simultaneous and contradictory existence of multiple dispositions (i.e., habituses), driven by the diversity of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconditions of existence\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Nimer, 2020, p. 13). The experience is not exceptional but common to all individuals to a certain extent. However, it is possible that one form of habitus may be more dominant than the other, depending on social agents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 conditions of existence. The extent to which one habitus (e.g., the indigenous habitus) is influenced by the 115 other habitus (e.g., colonial habitus) largely depends on agents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 interface/encounter with or experience of the colonial conditions, worldviews, frames of thought, socio-cultural values, and practices. Ayling\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) research in the context of postcolonial Nigeria provides similarly useful insights. As Ayling (2019) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe severity of the \u00E2\u0080\u0098colonial condition\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (that is, the degree to which one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mind has been influenced by Western hegemonic discourses) is determined by the extent of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s exposure to, and participation in, (post)colonial activities such as Western education\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 39). Ayling\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) conclusion was emphasized by Fanon (1967) decades ago when he argued that the colonized\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinferiority complex is particularly intensified among the educated\u00E2\u0080\u009D class (p. 14). Further, the colonial and indigenous habitus is individual- rather than family-oriented. For example, within a family a parent\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus may be indigenous more than colonial due to his/her encounter with the colonial condition. Similarly, a child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus may be more colonial than indigenous, depending upon the child\u00E2\u0080\u0099s exposure to the colonial condition, as well as the influence of his/her parent in cultivating or instilling a particular family habitus. 4.2.5 Forms of capital and cultural complements As elaborated at the beginning of this chapter, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theory of practice is utilized as a conceptual schema for this study because the theory provides a useful scheme for examining social agents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 practice in their social contexts. In relation to social inequality/mobility, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing provides insights into the ways in which social agents engage in power struggles in the social fields and draw on or accumulate different forms of resources/capital to position themselves in the field. This section discusses Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of capital and its variant forms (i.e., economic, cultural, social, and symbolic) and the ways in which social agents engage in accumulating the capital to position themselves in the social field. However, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptualizing is not without limits, particularly in relation to the context of the Global South, where this study was conducted. Therefore, following a presentation of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of capital, critiques by feminist, postcolonial, and cultural studies scholars will be drawn upon to shed light on the limits of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing; in so doing, additional concepts (i.e., community cultural wealth, working-class cultural complements, and gender-embedded capital) 116 are proposed and added to the conceptual framework to make it more relevant and robust for examining the social mobility experiences of the research participants in the context of my study. 4.2.5.1 Bourdieusian forms of capital For Bourdieu (1980), the social world is made up of different social positions. An individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position-taking is tightly connected to their inheritance and/or accumulation of different forms of capital in the domains of social lives or fields he or she is engaged in, such as the family, the broader community or the neighborhood, the peer group, the education institution, or the workplace (Bourdieu, 1980, 1984; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Bourdieu (1984, 2007) describes four main forms of capital, and the ways in which these forms of capital are inherited, distributed, and accumulated. This theorizing provides an explanation of the structure and characteristics of the social world and the symbolic struggles social agents engage in for their position-taking. The first form of capital is economic capital refers to money or assets that can be converted immediately and directly into money, or it may be institutionalized in the form of property rights. Second, cultural capital and is divided into three sub-types. The first sub-type of cultural capital is the embodied state of cultural capital and refers to the internalized and intangible \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdispositions of the mind and body\u00E2\u0080\u009D of a person, such as taste and aesthetic knowledge (Bourdieu, 2007, p. 84). This sub-type of cultural capital, unlike money or property rights, cannot be transmitted instantaneously in the form of gift, purchase or exchange. The accumulation of this variant of capital involves the process of internalization and embodiment, which costs time on the part of the person. The second sub-type is the objectified state of cultural capital and refers to cultural goods such as books, paintings, and other material cultural objects. The transmission of this form of cultural capital is possible materially (e.g., transfer of legal ownership) and symbolically (appropriating either the embodied form of cultural capital or the services of the holder of this capital). The third sub-type, the institutionalized state of cultural capital, is the formal recognition of knowledge and academic qualifications in the form of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccertificate of cultural competence\u00E2\u0080\u009D bestowed upon the holder of the capital (Bourdieu, 2007, p. 88). In this sense, educational or academic capital is a form of cultural capital. Unlike the embodied form of cultural capital, which has \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe same biological limits as its bearer,\u00E2\u0080\u009D the 117 institutionalized form of cultural capital \u00E2\u0080\u009Chas a relative autonomy vis-\u00C3\u00A0-vis its bearer and even vis-\u00C3\u00A0-vis the cultural capital he [sic] effectively possesses at a given point in time\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 2007, p. 88). In other words, the value of this form of cultural capital may rest partially on the prestige or value of the institutions that confer this formally recognized academic qualification. In short, cultural capital includes cultural taste and aesthetic knowledge, cultural goods or objects such as books and paintings, and the formal recognition of knowledge and academic qualifications such as a certificate as an indication of cultural competence. In the context of my study focused on higher education and social mobility, higher education represents a crucial form of cultural capital for social mobility as framed within the colonized field whose internal logic and colonial doxic order are rooted in the French colonialism. Another form of cultural capital highly valued since the end of the conflict is the English language. As a language that opens the door to educational and employment opportunities and other economic benefits, English has become a very popular foreign language in post-conflict Cambodia (S. Clayton, 2008; T. Clayton, 2002; Hashim et al., 2014; Moore & Bounchan, 2010). In this study, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of cultural capital is relevant and useful for an analysis of how the research participants accumulated and utilized these different forms of cultural capital in their social mobility journey. Third, social capital is the sum of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cactual or potential resources\u00E2\u0080\u009D accessible to a person through group membership or by being part of durable networks of social relationships (Bourdieu, 2007, p. 88). The volume of social capital that a person possesses depends upon the size of the network(s) he or she belongs to and can effectively mobilize, as well as the volume of capital possessed by each of the members of the network(s) to whom he or she is connected and which he or she can access (Bourdieu, 2007, p. 89). Thus, there exists an interdependence between group members and the acknowledgement and re-acknowledgement of each other to make it possible for each group member to access the collective capital brought about by all group members. Moreover, this network of membership is not natural or socially \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgiven,\u00E2\u0080\u009D nor is it a product of automatic (re)generation; rather, it is the result of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinvestment strategies, individual or collective, consciously or unconsciously aimed at establishing or reproducing social relationships that are directly usable in the short or long term\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 2007, p. 89). In other words, social capital is the product of ongoing reproduction and strategic investment and 118 exchange among members of the network(s) of social relationships. This process suggests that an individual must invest not just time and energy but also economic capital to remain a valuable member of a network and to draw on its social capital. In the context of my study, in addition to the general forms of social capital such as friends or classmates, one unique form of indigenous social capital is called khsae in Khmer language (which literally means \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstring\u00E2\u0080\u009D) (Craig & Pak, 2011; Global Witness, 2007; Hughes, 2006a; Ledgerwood, n.d.; Scopis, 2011). It is a form of social network built through a patron-client relationship. Fourth, symbolic capital is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca reputation for competence and an image of respectability and honorability\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 291). Symbolic capital can be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconverted into political positions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 291). Symbolic capital is central in social agents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 position-taking and their struggles to accumulate this form of capital because, as Bourdieu (1990a) posits, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstruggles for recognition are a fundamental dimension of social life\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 22). While this sounds like an economic reductionist reading of society, Bourdieu (1984, 1990a, 1990b) does emphasize the mutually constitutive aspect of symbolic and material forms of capital. Cultural capital can be converted into symbolic capital, and vice-versa. Botsis (2018) argues that a student\u00E2\u0080\u0099s English language use or style (i.e., cultural capital) in an educational context not only positions but also reinforces their positions of power and privilege (symbolic capital) in relation to other students. As Botsis (2018) puts it, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe fusion of symbolic and material realities\u00E2\u0080\u00A6makes people believe in the subject positions in which they find themselves, and act in accordance with societal expectations of someone in that subject position\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 51). Within this framing of subject position-taking on a social hierarchy based on recognition and symbolic economy, one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic standing is determined by the amount and forms of capital one has at their disposal and the dominant field logic that underpins the (re)conversion principles of the different forms of capital. This valuation of symbolic capital makes sense in a capitalist society underpinned by economic principles of social relationship organization, which is characteristic of the colonial/Western worldview. However, in a society where the economic reductionist yardstick of social status does not apply, this conceptual framing will not make much sense. Therefore, in utilizing this conceptual perspective, I am reminded to be sensitive to the meanings that the research participants in my study attach to their social position and what underpins their social positioning. Attention to this conceptual sensibility is particularly important in the context of 119 Global South societies such as Cambodia where multiple fields and habituses \u00E2\u0080\u0093 traditional and colonized \u00E2\u0080\u0093 exist. As alluded to earlier, these different forms of capital are inter-convertible, which is the fundamental basis of the reproduction of capital and social positions, and privileges attached to certain positions (Bourdieu, 2007). Economic capital, in the form of gifts for exchange, can transform into social capital, which may then yield into monetary or other benefits. Similarly, economic capital can be converted into cultural capital because with the benefit of economic capital an individual has the time and resources to invest in accumulating cultural capital by, for example, attending educational institutions to acquire the institutionalized form of cultural capital, which may pay off (in the form of economic capital) later on when the person enters the labor market and earns an income from a salaried employment. The values and exchange rates of capital in this conversion/reconversion are determined by the rules and structure of specific fields or social spaces (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 97). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of capital and the conversion/reconversion mechanism of the different forms of capital explain the mechanisms that underpin social and cultural reproduction and the way in which symbolic capital and privileges are reproduced. Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts enable us to explain the inter-generational transmission of real and symbolic capital of social groups and the reproduction of their social status and social class (Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Through the mechanism of capital conversion and reconversion, social inequalities across time and over generations are reproduced and perpetuated. At the same time, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptualization of capital and its conversion/reconversion mechanism offer a useful analytical framework through which to examine social mobility. Because individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social locations are determined largely by the volume and kinds of capital that they possess, the capital conversion/reconversion mechanism may allow them to change their social location, moving downwardly or upwardly on the social ladder. In this sense, Bourdieu provides useful conceptual tools to analyze the mechanisms of social reproduction and exclusion, as well as the hierarchization of relationships based on social locations. The conversion/reconversion mechanism of the different forms of capital offer an explanation for the possibility for social mobility. Particularly, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of the existence of multiple systems of value in colonial societies (Bourdieu, 1961) provides a useful analytical framework for understanding the 120 postcolonial Global South societies such as Cambodia. As Botsis (2018) explains in reference to Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s earlier work: In colonial society Bourdieu saw two economies or social spaces existing in parallel: an \u00E2\u0080\u0098impersonal and abstract\u00E2\u0080\u0099 system of monetary value, controlled by the colonial powers \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the capitalist market of exchange that was racialized under colonialism \u00E2\u0080\u0093 and \u00E2\u0080\u0098the former values of prestige and honor,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 meaning the cultural systems of value that were in circulation prior to colonial conquest. (p. 112) For this reason, the reconceptualization of local/colonized field and indigenous/colonial habitus, as elaborated in the previous sections, provides a relevant analytical perspective for my study. However, there are still issues of concern that need to be elaborated in relation to utilizing Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of capital to explain social mobility in the Global South in general, and in Cambodia in particular. The following section highlights some of the major critiques of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of capital and introduces several variants of the concept of capital that, I contend, will form a more relevant and robust conceptual framework for analyzing social mobility in the Global South context, including in Cambodia. 4.2.5.2 Limitations of Bourdieusian forms of capital Although Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s earlier theorizing, especially of habitus and field, originated from his research and fieldwork in colonial Algeria (Calhoun, 2006; Curto, 2016; Go, 2013; Puwar, 2009; Rapini, 2016), as discussed at the beginning of this chapter, his later conceptualizing and writing (Bourdieu, 1984, 1990b, 1991) are largely about \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca relatively stable set of class relations in France where political power and economic power were largely aligned\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Botsis, 2018, p. 50). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptualization of capital, particularly cultural capital, has been critiqued for his theorizing has been used to suggest that \u00E2\u0080\u009Csome communities are culturally wealthy while others are culturally poor\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 120). This conceptualizing also legitimizes White, dominant culture as the standards to which other forms of culture are to be compared and which an individual has to accumulate if he or she wants to be able to gain membership to the dominant social class. It promotes a frame of thinking and practice that, to move from the working class to the middle class, one has to accumulate specific forms of knowledge, skills and abilities associated with a class higher than the one he or she currently occupies. This theorizing has in 121 turn shapes the way education system is organized to fill students up with \u00E2\u0080\u009Clegitimate\u00E2\u0080\u009D forms of cultural capital of the middle and higher social classes (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Shea, 2016). Formal educational institutions tend to be organized in ways that reproduce the cultural capital of the dominant social class. This deficit mode of thinking and practice undervalues the forms of culture and expressions of those from lower social strata and other marginalized groups. For these reasons, I have incorporated Yosso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2017) community cultural wealth and Streib\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2016) working-class cultural complements to provide a more relevant and robust conceptual framework that addresses the shortcomings of the deficit model of thinking about the cultural capital of the people from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds, such as the research participants in my study. Moreover, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1984) theorizing of capital as gender-neutral and that it is a secondary structuring principle rather than a primary one is troubling from the feminist standpoint (Huppatz, 2009). This conceptualization of capital is troubling because people \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdo not evaluate each other as abstract, genderless human beings, but as men and women\u00E2\u0080\u009D (D. L. Miller, 2014, p. 478). This is particularly true in Global South societies such as Cambodia where traditional gender norms remain a dominant force structuring women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences, life chances, and socio-economic status, as discussed previously. D. L. Miller (2014) asserts that gender plays a fundamental role in organizing our perception, evaluation, and reputation (i.e., symbolic capital). Therefore, rather than being a secondary structuring principle, as Bourdieu (1984) conceptualizes it, gender is a primary structuring principle of the social space (Laberge, 1995; McCall, 1992). Gender is, in fact, an embodied state of cultural capital (McCall, 1992). To remedy Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing of capital and to render it more insightful for making sense of the experiences of women and men in the Global South context, I draw on some of the insights of feminist scholarship. In particular, I incorporate the concepts of emotional capital, feminine capital, and female capital to provide a more relevant and robust analytical perspective for making sense of the social mobility experiences of women and men in my study. 4.2.5.3 Community cultural wealth The community cultural wealth framework emerges from Critical Race Theory (CRT), which challenges the deficit thinking and shifts the focus from the White dominant culture to the cultures of communities of color and of other marginalized groups (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Shea, 2016; Rogers & 122 Anderson, 2019; Yosso, 2017). Yosso (2017) argues that the CRT \u00E2\u0080\u009Cshifts the research lens away from a deficit view of Communities of Color as places full of cultural poverty or disadvantages, and instead focuses on and learns from these communities\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural assets and wealth\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 126). The community cultural wealth is conceptualized as \u00E2\u0080\u009Can array of knowledge, skills, abilities, and contacts possessed and utilized by Communities of Color to survive and resist macro and micro-forms of oppression\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 121). In relation to schooling and educational institutions, the community cultural wealth framework \u00E2\u0080\u009Cattends to the often \u00E2\u0080\u0098unacknowledged or unrecognized\u00E2\u0080\u0099 multiple forms of capital that marginalized students may bring to the classroom\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Rogers & Anderson, 2019, p. 538). It \u00E2\u0080\u009Crejects the deficit theorizing implicit in the ways in which Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s cultural capital is often used to examine socio-spatial relations of disadvantage\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Rogers & Anderson, 2019, p. 538). The framework particularly reconceptualizes Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of cultural capital and emphasizes the value of capital in relation to communities rather than mere individuals (Rogers & Anderson, 2019). The community cultural wealth framework \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdraws upon an interdisciplinary knowledge base informed by migrant studies, critical race theory, sociology and gender studies\u00E2\u0080\u009D (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Shea, 2016, p. 63). While Yosso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2017) community cultural wealth framework develops out of the Critical Race Theory and has been theorized in relation to Hispanic students and other communities of color in the United States (Brooms & Davis, 2017; DeNicolo, Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez, Morales, & Roman\u00C3\u00AD, 2015; Espino, 2014; Jayakumar, Vue, & Allen, 2013; Liou, Antrop-Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez, & Cooper, 2009; Lu, 2013; Mobley & Brawner, 2019; Samuelson & Litzler, 2016; Whitehead, 2019), the framework has broader application potential for other non-dominant and under-represented groups in other societies, as evidenced in research on first-generation university students in Australia (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Shea, 2016), first-generation college students in Latin America (Trigos-Carrillo, 2020), and schoolgirls from marginalized rural areas in Cambodia (Rogers & Anderson, 2019). In the community cultural wealth framework, Yosso (2017) proposes six forms of cultural capital. Aspirational capital describes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe ability to maintain hopes and dreams for the future, even in the face of real and perceived barriers\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 122). This form of capital represents the resiliency that is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cevidenced in those who allow themselves and their children to dream of possibilities beyond their present circumstances, often without the objective means to 123 attain those goals\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 122). In my study, the concept of aspirational capital provides a useful analytical perspective on the context that underpinned the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility and their motivation that sustained their future hopes and dreams in spite of their challenging living circumstances. Familial capital refers to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccultural knowledges\u00E2\u0080\u009D nurtured within both immediate and extended family networks (Yosso, 2017, p. 123). This form of capital may include family members\u00E2\u0080\u0099 advice, stories of hard work or moral lessons, or memories to foster educational aspirations, which are shared across generations (Rogers & Anderson, 2019). Familial capital provides a useful analytical lens in my study for examining the role that family members (both immediate and extended family members) played in supporting the research participants in their journey of social mobility through higher education. Linguistic capital describes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe intellectual and social skills attained through communication experiences in more than one language and/or style\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 123). It emphasizes the value of bilingual education, including storytelling, racialized cultural history, and the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cability to communicate via visual art, music, or poetry\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 123). This form of capital is not particularly useful for my analysis in this study because the research participants were largely ethnically/racially homogenous, with the exception of one participant who spoke both Khmer and Mandarin at home and indicated the value of this linguistic ability. It is essential to also note that while English language represents an important linguistic capital in my study, a more appropriate concept to refer to the ability to communicate in English language as examined in this study is cultural capital in Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sense of the word. English language in Cambodia and within the context of this study does not represent a racialized cultural history in the same way that Latino/a culture and language or other communities of color have had in the United States. Social capital includes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnetworks of people and community resources\u00E2\u0080\u009D that can provide not only instrumental but also emotional support (Yosso, 2017, p. 124). While similar to Bourdieusian concept of social capital, social capital as conceptualized in the community cultural wealth framework emphasizes community-oriented pool of support tied to a collective history of helping one another through challenging times. In this study, this form of capital includes people within the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 community who provided not only instrumental but also 124 emotional support to them, encouraging them to be aspirational and to pursue their hopes and dreams despite their challenging circumstances. Navigational capital refers to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cskills of maneuvering through social institutions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 124). This form of capital emphasizes not only \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindividual agency within institutional constraints\u00E2\u0080\u009D but also the importance of social networks in helping individuals navigate through places such as schools or the labor market (p. 125). In my research, navigational capital is crucial for the research participants, especially in relation to navigating the educational institutions and the job market in the city, because the majority of them were from rural areas across the country. Social networks are playing an important role in this process. Resistant capital includes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cknowledges and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 125). This form of capital emphasizes the resistance to the status quo of racialized inequality. Findings from Rogers and Anderson\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2019) research in Cambodia reveal girls and young women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbehaviors and attitudes that disrupted or recast constraining gender norms\u00E2\u0080\u009D and their \u00E2\u0080\u009Carticulation of alternative constructions of girlhood and their oppositional moves that challenged the status quo\u00E2\u0080\u009D of gender inequality (p. 547). In my study, resistant capital is relevant and includes resistance or oppositional behaviors and attitudes to the status quo of not only living hard lives and struggling on a daily basis to make ends meet, but also of the gender norms that particularly constrain the opportunities for women to pursue schooling, build their careers, and improve their socio-economic status. Altruistic capital is another form of capital, which is not part of Yosso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2017) community cultural wealth framework, but it is one I find useful to be added to my conceptual framework. This capital emerges from a study by Rogers and Anderson (2019) on the aspirations for education of young schoolgirls in rural Cambodia. Albeit similar to emotional capital and familial capital, altruistic capital emphasizes another crucial aspect which is missing in the two forms of capital. In addition to stressing a sibling\u00E2\u0080\u0099s caring and providing for another sibling so that he or she can go to school, altruistic capital emphasizes a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cselfless act\u00E2\u0080\u009D of sacrifices of family members, siblings, or other community members. While emphasizing \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe emotional work and unselfish actions of the schoolgirls, their siblings, and other community members in facilitating ongoing access to school for girls,\u00E2\u0080\u009D Rogers and Anderson (2019) argue that altruistic capital is different from Yosso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s notion of familial capital and extends Yosso\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of social 125 capital by including \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe altruistic acts of school friends\u00E2\u0080\u00A6and other community members, such as teachers\u00E2\u0080\u009D who provided more than instrumental and emotional support (p. 551). Rogers and Anderson (2019) provide examples of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstories of brothers who had given up their education in order to financially support their sisters\u00E2\u0080\u0099 schooling\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 543). This sacrifice exemplifies altruism, particularly in the context of Cambodia where gender norms restrict women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s opportunities for schooling. In my conceptual framework, the concept of altruistic capital will shed light on similar stories of sacrifices that the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 siblings made to support them in their social mobility journey. The various forms of cultural capital in the community cultural wealth are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot mutually exclusive or static, but rather are dynamic processes that build on one another\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Yosso, 2017, p. 122). The framework provides an analytical perspective on how students from lower social strata and other marginalized or racialized social groups are able to draw on their own cultural wealth embedded in their communities to succeed in (higher) education institutions, as evidenced in a growing number of studies in the United States, Latin America, Australia, and Asia (Brooms & Davis, 2017; DeNicolo et al., 2015; Espino, 2014; Jayakumar et al., 2013; Liou et al., 2009; Lu, 2013; Mobley & Brawner, 2019; O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Shea, 2016; Rogers & Anderson, 2019; Samuelson & Litzler, 2016; Trigos-Carrillo, 2020; Whitehead, 2019). The framework and its conceptualization of the different forms of cultural capital provide a relevant and robust analytical perspective for my study as the focus of this research is on students from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds who aspired to improve their living conditions and to realize their hopes and dreams through pursuit of higher education. 4.2.5.4 Working-class cultural complements Jessi Streib (2016) argues that upward social mobility is \u00E2\u0080\u009Clikely when individuals increase the volume of a form of capital they already possess\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 132). Streib (2016) proposes three types of culture that are born from the context of the poor, working-class and that facilitate upward mobility for the poor and working-class: (i) cultural complements, (ii) person-institution matches, and (iii) narratives of disadvantages-as-advantages. Of these three types, I find the cultural complements are particularly relevant for the context of my study and provide useful conceptual perspectives for analyzing the experiences of Cambodian men and women from poor 126 family backgrounds who drew on their own cultural resources to improve their living conditions by means of pursuing higher education. There are four cultural elements within the framework of the cultural complements that represent useful cultural resources that individuals from poor, working-class backgrounds possess and enable them to persevere in confronting challenging circumstances in lives. Culture, as defined by Streib (2016), refers to fragmented elements such as dispositions, strategies, narratives, styles, and identities. First is the capacity to handle setbacks. While people from different social strata handle setbacks in life in different ways, Streib (2016) argues that those from poor, working-class backgrounds \u00E2\u0080\u009Coften see setbacks as an unavoidable part of life\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 143). Poor, working-class children are socialized by their parents to persevere through these setbacks early on (Streib, 2013). Therefore, people who grew up in poverty are those \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwho are used to persevering through failure\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 143), making their capacity to handle setbacks an important cultural capital that is instilled early on as part of their habitus. Second is the capacity to cope with instability. Unlike those from middle or upper class, who \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexperience less instability, define lesser changes as unstable, tend to be more shaken when instability hits, and take longer to switch their focus to new tasks\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Streib, 2016, p. 143), those growing up in poverty develop emotional strategies to help them stay calm when confronted with change and crisis (Cooper, 2014; Kraus, Piff, Mendoza-Denton, Rheinschmidt, & Keltner, 2012; Streib, 2016). This capacity develops from \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgrow[ing] up in unpredictable environments in which changes occur suddenly\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Streib, 2016, p. 143). It is a crucial cultural complement that shapes the habitus of individuals from poor family origins and equips them with an important class-based resource to confront unpredictable situations as they navigate their journey for social mobility. Third is the capacity to work well in team environment. This cultural complement underpins the dispositional strength of individuals growing up in poor, working-class environments (Streib, 2016). Individuals from poor social origins are very likely to grow up in smaller spaces shared among extended family members and with less privacy (Stephens, Markus, & Phillips, 2014); they also \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctypically have interdependent relationships with family members and friends\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Streib, 2016, p. 143). As a result of these living circumstances, they tend to get along well with others, are more generous in terms of sharing their resources with others, and 127 possess a more collectivistic and cohesive rather than an individualistic mentality (Piff, Kraus, C\u00C3\u00B4t\u00C3\u00A9, Cheng, & Keltner, 2010; Snibbe & Markus, 2005). This life experience contributes to cultivating a capacity for teamwork, which is an important resource to draw upon in the process of social mobility. Fourth is the capacity to be aware of constraints. While those from middle and upper class are richer in resources and have less need to be aware of structural constraints because of the luxury of their living conditions, those from poor, working-class background are the opposite (Kraus et al., 2012). Therefore, they tend to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cparticularly aware of constraints\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Streib, 2016, p. 144). Their challenging living circumstances make them become what Streib (2016) calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccredentialed individuals\u00E2\u0080\u009D skilled at understanding the constraints that come their way (p. 144). This cultural complement comes handy for those from poor family backgrounds in their pursuit of hopes and dreams along a pathway usually paved with so many constraints. These cultural resources are internalized by individuals from poor, working-class backgrounds and shape their habitus or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdispositions that are distinct from those internalized and projected by the middle-class\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Streib, 2016, p. 144). These working-class-based cultural complements are important for facilitating social mobility of those born into poor, working-class backgrounds (Streib, 2016). The cultural complements, proposed by Streib (2016) as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpartial solutions\u00E2\u0080\u009D to the issue of culture in social reproduction (p. 134), contain different forms of capital that provide useful analytical perspectives for me to make sense of the experiences of the research participants in my study who were from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds. Although the concepts are developed in the context of North America, they are grounded in research studies conducted with people from poor, marginalized socio-economic backgrounds. Given the meaning of the Global South discussed above (Santos, 2018b; Santos & Meneses, 2020a), one could argue that these marginalized groups of people, though located in the Global North, are actually part of the Global South. By applying these concepts in my study in Cambodia, I am exploring the potential of utilizing these concepts in the Global South societies, while making contributions to a growing body of scholarship on the role of culture in social mobility in the Global South. 128 4.2.5.5 Gender-embedded capital Although Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work has been criticized by feminist scholars, his work provides a powerful conceptual framework for understanding the role of gender in the social relations of modern capitalist societies (McCall, 1992). Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s epistemological and methodological approach to social science research, which recognizes that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctheoretical narratives and political programs are themselves embedded in social relations,\u00E2\u0080\u009D not only parallels but also enhances feminist positions (McCall, 1992, p. 837). Insights from feminist scholarship offers a possibility to reconceptualize Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts in ways that promote understandings of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe relationship between structures of male dominance and the intersubjective experience of women\u00E2\u0080\u009D (McCall, 1992, p. 837), as well as the instability and change in gender relations, identities, and agency (McLeod, 2005; Thorpe, 2009). Three forms of gender-embedded capital based on feminist scholarship are useful additions to Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of capital: emotional, feminine, and female. Emotional capital. A form of capital that Bourdieu largely overlooks and which plays a crucial role in early socialization in the family is emotional capital (Cottingham, 2016; Gillies, 2006; O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Brien, 2008; Reay, 2000, 2004). Emotional capital is an important addition to Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of capital because its accumulation, embodiment and activation are part of the development of an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus and linked to the maintenance of his/her power and privilege (Cottingham, 2016). Bourdieu never refers to emotional capital explicitly in his work, but in Practical Reason Bourdieu (1998) describes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpractical and symbolic work\u00E2\u0080\u009D as about endowing \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceach family member with a \u00E2\u0080\u0098family feeling\u00E2\u0080\u0099 that generates devotion, generosity and solidarity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 68). Bourdieu argues that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthis work falls more particularly to women, who are responsible for maintaining relationships\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 68). A variant of social capital but confined to the private rather than the public sphere, emotional capital refers to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cemotionally valued assets and skills, love and affection, expenditure of time, attention, care and concern\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Allatt as cited in Reay, 2004, p. 61). It describes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe investments in others rather than the self\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Reay, 2004, p. 71). Reay (2004) argues that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwithin families, women engage in emotional labour far more than most men, taking responsibility for maintaining the emotional aspects of family relationships, responding to others\u00E2\u0080\u0099 emotional states and also acting to alleviate distress\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 59). Women have 129 a wide range of emotions in relation to their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s schooling, including not only guilt, anxiety, and frustration, but also empathy and encouragement (Reay, 2004). Emotional capital is both gendered and classed (Reay, 2004). Reay (2004) argues that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfathers are involved \u00E2\u0080\u0093 but at a distance\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 65). On the contrary, women take \u00E2\u0080\u009Cresponsibility for the majority of emotional involvement and emotional management,\u00E2\u0080\u009D particularly in the domestic sphere (Reay, 2004, p. 65). Moreover, a culture of survivalism, anxieties and tensions that poverty produces make it difficult for working-class women to find emotional space to support their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education (Reay, 2004). Compared to their middle-class counterparts, working-class women lack \u00E2\u0080\u009Ckey ingredients such as educational knowledge and confidence, material resources and social capital,\u00E2\u0080\u009D resulting in small returns in their emotional involvement in their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education (Reay, 2004, p. 70). Compared to middle-class women, working-class women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s provision of emotional capital to their children does not go hand in hand with providing cultural capital. Despite all these disadvantages, Reay (2004) argues, working-class women strive to enhance their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s emotional capital through their sensitivity, emotional support, and all the encouragement they can give. However, Cottingham (2016) argues that men are equally capable of transferring emotional support to their children. As Cottingham (2016) posits, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmen and women may hold similar amounts of emotional capital, particularly in terms of capacity for feeling, but draw on and use this emotional capital in different ways in order to meet differing cultural and situational expectations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 459). The argument that men lack emotional capital is \u00E2\u0080\u009Clinked to gender ideology rather than empirical reality\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 459). Furthermore, unlike Reay (2004), Cottingham (2016) claims that the conditions of poverty may instead foster the development of specific forms of emotional capital needed to thrive in impoverished circumstances. \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe experiences of the working-class and the poor,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Cottingham (2016), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmay actually foster greater emotional capital needed to confront economic adversities\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 456). In addition, while Reay\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2004) position is that middle-class women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s possessing of more cultural and material resources allows them to provide their children with not only emotional capital but also cultural capital, Cottingham (2016) argues that life experiences also provide \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe practical conditions in which emotional capital might develop\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 467). Emotional capital \u00E2\u0080\u009Cappears to have a much looser link with social class than Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s other capitals\u00E2\u0080\u009D for Reay (2004, p. 70); for Cottingham (2016), 130 emotional capital \u00E2\u0080\u009Coperates in tandem with other forms of cultural capital as a \u00E2\u0080\u0098feel for the game\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 466). Although much scholarship on emotional capital and education is based in the Global North societies, such as in the United Kingdom (Gillies, 2006; O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Brien, 2008; Reay, 2000, 2004) and in Australia (Santoro, 2010), the focus of these studies on poor, working-class people provides some relevant insights for considering the utilization of this form of capital to examine the life experiences of people in the Global South societies such as Cambodia. Research by Santoro (2010) on Indigenous teachers in Australia provides particular relevance to the context of my study. Santoro (2010) argues that for Indigenous people who pursued the teaching profession as an opportunity for their upward social mobility and a chance for them to bring about social change to their Indigenous communities, emotional capital was a crucial resource that their Indigenous mothers communicated to them in various ways (e.g., encouragement, coercion, anger), and motivated them to realize their goals despite enormous challenges and barriers they faced. In the context of my study, emotional capital may include a parent\u00E2\u0080\u0099s words of encouragement, coercion, anger, and other emotional involvement or strategies aimed at encouraging or motivating the research participants to study hard and complete their education. The concept of emotional capital is very useful as it attends to the emotional needs of the research participants who are from marginalized backgrounds and was a crucial intangible resource that helped them get through tough times and confront their impoverished economic situations in their pursuit of education for social mobility. Feminine and female capital. In Masculine Domination, Bourdieu (2001) argues that women are \u00E2\u0080\u009Cseparated from men by a negative symbolic co-efficient\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 93), and that there is a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdiminution of symbolic capital entailed by being a woman\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 93). Bourdieu (2001) posits that women experience a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdouble bind\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 67) when they attempt to access power because: if they behave like men, they risk losing the obligatory attributes of \u00E2\u0080\u0098femininity\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and call into question the natural right of men to the positions of power; if they behave like women, they appear incapable and unfit for the job. (pp. 67-68) 131 This argument indicates a general assumption that women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s capital is not legitimated within any field, nor is it converted into symbolic capital (Huppatz, 2009). In spite of this asymmetric social space, there is some room for women to at least tactically, if not strategically, capitalize on two forms of gender-embedded capital to engage in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplaying the game.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Furthermore, women not only accumulate capital but also possess their own feminine forms of capital (Huppatz, 2009). The two feminine forms of capital are feminine capital and female capital. Feminine capital is defined as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe gender advantage that is derived from a disposition or skill set learned via socialization, or from simply being hailed as feminine (this occurs when one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s body is recognized as feminine)\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Huppatz, 2009, p. 50). Feminine capital is culturally learned as it relates to feminine skills and aptitudes and may operate as a form of cultural capital (Huppatz, 2009). Caring, for instance, is considered a natural and innate feminine pastime; therefore, women, rather than men, are trusted to perform the work. In this sense, within this particular field of caring, feminine capital is legitimated and may operate as a symbolic capital that may be converted into economic capital for women; it may also provide economic rewards and job security. However, feminine capital is limited (Huppatz, 2009). As Huppatz (2009) argues: Although women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s recognition of their feminine capacities gives them confidence to play \u00E2\u0080\u0098the game,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 their naturalization of these capacities reinstates the doxic order \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 in which the feminine is subordinated to the masculine. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Femininity is not just used as a tool which may be taken up whenever needed. It is often incorporated into women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s selfhood so that they become \u00E2\u0080\u0098feminine selves\u00E2\u0080\u0099 who stand in opposition to \u00E2\u0080\u0098masculine selves.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (p. 55) It is this dichotomous nature of the gender order that continues to undervalue feminized fields, thereby diminishing women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s confidence in their capacities and limiting their practice (Huppatz, 2009). In my study, feminine capital is useful in explaining the way in which women may face challenges in pursuing higher education and building their career simply because their feminine capital (capacities, skills, and aptitudes) is perceived to be essential for childcare and other domestic roles, thus tying them to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe kitchen.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Feminine capital in this sense constrains rather than facilitates the opportunity for women to improve their social and economic status. 132 Female capital is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe gender advantage that is derived from being perceived to have a female (but not necessarily feminine) body\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Huppatz, 2009, p. 50). Huppatz (2009) argues that femaleness works to the advantage of women: it seems that female clients, female employees and female employers (in some way) privilege the female. This provides work for women and assists in promotion for some women. The more senior women have demonstrated how this capital can be used to change their positions, climb the field\u00E2\u0080\u0099s hierarchy, and perhaps gain some class mobility. (p. 57) It seems, therefore, femaleness (not femininity) is a capital that may be capitalized on and utilized for engaging in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplaying the game.\u00E2\u0080\u009D However, there are limits to this form of capital derived from femaleness when it is considered within the broader doxic order. As Huppatz (2009) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfemale clients or patients, female employees and female employers would not need to privilege women if an equitable power relationship existed between the genders\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 57). In the field of caring, for example, defining femaleness as a capital contributes to \u00E2\u0080\u009Creproducing the caring field as female and producing female capital\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Huppatz, 2009, p. 57), thereby not having much influence or symbolic value in other areas of social life beyond this field of caring. In the context of my study, femaleness may not be perceived as an advantage for women research participants within the social field of Cambodia. There are different layers of gender norms that limit women, from pursuing much education to advancing careers; thus, female capital may not be a useful resource for women at all. The concept of female capital, therefore, is useful for shedding light on this gender dynamics and how it disadvantages women research participants in their pursuit of higher education for social mobility. Huppatz (2009) argues that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfeminine and female capital does not tend to dominate masculine and male capital\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 58). These two forms of capital are \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctactical rather than strategic,\u00E2\u0080\u009D asserts Huppatz (2009), because \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthey do not have the same kind of institutional backing as masculinity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 60). They operate within limits and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmay only manipulate constraints rather than overturn power\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Huppatz, 2009, p. 59). In my study, therefore, it is possible that these two forms of capital constitute a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdouble bind\u00E2\u0080\u009D as Bourdieu (2001) calls it: for women, their feminine capital makes them the perfect mother and housewife to attend to 133 domestic chores and to mind the children at home; their femaleness further perpetuates the traditional gender norms that women need not pursue much schooling nor build any career, for their place is in the kitchen. These two forms of capital will cast more light on the burden that women have to carry in their pursuit of higher education for social mobility within the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework of Cambodia. They will at the same time reveal the kinds of advantages that men have over women because their masculinity and maleness are not constrained, but rather facilitated, by the traditional gender norms of Cambodian society. 4.2.6 Southern agency To make sense of social mobility within the contemporary Cambodian society encapsulated in multiple and complex layers of field structures and doxic orders that constitute different forms of habitus, it is imperative to conceptualize the notion of agency and situate it within this context. Given the structuring field structures with multiple layers, it is essential to understand how agency plays out in the process of social mobility of women and men who are from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. In this study, the concept of Southern agency provides a crucial and relevant lens for understanding the practices and decisions of the research participants in their journey of social mobility. The Western liberal notion of agency is posited as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cautonomous individuals\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u0093 an \u00E2\u0080\u009Call knowing freely choosing subject\u00E2\u0080\u009D usually found in the legal and juridical institutions and publications (Hilsdon, 2007; S. Lee, 2019; Pham, 2013; Widlok, 2007). Both feminist anthropologists and feminist poststructuralists argue that, in this Western liberal conception of agency, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindependent action is thought of as \u00E2\u0080\u0098unburdened\u00E2\u0080\u0099 by cultural traditions and the irrationality of the emotions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hilsdon, 2007, p. 130). This Euro-centric conception of agency, critiques S. Lee (2019), frames that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca single agency tends to confront structure individually\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cagency is either constrained or enabled by the structure in a dualistic way\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 85). Pham (2013) argues that the Western liberal notion of autonomous agency that is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccapable of self-consciousness, self-understanding, self-representation, and self-recreation/creation\u00E2\u0080\u00A6curbs the terrain of intelligible agency\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 34). This conception of agency privileges \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca particular mode of agency, namely conscious transgression of established orders\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Pham, 2013, p. 42). 134 However, in non-Western developing worlds, such as Africa and Asia, agency (especially of women) as conceptualized using the Western liberal concepts is inadequate and inaccurate for explaining agency in these non-Western contexts. To develop a more nuanced understanding of agency, especially of women, the poor, and the minimalized in the Global South societies, it is crucial to reconceptualize agency (Hilsdon, 2007). Feminist anthropologists and feminist poststructuralists in the context of Asia, for example, argue that agency needs to be conceptualized as \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocially and culturally situated\u00E2\u0080\u009D and that agency arises from \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwithin existing societal discourses and symbolic structures rather than in opposition to them\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hilsdon, 2007, p. 127). This is agency that exists within limits. There is room for freedom, but unlike the Western conception of agency, this freedom of agents is regulated by the dominant societal and symbolic discourses. An analysis by Pham (2013) of Saba Mahmood\u00E2\u0080\u0099s research on the Egyptian women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mosque movement and of potent verses from the eighteenth-century H\u00C3\u00B4 Xu\u00C3\u00A2n Huong tradition of Vietnamese folk poetry, reveals that the characteristics of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agency \u00E2\u0080\u009Cendure (i.e., inhabit in the most profound sense of that term) and negotiate their conditions of bondedness while envisioning self-fulfillment from within, not beyond, the entanglements of power, sociality, and divinity that shape their existence\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 42). Such notion of agency is situated within the bounds of relationships of power and socio-cultural norms, and expressive of continuous negotiations as an indication of meaningful aspects of existence. The notion of agency within the African context is similarly conceptualized. In the African context, argue van Dijk et al. (2007), agency is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cembedded in social, cultural and political ideas that are linked and developed through the groups a person belongs to\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 12). It is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpart of the production of certain social formations and the dynamics of interaction between people and between societies and their predicaments and the environment\u00E2\u0080\u009D (van Dijk et al., 2007, p. 1). Agency emerges from \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe complex dialectical interplay between actor and structure over time\u00E2\u0080\u00A6a continual interplay, a truly dialectical relationship between social thought, as presented by historical actors, and the structure of the material conditions in which they live\u00E2\u0080\u009D (van Dijk et al., 2007, p. 2). In this conception of agency, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnegotiations, maneuvering and muddling through are essential aspects of agency\u00E2\u0080\u009D (van Dijk et al., 2007, p. 5). It is this continuous dialectic engagement between the environment and the actor that characterizes the salience and meaning of agency. It is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cin confrontation with these [structural challenges and contestation] that people 135 come to define their own possibilities and agency\u00E2\u0080\u00A6[and the] strength of reflexivity\u00E2\u0080\u009D (van Dijk et al., 2007, p. 13). This notion of agency may be termed Southern agency, and, for analytical purposes, is intimately captured by Emirbayer and Mische\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1998) conceptualization of agency as follows: a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its habitual aspect), but also oriented toward the future (as a capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment). (p. 963) Within this conceptualization, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe structural contexts of action are themselves temporal as well as relational fields\u00E2\u0080\u0094multiple, overlapping\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998, p. 963). Moreover, \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial actors are embedded within many such temporalities at once\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccan assume different simultaneous agentic orientations\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998, p. 964). Moreover, continue Emirbayer and Mische (1998), \u00E2\u0080\u009CAs actors move within and among these different unfolding contexts, they switch between (or \u00E2\u0080\u009Crecompose\u00E2\u0080\u009D) their temporal orientations\u00E2\u0080\u0094as constructed within and by means of those contexts\u00E2\u0080\u0094and thus are capable of changing their relationship to structure\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 964). This conception of Southern agency provides a useful analytical perspective for understanding the experiences of men and women in my study in their negotiating the multiple and temporal constraints they face in their journey of social mobility. The multiple fields (local/colonized) represent multiple and at times overlapping temporal and relational fields within which the research participants move, negotiate, and maneuver as they try to envisage their possibilities and craft a meaningful avenue within the constraining and enabling contexts of action. There are two temporal and structural fields that open up the possibilities of agency in the context of my study. First, as discussed throughout this chapter, there exist multiple social fields (including local and colonized). In addition, the frequent regime change in Cambodia since independence ruptures the stability of the overarching social field, thus making ways for new field structures and opportunities to present themselves. When this mismatch between field structure and habitus \u00E2\u0080\u0093 or hysteresis as Bourdieu (1977) calls it \u00E2\u0080\u0093 occurs, new field structures or opportunities emerge. In times of homeostatic change and generational shifts where change takes 136 place gradually following a rather stable trajectory, individuals feel like they are \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca fish in water\u00E2\u0080\u009D where their habitus adapts constantly and gradually in response to new experiences anticipated (Hardy, 2008). In this sense, habitus and field are constantly in sync. Individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 position-taking in the social fields follows quite an anticipated trajectory. This is a condition that largely, but not always, underpins social reproduction. However, in other circumstances, such as abrupt change or crisis or a catastrophic event, which requires habitus to respond abruptly, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfield changes, but that response always takes time\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hardy, 2008, p. 132). In these circumstances \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhere new and stable field structures have yet to emerge,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Hardy (2008), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnovel field opportunities, often transitory, come into being. Habitus evolves in response to these new opportunities, but in unpredictable ways where the consequences for an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s field positioning are yet to be determined\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 132). There is where an opportunity to break the cycle of social reproduction may emerge to give way to social mobility. Second, feminist scholars (McLeod, 2005; McNay, 1999) argue that within the contemporary society where multiple fields exist and overlap, there is a growing instability of gender norms and contradictions arising from women crossing different social fields. As McLeod (2005) argues: Women experience degrees of both autonomy and subordination as they move across social fields such as the labor market, domestic life and the intimate. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 The possibility of dissonance and disjunction is both evidence of and produces change. (pp. 21-22) The disjuncture resulting from women crossing multiple fields creates space for ambiguities and unevenness of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender norms and \u00E2\u0080\u0098potentially conflictual\u00E2\u0080\u0099 subject positions\u00E2\u0080\u009D to emerge (McLeod, 2005, p. 22). Tensions inherent in the everyday negotiations of growing conflictual female roles that occur as a result of their moving across different social fields present a broader array of \u00E2\u0080\u009Calternative images of femininity\u00E2\u0080\u009D and contribute to increasing reflexive awareness in relation to gender relations and gender identities (Thorpe, 2009, p. 504). However, McLeod (2005) warns that while crossing different social fields may lead to increasing reflexivity, contradictions and instability, this process may not necessarily translate to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca dramatic transformation of gender\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 23). Instead, such increased gender reflexivity \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccan co-exist with the re-inscription of \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 gender in new but old ways\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmay be tied into 137 new arrangements of gender\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 23). \u00E2\u0080\u009CAs women enter into new fields certain aspects of gender relations may be destabilized,\u00E2\u0080\u009D argues Thorpe (2009), \u00E2\u0080\u009Cyet other aspects may be further entrenched\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 506). Therefore, it is important to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctheorize both change and continuity, invention and repetition, and understanding the forms they take today\u00E2\u0080\u009D (McLeod, 2005, p. 24). Similarly, despite the structural transformations resulting from frequent regime changes and the changing field structures in Cambodia since independence, certain field structures, their internal logics, and their accompanying doxic orders may remain unchanged or even reproduced and perpetuated. The continuity of coloniality through neocolonialism and neoliberal capitalism in postcolonial Cambodia, for example, may reproduce certain field structures and their doxic orders. At the same time, while the colonial doxa may disrupt the traditional doxic order and destabilize the local field structure and its internal logic, they do not necessarily disappear. In this study, the conception of Southern agency as \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocially and culturally situated\u00E2\u0080\u009D provides a useful analytical perspective for explaining the experiences of men and women as they negotiate the gender norms, the socio-cultural expectations, as well as the colonial conditions in their social mobility journey. The concept of Southern agency provides insights into the nature of change and continuity and the implications for making sense of the process of social mobility in the Global South societies, such as Cambodia. 4.3 Summary In this Chapter, I have developed a multi-layered conceptual framework by drawing on Pierre Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing and his concepts of doxa, illusio, field, habitus, and capital. In so doing, I have argued that Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s scholarship, especially his early writings that are situated in the context of colonial Algeria, has relevance for my study in the context of postcolonial Global South Cambodia. However, due to some limitations in Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s constructs, I have drawn on the scholarship of feminist scholars, the community cultural wealth perspective, and the working-class cultural complements framework for additional conceptual perspectives to make my conceptual framework better fit, more robust, and more relevant to the context of postcolonial Cambodia in particular, and Global South societies in general. Notably, I have added the concepts of traditional and colonial doxa; local and colonized field; family, colonial, and indigenous habitus; various forms of capital, including emotional, feminine, female capital; 138 and the notion of Southern agency. I have also discussed the continuity of coloniality of power sustained by the residue of colonialism, neocolonialism, and neoliberal capitalism, which collectively provides a relevant contextual framework for making sense of the nuances and complexities of the subjective experiences of men and women in my study. Social mobility is a dynamic and complex process underpinned by an interface between the socio-cultural, structural, and historical forces and the personal dispositions. This conceptual framework is rich, robust and relevant to the context of postcolonial Cambodia in particular, and the Global South in general. The framework goes far beyond what Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work allows. The incorporation of a number of conceptual perspectives to Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s original theory of practice in this conceptual frame, in fact, transcends Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work and offers a much more solidly articulated approach to the study of social mobility in a Global South society like Cambodia. There has not been much work that examines educational development in Cambodia from a colonial and postcolonial lens in general. There has been almost no research that examines the relation between social mobility and (higher) education in Cambodia from a (post)colonial lens. Particularly, there is little research by Cambodian scholars on Cambodian society. Therefore, it is my hope that my research and this conceptual framework will inspire Cambodians to do more research into social mobility and educational development in Cambodia from a postcolonial perspective and the burden of colonial legacies and the continuity of colonial conditions on the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational planning and development. In the next chapter, I discuss the research design of the study. I focus on the philosophical, ontological and epistemic foundation of my research methodology. Methods of data collection and analysis, and the characteristics of the research participants will also be presented. 139 Chapter 5: Research Methodology [L]ives are always in the midst of turmoil, and are continuously composed in response to the landscapes we live within, composed with imagination, improvisation, and agency. (Clandinin, Steeves, & Caine, 2013, p. 13) This chapter focuses on the research methodology of my study \u00E2\u0080\u0093 life history. I begin by discussing the insider-outsider dichotomy of myself as qualitative life history researcher. I then discuss the potentials and limits of quantitative approaches to social mobility research, which has underpinned sociological research on social mobility for several decades. Following this, I examine the potential of qualitative methodologies for social mobility research and how they are better able to capture the nuances that underpin the process of social mobility. Before delving into the details of research design, I discuss the theoretical orientation of the life history method and its value and limitations. I then present details on the research participant recruitment process, sources of data, approaches to data management and analysis, and ethical considerations taken in this study. This chapter concludes with a brief description of each research participant. 5.1 Beyond the researcher insider-outsider dichotomy In conducting this life history, qualitative research, I am reminded by Cole and Knowles (2001, p. 14) that: No longer are life history researchers (among others) content to distance themselves from research questions, participants, interpretation, and even representation. To the contrary, a fundamental shift has pushed researchers away from dichotomies of self-other, subject-object, and subjectivity-objectivity to an acknowledgment of an intersubjective realm of being and meaning that places them squarely in the research frame. This means that I am implicated in this research process, the ways in which I interpret the data, and how I make sense of the life stories of my research participants. However, if I consider myself an insider in this research process, I am reminded by Boulton (as cited in Gair, 2012), that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cif one is an insider, then 'those ordinary, routine, everyday things which are essential to an understanding of the world being researched would remain unnoticed' by the very nature of 140 knowing as an insider\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 138). This suggests that I carry the risks of imposing my own familiar values, beliefs and perceptions onto the life experiences of the research participants (R. Berger, 2015), and risk not noticing unique and specific aspects of the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 life experiences. As an outsider, on the other hand, especially with regard to my interaction with women participants, I may have been viewed as a man with certain privileges within this patriarchal socio-cultural framework of Cambodian society. I may not have heard the same kinds of details from the women participants as I would have if I were a women researcher conducting this study. There are both benefits and risks associated with holding either an insider or an outsider positioning. It was, therefore, important for me to be conscious of these potential risks as I engaged in various stages of this research. I did not want to be presumptuous and claim to fully understand the experiences of the research participants. As much as I could, I refrained from making any judgments or assumptions that might essentialize the experiences of the research participants. Moreover, I have been explicit about my positionality as demonstrated in my writing out my autobiography as part of the dissertation. I have been sensitive and expressed my genuine interest and willingness to learn and appreciate differences with and revelations by research participants. In my presentation of the research findings, do I speak for the research participants? Do I let them speak for themselves? Can they as the subalterns speak for themselves? With \u00E2\u0080\u009Csubalterns\u00E2\u0080\u009D generally considered to be people subordinated as a result of their class, age, or gender (Riach, 2017), the research participants in my study who are originally from marginalized socio-economic backgrounds may be considered subaltern. I am fully aware of Spivak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1988) conclusion in her pioneering essay Can the Subaltern Speak? that the subaltern cannot speak for themselves, specifically that their voices cannot be heard. I am also reminded by Trowler\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2014) research that, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceven where the subaltern acquires the dominant discourse and learns to speak, subalternity marks their voice with \u00E2\u0080\u0098accent\u00E2\u0080\u0099 which precludes their being heard\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 42). However, in my presentation of the findings of this study, I see myself as speaking with my research participants, instead of speaking for them. Considering that I am from a marginalized socio-economic standing, I consider myself as a subaltern in the same position as my research participants. 141 Seeing myself and other research participants as subalterns who have moved to a position of privilege offers a possibility for us (me and them) to speak for ourselves and to have our voices heard. I am drawing on their subaltern voices to make our voices heard. I also understand that the life history approach employed in this study enables this possibility. Bathina\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2014) research has shown that personal narratives offer a possibility for the subaltern to speak for themselves. Meanwhile, I am aware of the possibility that in my representation and interpretation of the data for this study, I may in the process rob my research participants of their own voices. As such, I have tried as much as possible to present their voices in the forms of excerpts from the interviews as I present my interpretation of the data. While this may not allow me to fully avoid committing what Spivak (1988) calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Cepistemic violence\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 280), which in this case means undermining the voices of the research participants, I am demonstrating my intent to avoid doing that and to let the voices of my research participants be heard as much as possible. In seeing myself as operating in within the insider-outsider dichotomy and at the same time between my current position of privilege and my past position of marginalized social standing, I am committed to being conscious of these dynamics. In the meantime, I am fully aware of the complexities of my position in this patriarchal society, especially when I claim to speak for the women participants in my study. Furthermore, my life story is an integral part of this dissertation. In particular, it was a way for me to reveal my positionality as I tried to make sense of the life stories of the research participants. It helped clarify my positionality in this project. As Cole and Knowles (2001, p. 10) remind us: \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 any research project is an expression of elements of a researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life history. In saying this we forthrightly challenge any claims of researcher \u00E2\u0080\u009Cobjectivity\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the study of human lives. As in other forms of qualitative research, the life history researcher serves as the central \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinstrument,\u00E2\u0080\u009D the prime viewing lens. Put another way, the researcher is a person and that person \u00E2\u0080\u0093 along with her or his own complex personal history \u00E2\u0080\u0093 is a guiding influence in all aspects of a study. Put simply, in social science research, people are studying other people, and all research is in some way autobiographical. This quote clearly captures my role in this research project. In using my short biography as the point of departure of this research, I made use of my own life story as a guiding instrument in the 142 entire research process. In so doing, I revealed to the reader my subjective positionality in my endeavor to gain an understanding of my own life trajectory as well as the life journeys of the research participants in this study. In this sense, I do not claim to be objective in my examination of the lives of the research participants and of my life. In trying to make sense of my own life journey, I interpret the meanings of different parts of my life through dynamic and complex processes of social interactions and constructions of my life experience. In the same vein, this applies to the ways through which I make sense of the life stories of the research participants in my study. My subjective interactions with them and their subjective and constructive interactions with others in their social contexts offer meanings to their life stories and constitute their \u00E2\u0080\u009Crealities.\u00E2\u0080\u009D I am further reminded by Cole and Knowles (2001) that, in qualitative research in general and in life history research in particular, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWho a researcher is, and the vantage point from which she operates, is important information for the reader of a research account\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 14). 5.2 Quantitative approaches to social mobility research and their limits Social mobility is at the heart of the thinking of the founding fathers of sociology such as de Tocqueville, Durkheim, Marx, Parsons, and Weber (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). Although the way they approach this subject matter varies, one common aspect among them is that social mobility is discussed in terms of social-historical processes and social dynamics, emphasizing the qualitative approach to the topic (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). However, between the 1950s and 1980s, social mobility research became a specialized and technical field and researched virtually exclusively based on quantitative survey-based methods (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997; Payne, 2007; Savage, 1997; Wong, 2011). This attraction to quantitative methods is most likely due to the dominance of the positivist, experimental paradigm, which was considered to be the only \u00E2\u0080\u009Cscientific\u00E2\u0080\u009D approach to knowledge generation. This development led to the sophistication of methodological approaches to social mobility research that narrowly focused on survey-based hypothesis testing \u00E2\u0080\u009Cat the price of cutting itself off from the observation of other dimensions of mobility processes and from the development of sociological and historical thinking as a whole\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997, p. 5). It is essential to understand what is being measured and how it is being measured to explain this move. In the mainstream, quantitative survey-based 143 approaches to social mobility research, a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mobility is measured in terms of either income or earnings (economic approach) or social class (sociological approach) (Grusky & Weeden, 2006; Stuart, 2012). A person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mobility can be measured either inter-generationally or intra-generationally (Stuart, 2012). In the inter-generational approach, economists measure social mobility by modelling the tabular arrays formed by discretizing the income distributions of parents and children or by examining the correlations between continuous income measures for parents and children (Grusky & Weeden, 2006, p. 86). For sociologists, the inter-generational approach involves tracing the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctransitions between cells in the matrices formed by cross-classifying the big-class categories of parents and children\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Grusky & Weeden, 2006, p. 86). These big-class categories comprise occupations such as professionals, managers, non-manuals, skilled and unskilled workers. The intra-generational approach involves measuring an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position over their lifetime (Andres & Adamuti-Trache, 2008; Stuart, 2012). For both economists and sociologists, adopting this approach means comparing a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s income or social class origin with his or her income or social class position at a later point in time to trace the transitions (Bossuroy & Cogneau, 2008). There are several different quantitative approaches to social mobility, two of which discussed below are among the influential models: the status attainment model and the class mobility model. First, the status attainment model developed by Blau and Duncan (1967) may be one of the most used approaches to the study of the reproduction of social inequalities and social mobility. Central to this approach is research into factors that influence status attainment, with The American Occupational Structure undertaken by Blau and Duncan (1967) as its landmark study. Underpinned by the functionalist theory, this gradational class approach to social inequality and mobility research differentiates \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial positions with regards to their location within a gradational and frequently unidimensional hierarchy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hertel, 2017, p. 57). Occupations have their own prestige and status and serve different functions in societies, which is considered a universal feature of differentiated societies (Parsons, 1940). What is important in this perspective is the assumption that social stratification is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdriven by meritocratic principles\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hertel, 2017, p. 58). For this framing, inequality is \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca continuum in which salient social differences can be continuously measured by e.g., income, status or prestige differentials\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 58). Focusing on the status attainment of American men, Blau and Duncan (1967) used the data 144 from the \u00E2\u0080\u009COccupational Changes in a Generation\u00E2\u0080\u009D supplement survey to the 1962 Current Population Survey. They analyzed various factors important for status attainment processes, including parental status, education, race, geographic mobility, fertility and marriage patterns. The most important finding is that fathers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 occupational status and educational attainment have a strong and independent influence on sons\u00E2\u0080\u0099 occupational achievements and status attainment. One of the main criticisms of this approach is that, because status measures vertical positioning, the gradational approach disregards \u00E2\u0080\u009Chorizontal differences between positions,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which may as well be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cimportant for life chances and class attainment\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hertel, 2017, p. 60). In relation to this, it is important to note that \u00E2\u0080\u009Coccupations may be similar in terms of status or prestige, but may differ because they are positioned within an institutional structure that is not reducible to one hierarchy\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hertel, 2017, p. 61). This gradational approach \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmay seriously misrepresent the mobility process if they fail to reflect the non-hierarchical categorical differences between social groups\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 61). Moreover, if gradational status attainment is equated with mobility, this approach suffers from a methodological problem (Hertel, 2017, p. 61). Hertel (2017) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009CGradational measures are possible because the researchers apply regression techniques to the question of stratification\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 61). However, this is based on an assumption that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe status attainment process is the same on each level of the predictor variables,\u00E2\u0080\u009D meaning that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cintergenerational mobility is not differentially governed by the different institutions from the educational system to the welfare state as a whole\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hertel, 2017, p. 61). This is an overt simplification (Hertel, 2017; Kerckhoff, 1995; Kuha & Goldthorpe, 2010). It does not take into account how institutional arrangements may have constitutive impact on life chances and shape the patterns of occupational status attainment and social mobility. Second is the class mobility model (or class schema). Originating from Goldthorpe and Hope\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1972) work, substantially modified in Erikson, Goldthorpe, and Portocarero (1979) and Goldthorpe (1980), and revised most recently in Erikson and Goldthorpe (1992), the model is underpinned by neo-Weberian and Marxist theoretical sensibilities (Bergman & Joye, 2005; Hertel, 2017). At the center of the class scheme approach are employment relations in industrial societies \u00E2\u0080\u0093 ones that \u00E2\u0080\u009Coperate (or ought to operate) on the basis of technical and economic rationality\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bergman & Joye, 2005, p. 9). Key characteristics of industrial societies \u00E2\u0080\u0093 increased labor differentiation, increased attention given to training and education that multiply technical 145 and professional skills, complexities and bureaucratization in managerial and administrative requirements \u00E2\u0080\u0093 give rise to a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdiversification of occupations, which can be classified according to the relations they form with each other\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bergman & Joye, 2005, p. 9). Based on the class schema, social positions are differentiated according to three thematic class divisions: employers, self-employed workers, and employees (Bergman & Joye, 2005; Hertel, 2017). In social mobility research, the class mobility model has been applied in a number of studies that demonstrate significant differences between social groups (Hertel, 2017), including studies by Beller (2009), Chan and Boliver (2013), Erola and Moisio (2007), Goldthorpe (1980), and Goldthorpe and Jackson (2007). While the class mobility model has been hailed for its cross-national analysis potential, it has also been critiqued because it is a fundamental representation of industrial societies with their social positions ordered vertically but with little relevance to horizontal differences (Hertel, 2017). It does not take into its schemata the contemporary class structure and complex class differentiation. Critics also question the outdated differentiation between manual and non-manual positions, as well as the too heterogeneous service class (Hertel, 2017). The quantitative survey-based approach to social mobility research has several strengths. First, it is considered an excellent method for the statistical description of large size human flows between social classes (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). This allows the researcher to be able to trace the impact of economic development on social mobility. Second, this method makes it possible for the researcher to compare social mobility between different generations (Savage, 1997) or across nations (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). Not only does this enable the researcher to trace the general trends and shed light on historical shifts in the occupational structure within countries, it is also useful for comparative studies across different countries. Third, the statistical data make it possible for the researcher to run statistical tests across large numbers of individual cases to identify different independent and intervening variables impacting upon people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mobility (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). Finally, the representative sampling technique of the quantitative survey-based method has its strength in the generalizability of its empirical findings to the whole population (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). However, when the quantitative survey-based approach comes to be regarded as \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe only scientific approach to the study of social mobility processes,\u00E2\u0080\u009D problems emerge (Bertaux & 146 Thompson, 1997, p. 6, emphasis in original). There are certain important limitations inherent in the quantitative survey-based method that renders it \u00E2\u0080\u009Cblind\u00E2\u0080\u009D to core aspects in the study of social mobility (Grusky & Weeden, 2006; Savage, 1997). First, this method oversimplifies the processes that underlie a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life chances and pathways towards mobility. This oversimplification takes the form of narrowing the multi-layered processes of social mobility to testable hypotheses deemed fit for the survey-based research. What is outside of the scope of formulated hypotheses is lost (Wong, 2011). Another oversimplification concerns the quantification of words (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997; Savage, 1997). Numbers become proxies for complex social processes to make quantitative analysis possible, which risks distorting the rich contextual information that gives clues to the mobility as a whole. This process imposes the insensitive langauge of numbers onto social phenomena that make better sense through a careful, rich, and subtle description. The second weakness is the researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tendency to isolate the unit of observation from the context (Benei, 2010; Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). This is the internal technical logic of the survey of randomizing and standardizing the sample. It wrests individuals from their families and local contexts, which are at the heart of a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility. Social mobility is a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmatter of family praxis\u00E2\u0080\u009D as it relates to all aspects of an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life, from the early age socialization through to his or her later endowment with social, economic, and cultural resources (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997, p. 7). Income-based social mobility measures \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfail to capture the social organization of inequality, including the emergence of social networks, norms, and \u00E2\u0080\u0098adaptive preferences\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (i.e., tastes, culture) within various social groupings\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Grusky & Weeden, 2006, p. 87). Meanwhile, class-based social mobility measures \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexclude many non-class processes\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Savage, 1997, p. 321). The study of social mobility based on quantitative survey data, as Savage (1997) puts it, could investigate either \u00E2\u0080\u009Cone variable in depth or many in breadth\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 312). It does not allow the examination of multiple factors in-depth in a particular context. It is not capable of capturing the processes and contextual dynamics that underlie a person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility. As Bertaux and Thompson (1997) correctly assert, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cat the narrowest, statistical studies of social mobility resemble the observation of a carnival through a keyhole\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 6). However, this does not necessarily mean that all quantitative research is basically flawed; it just cannot do everything. 147 5.3 Understanding social mobility in context: Qualitative approaches One of the major weaknesses of social mobility research is that it overlooks qualitative research on individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 identities, aspirations and their experiences (P. Brown et al., 2013). Social mobility researchers can gain important new insights from using qualitative case study methods, in particular. The strength of qualitative case study method lies in its ability to present an in-depth, rich, and subtle description of the case under study. This is of crucial importance in social mobility research because it sheds light on the underlying processes that work to structure the life chances and opportunities for individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). Because social inequalities and life chances are embedded in social processes and work to hinder or facilitate social mobility, only by examining these processes will the researcher be able to gain a more in-depth understanding of social mobility (Savage, 1997). Unlike the quantitative approach, which treats families as black boxes, the qualitative case study approach to social mobility research, such as case studies of families, allows a researcher \u00E2\u0080\u009Cto open those black boxes and see what takes place inside\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997, p. 19). By exploring inside the black boxes, Bertaux and Thompson (1997) argue, one can: at least look at their strategic efforts, the roles played by women and men, and by different generations, in the transmission of skills and resources, ambitions and dreams, and compare such efforts at transmission in various social milieux. We can track down why there might be sharp differences between the fate of different siblings; or whether it is mothers, fathers, or their interaction, whose influence is strongest in creating the family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s microclimate. By relating families to their social and local contexts, which are bound to be highly differentiated by class and other macrostructural variables, we can begin to discern what kinds of games families are forced to play, and what are the unwritten rules of such games. (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997, p. 19) In other words, the qualitative approach enables the researcher to examine the processes of individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mobility in their socio-cultural context. In particular, this is possible through in-depth interviews of participants which can shed light on the processes that enable and shape individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility (Crompton, 2008; Wong, 2011). Interviews also enable the researcher to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctease out the complex interplay between people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s strategies, values, and their mobility, a set of connections which has been rather elusive within virtually all survey-based approaches to the subject\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Savage, 1997, p. 321). 148 The strength of qualitative methods also lies in some specific methods commonly used in social mobility research, specifically life history/story of individuals or families (Bertaux & Kohli, 1984; Bertaux & Thompson, 1997; Goodson, 2001; Stuart, 2012; Thompson, 1981) and life course of individuals (Elder, 1994; Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2003; Evans, 2009; Matthys, 2013; Mayer, 2004). The data are normally collected through in-depth interviews. These kinds of data present \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconsiderable potentialities\u00E2\u0080\u009D for understanding \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial mobility processes\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997, p. 11); enable the researcher to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexamine how people plan, strategize, and reflect on their situation\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Savage, 1997, p. 317); provide \u00E2\u0080\u009Crich detail of the interface between the personal and the social,\u00E2\u0080\u009D particularly the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinter-dependencies\u00E2\u0080\u009D between other inner-societal stratifications such as gender, race, ethnicity, and disability within individual lives (Stuart, 2012, pp. 24-28); and are \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca continuous process of sense making\u00E2\u0080\u009D allowing the individuals to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cattach\u00E2\u0080\u009D meaning to their actions (Matthys, 2013, p. 21). Many of the qualitative studies, including Maclean et al. (2012), Matthys (2013), Mizrachi (2013), and Snee and Devine (2015), have demonstrated the importance and richness of qualitative approaches in the study of social mobility processes. They also show that social mobility is a dynamic and complex process shaped by both socio-cultural factors and agentic, reflexive capacities. In addition, the experiences of social mobility processes of men and women are different due to their differentiated gender role expectations, racial histories, and other socio-cultural norms (Beller, 2009; Crompton, 2003, 2006; Dom\u00C3\u00ADnguez & Watkins, 2003; Higginbotham & Weber, 1992; van den Berg, 2011). For instance, a study by van den Berg (2011) shows that women attached a different meaning to social mobility depending on to whose social mobility they referred. They subscribed to the dominant definition of social mobility (i.e., finding \u00E2\u0080\u0098better work\u00E2\u0080\u0099 or \u00E2\u0080\u0098getting more diplomas\u00E2\u0080\u0099) when they talked about social mobility of their children; however, they provided an alternative definition of social mobility for themselves (i.e., housing careers, informal education, and becoming more self-reliant or sense of autonomy). Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s understanding of the meaning of social mobility is shaped by the complex social context within which they are located. In another study, by Higginbotham and Weber (1992), comparing social mobility of black and white women in the United States, the findings show that black women attached the meaning of their social mobility to the uplifting of their family or even their \u00E2\u0080\u009Crace.\u00E2\u0080\u009D By contrast, 149 white women did not define their social mobility in relation to their family or racial group but viewed it as a more individual endeavor. Higginbotham and Weber (1992) conclude that for women, \u00E2\u0080\u009Crelationships with family of origin, partners, children, friends, and the wider community loom large in the way they envision and accomplish mobility and the way they sustain themselves as professional and managerial women\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 436). In a study about the role of social capital in women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility, Dom\u00C3\u00ADnguez and Watkins (2003) found that poor women had scarce social networks to gain a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cleverage effect\u00E2\u0080\u009D on their chance of social mobility. Compared to men, women had to work extra hard to develop their capital to be more competitive in the labor market, and to advance socially and economically. Sense of self-efficacy or agency is instrumental for women in this social mobility process. These studies point to the enormous potential of qualitative methodologies in social mobility research that is sensitive to identity and contextual differences between men and women and able to provide a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences of social mobility. The qualitative method in social mobility research has its own weaknesses, however. A commonly discussed limitation is related to statistical representativity (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). The method simply cannot claim to be statistically representative due to the nature of its sampling technique. In fact, qualitative method does not aim to generalize findings or to be statistically representative (M. B. Miles & Huberman, 1994). It is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cscientific value\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Sadala & Adorno, 2002) or \u00E2\u0080\u009Crigor\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Berg, 2009) to which this method aims to make contributions. The reliance on the interview as a data collection tool has other limitations that the researcher needs to bear in mind as well. The issue of impression management on the part of the interviewees during an interview presents a potential response bias (Edgerton & Roberts, 2014). It is not easy to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdistinguish whether respondents are giving their own views or the views which they feel they are supposed to give\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Savage, 1997, p. 317). Moreover, in life story/history approach, the question of memory \u00E2\u0080\u0093 of recalling the past events \u00E2\u0080\u0093 is another issue (Tierney, 1998). Details on this issue will be discussed below. 5.4 Qualitative research methodology and life history method As discussed above, social mobility research approached from a more quantitative methodology and concerned primarily with, inter alia, defining and measuring social class 150 categories and boundaries represents one of the most advanced fields of studies in sociology (Mallman, 2015; R. Miller, 2001). Comparatively, however, qualitative research on social mobility, which draws mainly on life-history interviews and ethnographic methods, is a marginal but rich area of studies and has attracted growing attention of many scholars (e.g., Bertaux, 1981b; Bertaux & Thompson, 1997; Friedman, 2014; Maclean et al., 2012; Mallman, 2015; Matthys, 2013; A. Miles et al., 2011; Mizrachi, 2013; Naudet, 2008; Savage et al., 2001; Shakow, 2014; Stuart, 2012). Many of these studies are inspired by classic studies, such as Shaw\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1966) The Jack-Roller, and Thomas and Znaniecki\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1927) The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. My study aims to contribute to this small but enriching tradition of qualitative social mobility research. Broadly speaking, qualitative research methodology is situated within the philosophical worldview of social constructivism or interpretivism, often associated with the works of Berger and Luckmann\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1966) The Social Construction of Reality and of Lincoln and Guba\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1966) Naturalistic Inquiry (Creswell, 2009; Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Sociologists who approach their research through a social constructionist lens \u00E2\u0080\u009Cviewed individuals and their stories as living illustrations of social conditions\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Cole & Knowles, 2001, p. 12). This research tradition holds the assumptions that: individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live and work. Individuals develop subjective meanings of their experiences. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 These meanings are varied and multiple, leading the researcher to look for the complexity of views. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Often these subjective meanings are negotiated socially and historically. They are not simply imprinted on individuals but are formed through interaction with others (hence social constructivism) and through historical and cultural norms that operate in individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives. (Creswell, 2009, p. 8) This means that individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 life experiences are the source of our understanding of the social world. They give meaning to individuals. However, these meanings are subjective and varied, largely shaped by social interaction among individuals and their social and cultural frames of reference. The ontological assumption of this worldview is that there is no such thing as observable, single reality, but multiple and varied realities or interpretations of a phenomenon. Similarly, from the epistemological standpoint, knowledge is not out there to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfound;\u00E2\u0080\u009D rather, knowledge is (co-)constructed by social actors. As Merriam and Tisdell (2015) argue, \u00E2\u0080\u009Creality is 151 socially constructed; that is, there is no single, observable reality. Rather, there are multiple realities, or interpretations, of a single event. Researchers do not \u00E2\u0080\u0098find\u00E2\u0080\u0099 knowledge; they construct it\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 9). Qualitative approaches, Bertaux (1981a) posits, offer \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca direct access to the level of social relations which constitute, after all, the very substance of sociological knowledge\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 31, original emphasis). Qualitative methodologies allow an understanding of individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 life experiences, how they make sense of their world, and what meanings they attribute to their life stories. More specifically, social mobility research with a qualitative approach opens the possibility of attaining a more in-depth understanding of questions concerning the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csubjective experiences of social class\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Mallman, 2015, p. 4) and presents high potential of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccapturing such nuances of human relationships\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 4). In other words, qualitative social mobility research has the advantage of uncovering the fluidity of social class boundaries, the complex dynamics of personal and interpersonal relationships, and the socio-cultural processes that underpin social mobility trajectories. It provides insights into, as Mallman (2015) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe triumphs and struggles of the upwardly mobile negotiating life at work and in community\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 4). These characteristics of qualitative social mobility research fit well with the overall purpose of my study: its aim is to gain an understanding of the processes that underlie the social mobility trajectories of professionals from poor family origins, through the examination of their life histories. My study adopts a life history-oriented method. 5.4.1 Theoretical orientation of the life history method The life history method is originally situated in the sociological theoretical tradition known as symbolic interactionism, which is grounded in pragmatism and emphasizes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe symbol, processual and interactive nature of reality and its social construction\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Armstrong, 1987, p. 5). In this tradition, ontologically speaking, reality is socially constructed by members of society as they engage in their everyday lived experiences (Armstrong, 1987; Denzin, 1992; Faraday & Plummer, 1979). The ontological foundation of symbolic interactionism, as Denzin (1992) argues, is that: human beings create the worlds of experience they live in. They do this by acting on things in terms of the meanings things have for them. These meanings come from 152 interaction, and they are shaped by the self-reflections persons bring to their situations. (p. 25) This view highlights the nature of reality: \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe symbolic, emergent and interactive nature of social reality\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Faraday & Plummer, 1979, p. 775). It also emphasizes the interface between socio-cultural forces and individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 reflections and their personal agency in constructing social reality. Epistemologically, the life history method adopts a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpragmatic approach to knowledge in which the ultimate test of truth is experience\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Faraday & Plummer, 1979, p. 779). This approach emphasizes the significance of lived experiences as a source of knowledge and concerns itself primarily with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdepicting the immediate lived experiences as actual members in everyday society grasp them\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 779). The life history method acknowledges, however, that lived experiences change from one context to another. Thus, it does not claim to grasp \u00E2\u0080\u009Cany kind of universal truth\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 779), but to portray truth based on lived experiences in context. The theoretical foundation of the life history method provides fundamental premises for my study that examines the processes of social mobility of professionals from marginalized socio-economic origins. First, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpreoccupied with the daily, ritual, and enforced performances of stigmatized identities (race and gender),\u00E2\u0080\u009D as Denzin (1992) asserts, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe interactionists speak always to those persons who occupy powerless positions in contemporary society\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 20). Although my study focuses more on class and gender, it examines the lived experiences of those from the lower class of Cambodian society. Second, as Denzin (1992) posits, interactionists: believe that persons, not history, make history; but they understand that the histories that individuals make are not always of their own making. In that case any individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s or group\u00E2\u0080\u0099s history becomes the history of other people. Symbolic and interpretive interactionists attempt to speak to the nuances, realities, and fabrics of these two kinds of history which shape one another. (p. 24) This theoretical tradition speaks to the aim of my research: socio-cultural forces and personal agency that shape the processes of social mobility of those from marginalized backgrounds. As Faraday and Plummer (1979) emphasize, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe selection of any research technique should always be contingent upon the research problems and theories at hand; \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 In order to understand the selection of any research technique one should go back to the most fundamental issue: the 153 general goals of the research\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 775). The life history method grounded in symbolic interactionism is an excellent fit for the overarching goals of my study. 5.4.2 Value of the life history method Situated within the theoretical tradition of symbolic interactionism, the life history method has been a popular research approach in qualitative social mobility research since the 1980s, as evidenced in the works of Bertaux (1981b), Bertaux and Kohli (1984), and Bertaux and Thompson (1997). It offers the potential of understanding how \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe past and the present can illuminate each other\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Lie, 2000, p. 30). Life history method highlights the ways in which social agents construct their life stories by drawing upon recollections of possibilities and events in their lives and weaving them together in a rather coherent story line (Andrle, 2001). This sheds light on the mutually re-constitutive influence between social agents and their life events, and offers \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca route to more \u00E2\u0080\u0098authentic\u00E2\u0080\u0099 data and\u00E2\u0080\u00A6give[s] information on how people experience and negotiate the social world\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Allen, 1998, p. 232). Punctuated by epiphanies (Denzin, 1989) or significant turning-point moments in life (Flowerdew & Miller, 2008), life histories reveal dynamic interactions between social agents, life events, courses of action taken, and underlying emotions (Giddens, 1991; Maclean et al., 2012). There are several important contributions that the life history method has to offer in deepening our understandings of lived experiences of members of society (Faraday & Plummer, 1979, pp. 776-778). First of all, the life history method is able to grapple with the problem of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe subjective reality\u00E2\u0080\u009D of individuals (p. 776). The method enables the researcher to document the inner, subjective reality as constructed by people themselves as they interact with others, reflect on their socio-cultural circumstances, and interpret and understand their social world (Armstrong, 1987; Faraday & Plummer, 1979). It casts light upon people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s assumptions and problematics in their lives. Secondly, the method offers a transformative means for research participants, especially those from the marginalized groups such as women to define their identities and experiences, and to express their political voices (Huppatz, 2009; Langellier, 2003). Personal narratives collected through the life history method, argues Langellier (2003), have the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctransformative power to assert self definitions about who matters and what matters: the existence, worth and vitality of a person or group as meanings not otherwise available\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 454). 154 Another strength of the life history method is its focus on process and ambiguity, rather than uniformities and regularities that seem to be the mainstream of social science (Faraday & Plummer, 1979). Because this method does not aim for the generalizability that is the quest of most social science, it does not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cimpose order and rationality upon experiences and worlds\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 776). Instead, it gives significance to chaos, ambiguities, and problematics that people face in their everyday lives that seem to fly under the radar of many social sciences. Therefore, the life history method is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpeculiarly suited to discovering the confusions, ambiguities, and contradictions that are displayed in everyday experience\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 777). Moreover, the life history method focuses on totality of individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lived experiences. This strength enables the researcher to gain in-depth understandings of the individual within the broader socio-cultural and historical framework in which he or she is located. It sheds light on the interface between structure and agency. The method \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstresses the interplay of individuals and their society, of biography and history, and of self and world\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Armstrong, 1987, p. 10). Research using life history approach \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgoes beyond the individual or the personal and places narrative accounts and interpretations within a broader context\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Cole & Knowles, 2001, p. 20). Because these life histories are constructed within a socio-cultural context (Allen, 1998), examining life histories reveals the underlying socio-cultural and historical dynamics and processes that shape individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social practices. The life history method sheds light on social formations and social changes. As Faraday and Plummer (1979) assert: the study of life histories may actually illuminate and throw light upon the wider social formations to a much greater extent than other qualitative work. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 People do not wander round the world in a timeless, structureless limbo. They themselves acknowledge the importance of historical factors and structural constraints. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Whilst the life history might be gathered at a particular point in time it throws light upon historical changes which have occurred in the wider world during that person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lifetime. (p. 780) Mary Bateson\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1989) seminal work Composing a Life is a significant example that powerfully illustrates how studying individuals through their personal narratives illuminates the broader social and cultural changes. This also speaks to the interconnectedness between the personal and the social; that is, the sociological imagination that C. Wright Mills proposed 155 several decades ago. As C. W. Mills (1959) puts it, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 6). By studying individuals and their personal narratives, we are able to gain insights into the nature of social formations and historical changes within a society in which the life stories are situated. Therefore, examining individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility processes through the use of life-history method allows for uncovering of the nuances and subtleties of their interpersonal relations and inter-generational transmission of social status and privilege (Bertaux, 1981b; Bertaux & Thompson, 1997). It also makes explicit the nuanced socio-cultural processes that undergird the different social mobility experiences of men and women, revealing socio-cultural dynamics at work in individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives (Bertaux, 1981b; Mallman, 2015). 5.4.3 Limitations of the life history method Despite the central value of the life history method, as was discussed above, however, it is important to note that the method has some limitations, most of which are inherent in the qualitative research methodologies in general. The section elaborates on the limitations of the life history method, or for what the method is not intended. First, the life history method is not meant for capturing \u00E2\u0080\u009Cobjective\u00E2\u0080\u009D facts of the past events. It is not intended for compartmentalizing individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lived experiences and amputating them to fit certain preconceived assumptions or hypotheses. Rather, the method is used for purposes of exploring and making sense of the meanings and significance that individuals attribute to past events in their lives within their specific socio-cultural and historical contexts. This limitation is tied not only to the epistemological and ontological assumptions of the life history method, as discussed above, but also to the nature and function of our memory and the way in which we employ language as a tool to describe our memories of past events. As articulated by Bochner (2016), My memory of events is my memory now; it is what I know and remember now, not what I knew then in the past; from an epistemic point of view, the most I can say is it is knowledge from the past and not necessarily knowledge about the past. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 As time passes we rethink, redescribe, even refeel the past as part of our ongoing sense-making endeavors. When we make our stories, we have arrived at a conclusion about the past, 156 some small truth that we want to establish about past events. (Bochner, 2016, p. 203, original emphasis). Our memory of past events is, therefore, not an accurate record about them; rather it is fluid and influenced by our position in the present. As we look back at those events, think about them, talk about them, often with emotions, and make sense of them in a way that is coherent and meaningful to our present circumstances, we are bound to polish and varnish our stories. As I am reminded by Bochner (2016), \u00E2\u0080\u009CMemory never provides unmediated access to the past as it was; indeed, memory work is itself a form of mediation, of rewriting, revising, remembering, and recounting\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 206). It is usual that we color our memories in ways that make sense for us as we re-describe and re-feel them from the standpoint of the present. Our memory stores \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca certain sort of evidence that can be appreciated and interrogated, mined for meanings and feelings and opportunities to better understand the performances of memory as an expression of an indeterminate past\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bochner, 2016, p. 206). This is an important process of sense-making of past events and of establishing a sense of continuity between the past and the present. It is therefore important to note that the life history method, which relies on research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 recollections and memories of past events, is not intended to capture perfect snapshot of past events, but to supply contexts to past events and situate them within specific socio-historical backdrops for sense-making and continuity between the past, the present, and the future. Life, as Bateson (1989) reflects, is \u00E2\u0080\u009Can improvisatory art\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 3). This is a natural aspect of life as we live it. Bateson (1989) goes on to argue that: we combine familiar and unfamiliar components in response to new situations, following an underlying grammar and an evolving aesthetic. It started from a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conflicting elements to fit rapidly changing settings. (Bateson, 1989, p. 3) Second, unlike the conventional viewpoint of the positivist tradition, which aims to separate the researcher from the researched, in life history research, the researcher is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpresent\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the whole research process. The research itself and the data collected are necessarily a co-construction between the researcher and the researched. In the process of interviewing, data analysis, and writing, I am present in this process through the ways I asked questions or clarified 157 the questions to the research participants, in the ways I analyzed the data and wrote the descriptions of their life histories; I am present in the whole process: I write my own story into this dissertation. In studying the lives of the research participants, I am examining my own life, thus co-constructing the collective experiences and meanings in the process. As Cole and Knowles (2001) argue, the life history method: acknowledges not only that personal, social, temporal, and contextual influences facilitate understanding of lives and phenomena being explored, but also that, from conceptualization through to representation and eventual communication of new understandings to others, any research project is an expression of elements of a researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life history. In saying this we forthrightly challenge any claims of researcher \u00E2\u0080\u0098objectivity\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in the study of human lives. (p. 10) The life history method does not lay claim to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cobjective\u00E2\u0080\u009D position of the researcher in studying human experiences. This is a claim premised upon the theoretical foundation of the life history method itself. Third, the life history method is not about establishing causal correlations between past events/decisions and present/future outcomes, nor is it about searching for a formula to predict future success. Instead, it is about finding meanings that emerge out of individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lived experiences in context. As Robert Coles (cited in Bochner, 2016) remarks, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAn ethics of memory calls us to the question of what we do with our memories, how we use traces to make stories that give meaning to our lives now and change who we can be in the future\u00E2\u0080\u009D (pp. 206-207). Bateson (1989) says it best when she reflects on the lives of women in her seminal work Composing a Life: These are lives in flux, lives still indeterminate and subject to further discontinuities. This very quality protects me from the temptation to interpret them as pilgrimages to some fixed goal, for there is no way to know which fragments of the past will prove to be relevant in the future. Composing a life involves a continual reimaging of the future and reinterpretation of the past to give meaning to the present, remembering best those events that prefigured what followed, forgetting those that proved to have no meaning within the narrative. (Bateson, 1989, pp. 29-30) 5.5 Research participant recruitment process This study examines social mobility in contemporary Cambodian society. The term \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccontemporary\u00E2\u0080\u009D in this study denotes the Cambodian society from the 1990s until the present 158 day. This timeframe is defined because it was in the beginning of the 1990s that Cambodia began its post-conflict peacebuilding and re-integration into the regional and global economy after more than two decades of civil armed conflict. The dynamic and complex socio-cultural, political, and economic transformation in Cambodia beginning in the 1990s (Hughes, 2009; Hughes & Un, 2011) provides an important contextual backdrop to the processes that shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility. The following criteria were initially used to recruit the research participants: a) Graduated from university with their first degree in the 1990s or the 2000s; b) Self-identify as belonging to poor family category during the period of growing up and pursuing grade school and university education. A poor family category in this study is understood as a family which lived from hand to mouth. The family managed to make ends meet, with little to no extra savings, resources, or any other assets for future plans or investments; c) Originally come from the provinces or towns outside of the capital city of Phnom Penh; d) Hold a high professional position in Cambodia. The study originally proposed a purposeful, criterion-referenced strategy (using the criteria above) to recruit research participants from a network of Cambodian professionals called Cambodian Professional Group (CAMPRO). CAMPRO was formed in 2003 with the primary purpose of sharing ideas and opinions to advocate for a better Cambodian society. CAMPRO has about 500 members who exchange their ideas, thoughts and perspectives about social, cultural, economic and political issues on and relevant to Cambodia. This exchange occurs via an email platform (a Google group) and a website http://campropost.org. The group was originally selected for this study for several reasons. First, CAMPRO represents the largest community of Cambodian professionals who completed university in a wide range of fields of studies. CAMPRO members include Cambodian professionals who are from diverse socio-economic origins and who are working in private enterprises, government institutions, non-governmental organizations, development agencies, universities and media. Second, most of CAMPRO members were born in the 1970s and 1980s, which means that they graduated from university in 159 the 1990s and 2000s. This means most of the members would be able to share their experiences of social mobility during the early stage of Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s reconstruction in the 1990s, as well as the more recent developments of the 2000s and later. This group would provide an interesting picture of the experiences of social mobility over the past two decades in Cambodia. The study was approved by the Behavioral Research Ethics Board (BREB) of the University of British Columbia on May 6, 2016. However, because I was planning to go to Cambodia to interview the research participants around the end of the year, an invitation email to invite CAMPRO members to participate in the study was not sent out until September 5, 2016. A reminder email was sent out on September 11, 2016. By September 16, 2016, only three CAMPRO members had expressed interest in participating in the study, which did not meet the desired number of participants for this research. In consultation with my research supervisor, it was established that a new approach to recruiting additional research participants was necessary. An amendment was then proposed to recruit additional research participants. The amendment was submitted to BREB on September 20, 2016 and was approved on October 26, 2016. This amendment was built on the previous recruitment strategy by adopting a snowball, criterion-referenced strategy (Berg, 2009). Also known as chain referral sampling or respondent-driven sampling, snowballing is one of the best ways to recruit research participants with certain attributes or characteristics identified as necessary in the research (Berg, 2009). To recruit additional research participants, the following procedure was used: a) The three participants who had already agreed to participate in the study were asked to help recruit additional participants who met the recruitment criteria. Through recruitment by participant referral, I requested the current participants to forward the email invitation to other potential participants who might be interested to participate in the study. These potential new participants were asked to contact me directly if they were interested to participate in the study. b) When I received an expression of interest to participate in the study by a potential participant, I then sent an email to him/her. The email was attached with two documents. The first document was about two pages long and provided an overview of the study, ethical concerns and confidentiality questions, and how these were addressed. The second document was a one-half page survey for him/her to fill out 160 and email back to me. This short survey primarily collected information that dealt with the four recruitment criteria. c) When a potential participant returned a completed survey, I reviewed the survey to determine if he/she fully met the recruitment criteria. If he/she met the criteria, I sent another email to him/her, which included two documents. The first one was the informed consent form (Appendix A) for him/her to review before the interview (I brought a copy of the form for each participant to sign during the face-to-face interview). The second was a list of provisional interview questions (Appendix B). Each participant was also asked to indicate his/her available time(s) and convenient venue(s) for an interview. d) I developed a simple database to record the details of the participants who met the recruitment criteria. The database included demographic details, the information related to the recruitment criteria, and the location and available date(s) for the interviews. e) For the interested participants who did not fully meet the recruitment criteria, I responded by acknowledging their interests in the study and informing them of the criteria that they did not meet. They were also requested to forward the email invitation to any other potential participants who might meet the criteria and who might be interested to participate in the study. f) The snowballing strategy was repeated until the desired number of research participants was achieved. The recruitment of additional research participants lasted from October 20, 2016 until the completion of the field research on January 31, 2017. In total, 17 people expressed interest in participating in the study and fully met the recruitment criteria. However, six of the 17 people were not available for interviews for various reasons. Mostly, busy work schedules on the part of the interested research participants were the main reason. There were two interested participants who did not respond to my email when I was trying to arrange a specific time and date for an interview. It was not possible to have women participants from rural areas because a health issue of one of the interested women participants from a rural area did not allow her to sit for an 161 interview. Three women participants did not meet one of the criteria (they were born and raised in Phnom Penh) but were still interviewed because they were really interested in the study and wanted to participate in it. I thought they had very insightful urban life experiences, which was useful for a comparative purpose with the life stories of those who were born and raised outside of the capital city. These women were from urban poor family origins. Finally, a total of 12 people was interviewed for this study, three of whom were women. I was in Cambodia from November 29, 2016 until January 31, 2017 to interview the participants who had agreed to participate in the study. The participants in this research are Cambodian professionals who are from poor family origins and who currently hold a professional position in Cambodia. Guest, Bunce, and Johnson (2006) argue that it is sufficient to have around 12 interviews for qualitative research, in which the points of saturation and variability in data analysis can be achieved. While keeping this number in mind, I recruited a relatively small number of research participants for this study, so that I was able to focus my analysis on the depths of their life stories. Efforts were made to try to recruit as many women participants as possible because gender analysis in relation to social mobility in Cambodian society is an important focus of this study. However, as noted above, it was not possible to recruit women from rural backgrounds to participate in this study. 5.6 Sources of data: Life history interviews It is a shared understanding among life history scholars that this method is very useful in collecting rich data that aluminate the dynamics and complexities of the socio-structural constraints that shape people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lived experiences and the ways in which they respond to those constraints. Life history accounts are \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E2\u0080\u0098particularly rich sources because, attentively interpreted, they illuminate both the logic of individual courses of action and the effects of system-level constraints within which those courses evolve\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (The Personal Narrative Group, as cited in Cole & Knowles, 2001, p. 13). Life history interviews are \u00E2\u0080\u009Csome of the best tools with which to elicit the expression of what people already know about social life\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bertaux, 1981a, p. 39). The primary source of data for this study comes from in-depth qualitative, life history- oriented interviews with the 12 research participants (see Appendix B: Provisional Interview Protocols). It is important to note that life histories, as Kohli (1981) argues, are not \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca collection 162 of all the events of the individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life course, but rather \u00E2\u0080\u0098structured self-images\u00E2\u0080\u0099\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 65). Therefore, the interviews employed in this study focused primarily on the participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 family circumstances, educational and occupational/professional backgrounds, life turning-points, and major events and decisions that have had effects on their social mobility trajectories (Denzin, 1989; Maclean et al., 2012). These turning points or major life events include, but are not limited to, change of residence (i.e., moving from rural to urban centers), change of employment status of breadwinner(s), death/illness of breadwinner(s) or other family member(s), marriages or births in the family, opportunities for further education such as scholarships or awards. With this kind of interview using open-ended questions, the data presented \u00E2\u0080\u009Cconsiderable potentialities\u00E2\u0080\u009D for understanding \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial mobility processes\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997, p. 11), and allowed me to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexamine how people plan, strategize, and reflect on their situation (Savage, 1997, p. 317). This kind of data also provided rich detail of the interface between the personal and the social, particularly the inter-dependencies between other inner-societal stratifications within individual lives such as gender and ethnicity (Seidman, 2006). An in-depth exploration of \u00E2\u0080\u009Can individual life-in-context,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as Cole and Knowles (2001) argue, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbrings us that much closer to understanding the complexities of lives in communities\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 11). The original plan was to follow Andrle\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2001) strategy and ask all research participants to write down on a timeline the years in which major events had left marks on their lives. These events or turning points are what Denzin (1989) calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Cepiphanies,\u00E2\u0080\u009D which present special significance or meaning in the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives. They would then be asked to explain why those years/events were selected during the face-to-face interviews. However, only one research participant was able to complete this request. The rest of the participants were too preoccupied with their personal commitments to have time to create a timeline prior to the face-to-face interview. Each participant was interviewed once. The interviews lasted between 90-150 minutes. The interviews were conducted in the Khmer language, the mother tongue of the research participants and myself. Conducting the interview in the native language of the participants allowed them to fully express themselves in ways that might not have been possible if expressed in any other language. All interviews were conducted face to face at a place convenient for each research participant. These were at an office, or a caf\u00C3\u00A9 or a restaurant where there was a private 163 and quiet space. Before an interview was conducted, I introduced to each participant the objectives of the study, potential risks and benefits for participating in the study, and other important details as laid out in the informed consent form (Appendix A). They were then asked to sign the form to indicate they understood all the risks and benefits and that they agreed to be interviewed for the study. With permission of the participants, all interviews were audio-recorded. I pilot tested the interview questions before using them with the research participants. I interviewed two Cambodian Canadian men who met the recruitment criteria stated above. The two pilot participants were originally from Cambodia and have now relocated to live in Vancouver, Canada. The pilot interviews were conducted in Khmer. The primary purpose of pilot testing the interview questions was to find out the extent to which the interview questions would help me understand the phenomenon under investigation. It was also to check the clarity of each interview question and the approximate time needed for each interview. Immediately after each pilot interview, the pilot participant was asked for their overall feedback and possible concerns about the clarity of each question and the flow of the whole interview process. Based on their feedback, a few minor adjustments were made to the interview questions to improve the clarity of some questions. It is important to highlight some of the challenges related to translating the interview questions from English into Khmer, conducting the interviews in Khmer, and translating the interview transcripts from Khmer back into English. One of the challenges concerns translating the words \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D into a Khmer equivalent that is easy to understand. There is no proper Khmer equivalent that is commonly used among the general public. The translated phrase \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E1\u009E\u0085\u00E1\u009E\u009B\u00E1\u009F\u0090\u00E1\u009E\u008F\u00E1\u009E\u0097\u00E1\u009E\u00B6\u00E1\u009E\u0096\u00E1\u009E\u009F\u00E1\u009E\u0084\u00E1\u009F\u0092\u00E1\u009E\u0082\u00E1\u009E\u0098\u00E2\u0080\u009D represents a combination of the word \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E1\u009E\u0085\u00E1\u009E\u009B\u00E1\u009F\u0090\u00E1\u009E\u008F\u00E1\u009E\u0097\u00E1\u009E\u00B6\u00E1\u009E\u0096\u00E2\u0080\u009D (i.e., mobility) and \u00E2\u0080\u009C\u00E1\u009E\u009F\u00E1\u009E\u0084\u00E1\u009F\u0092\u00E1\u009E\u0082\u00E1\u009E\u0098\u00E2\u0080\u009D (i.e., social). However, when used in the interviews with the research participants, who are highly educated, it still took some elaboration to help them understand what it meant. The research participants seemed to grasp the meaning of the Khmer phrase easily if I simply uttered its English translation \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D instead. During the interviews, most of the research participants seemed to find it more comfortable to use the phrase \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D in English rather than in its Khmer translation. 164 Moreover, throughout the interviews, most research participants responded to interview questions mixing English and Khmer. In some ways, this facilitated my translation of the interviews from Khmer into English. Generally speaking, this word-for-word translation does not necessarily communicate the meaning of the word that could be understood in everyday conversations. However, in utilizing the English words \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocial mobility\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the interviews, I risked enabling this concept to frame the thinking and perspectives of the research participants in their responses. As a Cambodian Canadian fluent in both English and Khmer, I did not require outside translators or interpreters for data in Khmer. However, the use of English language as a dominant Western linguistic capital in Cambodia has the potential for framing the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 worldviews. To try to address this issue, I made sure to ask the research participants questions that would encourage them to focus on the meaning or purpose of social mobility they pursued. That allowed time for critical reflection on its meaning within the Cambodian context as opposed to the Western context. Similarly, there are terms and concepts in Khmer that I found difficult to translate into English in a way that communicates their socio-cultural meaning and perspectives. For example, the phrase samput knong phnot is literally translated into English as \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca robe in its perfect folds\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cperfectly spotless or pure,\u00E2\u0080\u009D but this translation does not communicate its cultural meaning and the worldview of the Khmer that this phrase suggests. This is an example of what Ruitenberg, Knowlton, and Li (2016) call \u00E2\u0080\u009Cuntranslatables\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 612). They have their own socio-cultural traditions and assumptions that the English equivalents are not able to communicate. One way to address this challenge, recommend Ruitenberg et al. (2016), is to practice what Appiah (1993) calls \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthick translation.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This involves annotating and glossing a particular translated term or concept with its rich cultural and linguistic context of origin. In this dissertation, I have supplied not just literal meaning but also socio-cultural and traditional context and meaning of the Khmer terms and concepts (in the text and as footnotes) which the English translations are not able to communicate to the reader. Overall, the challenges in the translation of these terms represent \u00E2\u0080\u009Cproductive difficulty\u00E2\u0080\u009D because it forces me as the researcher and the research participants to reflect more critically on the meaning of the words or phrases we used. Though challenging, attending to this issue of 165 translation \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdeepens researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s understanding of their data and the assumptions on which the research questions rest\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Ruitenberg et al., 2016, p. 622). 5.7 Approaches to data management and analysis With consent of the research participants, each interview was recorded using a digital voice recorder. Qualitative data management software NVivo was used to manage the interview recordings and facilitate the transcribing/translating each interview. Each interview was transcribed and translated from Khmer into English. NVivo was also used to facilitate analytic memo writing for each interview. Following R. Thomson et al. (2004), individual case profiles were created. Each profile includes information on background (family, educational, occupational) and major life events that have had effects on the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility journeys. Case profiles for individual research participants were useful for the examination of the differences and similarities among all the research participants. Considering the emergent nature of life-history method (Labaree, 2006), I used an inductive approach to coding data. While the various concepts employed in this study remained in the back of my head, I was open and sensitive to the ideas and concepts that emerged from each interview as I was coding it. After coding each interview, analytic memos were written to tease out key features of each case, focusing specifically on emergent concepts and how they related to one another and to the research questions. Next was arranging the codes into broad conceptual categories that led to an understanding of the research problem under investigation (Labaree, 2006; M. B. Miles & Huberman, 1994). In this process, stories, epiphanies, and contextual materials were identified and located to assist me with the arrangement of codes into conceptual groupings (Creswell, 1998). The next step was writing an \u00E2\u0080\u009Canalytic abstraction\u00E2\u0080\u009D of each case, focusing on the processes underlying the individual participant\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life, the different theoretical/conceptual sensibilities relating to the life experiences, and the specific and general features of the life experiences (Creswell, 1998). Finally, a contingency scheme that compared the patterns of life experiences among all the participants was outlined to provide insights into the broader socio-cultural processes that underpinned the participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 life experiences and the agency of individual research participants in charting the trajectories of their social mobility (Maclean et al., 2012). 166 My approach to analyzing the life histories of the research participants in this study is informed by Bertaux\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (1981a, p. 40) argument below about the role of intellectuals or researchers in putting together different pieces of evidence to form a complete whole to advance our understandings of the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives in their specific contexts: It is our task as intellectuals to put together those bits of knowledge that may be found everywhere\u00E2\u0080\u00A6and to draw a picture of the whole and of its movements. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Each life story, but also each statistic, each piece of evidence should be made to contribute to the understanding of a given network of social relations. When this network is clearly understood, the analysis is completed. Moreover, the process of interpretation and sense-making of life histories extends beyond the researcher and the research participants. Readers of life history materials bring their rich and subjective perspectives to bear on the materials as they engage them. This does not necessarily suggest any inadequacy, but rather the richness, of knowledge and understandings obtained through this method. As Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber (1998, p. 171) argue: [N]arrative materials \u00E2\u0080\u0093 like reality itself \u00E2\u0080\u0093 can be read, understood, and analyzed in extremely diverse ways\u00E2\u0080\u00A6reaching alternative narrative accounts is by no means an indication of inadequate scholarship but a manifestation of the wealth of such material and the range of sensitivities of different readers. As presented in the finding chapters, all the life histories of my participants, including my own life history, are interwoven together. The chapters are organized around the main themes that emerged from the data related to the research questions and the conceptual framework used in the study. As each theme is presented, the commonalities and differences among different research participants are discussed and their life history accounts illustrated. The illustrative accounts represent both my understanding and interpretation of their life stories, and my theorizing about their lives within their socio-cultural contexts. As Cole and Knowles (2001) argue, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThese accounts represent both the researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interpretation of the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives, and the researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theorizing about those lives in relation to broader contextual situations and issues\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 13). 167 I kept reflective journals during different stages of the research process to document my personal opinions, concerns, decisions, and changes that had taken place during the research process (Agee, 2009; Borg, 2001; Jasper, 2005; Lamb, 2013; Lindroth, 2014; Ortlipp, 2008; Wilkie, 2015). These reflective journals are an important aspect, especially for qualitative researchers, to create \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctransparency\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the research process and make visible to the reader the messiness of the research process that may have concrete effects on the research design, data analysis, and conclusions (Borg, 2001; Jasper, 2005; Ortlipp, 2008). I drew upon some of these journals as I wrote different chapters of the dissertation, which is considered a good practice in this kind of research (Borg, 2001; Jasper, 2005). While writing this dissertation and re-presenting the life histories of the research participants in this study is necessarily an exercise of reductionism, I invite the reader to be the interpreter of this \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctext\u00E2\u0080\u009D and to make sense of these life histories through your own contextual lenses. That is the beauty and potential of life history research for understanding human experiences, as Cole and Knowles (2001, pp. 10-11) posit: Life history inquiry is\u00E2\u0080\u00A6a representation of human experience that draws in viewers or readers to the interpretive process and invites them to make meaning and form judgements based on their own reading of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctext\u00E2\u0080\u009D as it is viewed through the lenses of their own realities. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 The potential that life history research has for understanding lives, be they individual or collective, rests not only in the intentions of individual researchers but also on the fundamental purposes and processes of life history inquiry methods, and on the audience or readers as interpreters of the life history text. 5.8 Ethical considerations The question of avoiding biases and of conducting research ethically applies to all types of research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). It is a question that requires a researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s close attention throughout the research process, from the conceptualization of the research problem to the dissemination of the research findings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015; Yin, 2014). Adhering to approved ethical guidelines and maintaining a strong professional competence are important. Approved by the Behavioral Research Ethics Board (BREB) of the University of British Columbia, this study strictly followed the BREB\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ethical requirements. Specifically, the following steps were taken to ensure the research followed ethical requirements and that the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 confidentiality was maintained: 168 a) A consent form (Appendix A) was drawn up with detailed information about the rights and privileges of the study participants, how their privacy and identity would be kept confidential, and how the interviews would be stored. b) Each participant was informed of the details of the consent form before they signed it. c) Consent was sought from the participant before a digital recorder was used to record the interview. d) The interviews are stored in secure, password-protected storage. Only the researcher and the researcher\u00E2\u0080\u0099s supervisor have access to the data. e) Pseudonyms are used in place of the real names of the research participants to maintain their anonymity. f) The study participants have the right to withdraw from the study at any stage of the research without having to give an explanation. 5.9 Description of the research participants This section provides a brief description of each of the 12 participants who were interviewed for this study. These research participants comprise a group of male and female professionals who, at the time of interview, held high positions in the government institutions, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions. While some of them have moved on to a different and often higher position than the one they occupied at the time of the interview, their positions described here were the ones they held when I met them for the interview. Despite differences in terms of their occupations, there were two common aspects that these participants shared: first, they were from poor family origins and, in several cases, they were the only child who managed to go to university; second, they \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmade it\u00E2\u0080\u009D to where they are today through this avenue of pursuing higher education. For the purpose of maintaining the participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 anonymity, the names used here are pseudonyms. A summary of the research participants is provided in Table 5.1. 169 No. Name Sex Age Occupation at time of interview 1 Bopha F 32 Executive Director of local non-governmental organization 2 Chantrea F 31 Professional staff at United Nations agency 3 Dara M 38 Branch manager at commercial bank 4 Darith M 33 Researcher and lecturer at public university 5 Phirun M 43 Department Director at government ministry 6 Ratanak M 42 Department Director at government ministry 7 Sokunthea F 38 Senior lecturer at public university 8 Sophal M 36 Lecturer at private university 9 Sopheak M 37 Senior management team member at private life insurance company 10 Sovath M 44 Director of public education and training center 11 Veasna M 36 Professional staff at foreign embassy 12 Vichea M 40 Dean at public university Table 5.1: Research participants Let me begin with Bopha, a woman in her early 30s. Bopha was the Executive Director of a local non-government organization (NGO) based in Phnom Penh. She was married with one child. As a Chinese descendent whose grandparents were migrants from China, she considered herself a Khmer Chinese. Bopha was born into a poor family in Phnom Penh. She had five siblings, including herself, and was the youngest child. Her parents migrated to Phnom Penh soon after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 because of the difficult living conditions in their home village in Kratie province. Bopha was the only child in her family who completed university, and she had a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree program from a university in the United States. Bopha pursued a career path uncommon among her Khmer Chinese siblings who earned their livelihood by running small businesses. I was deeply inspired by Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey because it was one that exemplified resistance to both Khmer and Chinese traditional gender norms. Her journey was marked by her ongoing resistance to traditional socio-cultural norms, so that she and 170 the young women her NGO was assisting had an opportunity to pursue further education and to improve their social status. She was tiptoeing on a tight rope, balancing her personal and professional responsibilities as her journey continued. Chantrea, like Bopha, was in her early 30s. She was a professional staff member of a United Nations agency based in Phnom Penh. Chantrea was born into a big and financially constrained family in Phnom Penh. Her father was a blacksmith, and her mother was a housewife. Her parents, together with her seven siblings, worked hard so that they could support her to study at university. Chantrea completed her master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree in Cambodia and earned a second master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree in Australia. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by her resistance to the traditional socio-cultural gender norms imposed on Cambodian women. She was frequently sanctioned through discouraging and mean words or gossip by some of her neighbors. Her \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099ll show them\u00E2\u0080\u009D attitude, and strong support of her family, underpinned the process of her social mobility, which allowed her to improve her social and economic status and that of her family. Dara was in his late 30s. He was a branch manager at a commercial bank in Phnom Penh. He was born in a Khmer Chinese family in a province bordering Phnom Penh. His father was an elementary school teacher, and his mother was a housewife. His parents also provided a catering service to make ends meet. Dara was the first child among his eight siblings who went to university. He also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Australia. Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his occupational mobility between private and not-for-profit sectors. While pursuing his professional career, Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s entrepreneurial spirit, which he attributed to his Khmer Chinese origin, allowed him to engage in land speculation, invest in real estate, and accumulate some wealth. Dara described his social mobility in terms of economic status, rather than social status, and attributed this success to his valuing and pursuit of higher education, as well as his entrepreneurial mindset. Darith was in his early 30s. He was a researcher and lecturer at a public university in Phnom Penh. Darith was born into a subsistence farming family in a village located about 20 kilometers from the Cambodian-Vietnamese border in the South. He had eight siblings, most of whom managed to go to university through different scholarship programs. His family highly valued education as an avenue for moving out of poverty. This family value was cultivated by 171 his father, who was a policeman prior to the Khmer Rouge regime. Darith completed a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Japan and was planning to pursue a PhD. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was anchored in the value his family placed on the pursuit of higher education. I was inspired by Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view about how individuals like himself, who had \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmade it\u00E2\u0080\u009D to where they were, could give back to society through research, pursuit of knowledge, and knowledge dissemination. Phirun was the director of a department in a government ministry in Phnom Penh. He was born in a province bordering the Cambodian-Vietnamese border to the South, but he did not know his exact birth date because he was born soon after the beginning of the Khmer Rouge regime in April 1975. Phirun did not know his father because he was killed by the Khmer Rouge a few months after he was born. Among six siblings, Phirun was the youngest and only child who had completed university. He also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Australia. Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his search for his interest and life goal, thus his high occupational mobility between running his own business, working in the civil society organizations, and finally working in the public sector. Higher education played a central role in his occupational and social mobility. Ratanak was similar to Phirun in several ways. Ratana was the director of a department in a government ministry in Phnom Penh. Ratanak was born in a small town located near the Cambodian-Thai border at around the same year as was Phirun; he did not know his exact birth date, either. Ratanak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father was executed by the Khmer Rouge before the fall of the regime. Among his eight siblings, Ratanak was the youngest child and one of two siblings who had completed university. He earned his first master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Japan, and his second master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from Singapore. Ratanak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his transition from teaching at a university to working in the public sector at a government ministry. He attributed the success of his occupational and social mobility to the role of higher education, particularly his credentials from overseas universities. Sokunthea was in her late 30s. She was a senior lecturer at a public university in Phnom Penh. Sokunthea was born in a Khmer-Muslim community located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Her family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financially constrained living conditions forced her parents and her older siblings to earn their living far away from home, leaving Sokunthea in the care of an older sister. 172 Among six siblings, Sokunthea was the second youngest and the only child who had completed university. She also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Canada. Not unlike those of Bopha and Chantrea, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by her ongoing resistance to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural Khmer gender norms and her own religious values of Islam. Similar to Chantrea, Sokunthea had to constantly navigate and negotiate the socio-cultural gender norms and expectations sanctioned by her Khmer-Muslim community as she tried to make her way out of poverty through the pursuit of higher education. Now married with three children, Sokunthea was struggling to manage the different responsibilities in her role as a wife, a mother, and a professional with her own further dreams and aspirations. Sophal was a lecturer at a private university in Phnom Penh. He was born in 1982, but he did not know exactly where he was born because his birthplace was somewhere in the Dangrek Mountain ranges located along the Cambodian-Thai border to the North. He was the oldest child of five siblings. Due to poverty, during his childhood Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family moved frequently from one place to another as his parents were looking for work to do. Sophal was the first child in his family who had completed university through a scholarship program. He also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Cambodia and was completing his PhD at a university in Europe. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his commitment and responsibility as the oldest child, his hard work, and his altruism to the people around him. Central in this journey was how he valued the pursuit of higher education as an avenue for him and his family to move out poverty and improve their social and economic status. Sopheak was in his late 30s. He was a senior management team member of one of the biggest life insurance companies in Cambodia. Sopheak was born in a farming village located in a province bordering Phnom Penh. His parents were subsistence farmers. His father was also an elementary school teacher. As the oldest child of three siblings, Sopheak took on major responsibilities to help support his family at a young age. His father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s valuing the pursuit of higher education was central in Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family and his social mobility journey. Sopheak was the first child who went to university and who supported his younger siblings to attend university, too. He also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Japan. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his occupational mobility from teaching at a university, working in the public sector, and working in the not-for-profit sector, to finally working in the private 173 sector. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility was underpinned by his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s firm belief in the value of education, combined with his own high commitment, integrity, and effort to achieve a better life. Sovath was in his mid 40s. He was the director of a public education and training centre in Phnom Penh. He was born in a farming village in a province bordering Phnom Penh. His parents were subsistence farmers; his father was also a carpenter. Among all seven siblings, he was the second youngest and only child who had completed university. He had also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Australia. Sovath\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his transition from teaching at a university to working in the public sector. Sovath highly valued the pursuit of higher education, which was central to his social mobility and improving his socio-economic status. Veasna was in his mid 30s. He was a professional staff member at a foreign embassy in Phnom Penh. Veasna was born into a destitute family in a province located at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border in the northeastern region of Cambodia. He was the second child in his family. His parents divorced when he was still a baby. After his mother re-married, Veasna became the oldest child of six siblings. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s fractured relationship with step-father led to his homelessness in his teenage years. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked first and foremost by his valuing of higher education, which was realized through his hard work and support from his social networks, and his occupational mobility from working in the not-for-profit sector to working for the embassy in Phnom Penh. He was the first child who had completed university. He also earned a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Thailand. He was supporting one of his step-sisters to pursue university in Phnom Penh. One of the main driving factors that enabled Veasna to attain his professional and social status was the pain and the sufferings that life had given him. Those sufferings had made him work even harder for a better life. He also benefited from having a supportive friend and meeting a kind-hearted foreign tourist who saw his potential. But all that support did not just come without his demonstration of his capability to deserve it. He was a committed, hardworking, and perseverant young man. Vichea was in his early 40s. He was a dean at a public university. He was born in a province located not far from the Tonle Sap Lake. Born during the Khmer Rouge regime, like Phirun and Ratanak, Vichea did not know his exact birth date. His parents decided to move from his home village to Phnom Penh in the early 1980s so that their children had access to 174 educational opportunities in the capital city. Among six siblings alive, Vichea was the youngest and one of the two siblings who had completed university. In addition to earning a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from an Asian country, Vichea had also completed a PhD program from a university in Europe. As a Khmer Chinese, similar to Bopha, Vichea took a career path different than what most of his other siblings did (except for his other brother who had completed university and who was a professor at a North American university). The rest of his siblings were involved in running different sorts of business to earn their livelihood. Vichea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility journey was marked by his occupational mobility from teaching at university to working at a government ministry before moving back to working at a public university in his current position as a dean. I was profoundly inspired by Vichea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s altruism and care about social justice issues in Cambodia. In his current position, Vichea was more focused on making meaningful contributions to promote positive change in Cambodian society. 5.10 Summary In this chapter, I have outlined the research design of my study. In addition to discussing the strengths and limits of quantitative methodology, which has a significant role in sociological research on social mobility, I have presented the value and enormous potential of qualitative methodology, especially life-history method, in researching the processes that underpin social mobility. The ontological and epistemological assumptions that underpin my methodological choice are also illustrated. The discussion on the life history method, the research participant selection strategies, and the sources of data have allowed me to clarify the detailed procedures of collecting the data. Moreover, I have described the approaches to data management, coding, and analysis, as well as ethical considerations for the research. I ended this chapter with a description of the research participants. In the next four Chapters, I present the findings of this study. The first findings chapter (Chapter 6) focuses on the contextual drivers of the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility. 175 Chapter 6: Doxic Linkage between Higher Education and Social Mobility When the structures of the local field were changed by this access to a wider geographical area, a fracture between durable dispositions (habitus) and new field structures opened up as established local customs, based on long-standing traditional dispositions, no longer worked. (Hardy, 2008, p. 137) This chapter presents the findings that address the first research question: What were the contextual aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility for study participants? Specifically, it focuses on the contextual aspects that shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for social mobility through pursuit of higher education. In reference to the conceptual framework (Figure 4.1, p. 84 above), the chapter illustrates the way in which Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of habitus (i.e., father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s colonial habitus) worked to shape not only the habitus but also the doxa of the family and of individual family members. This process reveals the reproduction and transmission of colonial habitus and colonial doxa. Moreover, the chapter shows the colonization of the local field through the influence of external neocolonial/neoliberal powers (i.e., IMF and World Bank), rendering it a colonized field, and the cultivation of research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 colonial habitus and colonial doxa. The emerging role of the English language as an instrumental Bourdieusian economic and cultural capital ruptured the existing field structures, created new field positions, and intensified the colonization of the local field. All these changes created an illusio, enticing the research participants to invest in pursuing higher education in hope of realizing their aspirations of improved socio-economic circumstances. This chapter is organized around the two main contextual drivers of the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility in contemporary Cambodian society. First is the families/fathers' doxic understanding dating back to the 1960s, the period when the development of higher education in a newly independent Cambodia was at its peak and when the residue of the colonial institutional arrangements and policies were present in all sectors in society. Second, in post-conflict Cambodia beginning in the mid-1990s when there was an influx of foreign donors, including the IMF and the World Bank, and the 176 mushrooming of local and international non-governmental organizations across the country, the desire for higher education for social mobility in a country emerging from decades of armed conflict was heightened and emphasized. Adding to the rapid transformation was the role of English as a dominant foreign language for accumulating economic and cultural capital. 6.1 The family habitus and the postcolonial driver of aspirations for higher education I am fortunate that my parents made education one of the core values in my family. For them, education was a means to move out of poverty. However, they were not highly educated people. My mother had a little elementary schooling before the civil war years in Cambodia; my father was better educated. Educated during the 1960s when Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education system was widely developed, particularly in the urban centers, my parents, especially my father, developed an understanding of the value of further education in broadening one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s chances in life, including prospects for social mobility. Having a parent who had received some level of education during the postcolonial, pre-war period (i.e., the 1960s) was a fundamental factor that likewise shaped the aspirations of four of the research participants (Dara, Darith, Ratanak, and Sopheak) in their pursuit of higher education as a pathway for social mobility. Their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 understanding of the central role of education in improving their living circumstances was instilled in them from the time they were young. This transmission of values and understandings about the role of education (i.e., cultural capital) from parents to children was fundamental in these four research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility journeys. Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family valued education despite their financial difficulties. He attributed his perspective on the importance of education to the fact that his father was an elementary school teacher. When comparing his family to other people in the village, Dara noted that: While my parents focused on saving money to send their children to university, other neighbors saved money for material things such as buying a TV set, a bicycle, or a motorbike. My family was sometimes ridiculed by some neighbors for spending money on sending my siblings to school; they said that my family would still work on the farms later on. 177 Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father assigned a high value to the pursuit of (higher) education and instilled this value in his family. Instead of saving money for material consumption like many of Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s neighbors did, his family focused on saving money to send their children to school. Dara emphasized that his life\u00E2\u0080\u0099s success was only possible through the pursuit of higher education. Dara also implied that the idea of higher education for social mobility was not common among his neighbors: they emphasized working in the rice fields instead. Like Dara, Sopheak was socialized early on by his parents, particularly his father, to appreciate the value of education as a pathway to move out of working in the rice paddies. Unlike most parents in his village, who did not pay much attention to supporting their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education, but who rather sent them to work in the nearby garment factories, Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents, particularly his father, highly valued education. Sopheak attributed his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective to his job as an elementary school teacher. His parents wanted all their children to study hard and they only helped out on the farm during the weekends. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s valuing of education was central to his social mobility journey. His father was firm that he wanted all his children, regardless of their gender, to go to university despite his family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial difficulty. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother did not always share his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea because of her worry about the family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lack of economic means. His parents argued very often about this. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father insisted he go to university no matter what. Sopheak worked hard to achieve his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s vision. Similar to Dara and Sopheak, Darith benefited from his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s emphasis on education as a central value in his family. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother had almost no schooling. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father was a farmer, but he had finished junior high school and was a policeman prior to the civil war years. When reflecting on my question about how his decision to come to university was made, Darith replied: I think it [going to university] is a family tradition. Coming to university for further education is an expectation in the family. It is a must. It is a pattern in the family that after finishing high school each child must go to university. It does not require a family discussion. It is a family environment. Although my father was a farmer, he highly valued further education. He thought if you wanted to get out of poverty, you go to school and university. ... Although my father was a farmer, he had some education prior to the Khmer Rouge regime. He was then a civil servant, working as a policeman. Although he resorted to be a farmer after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, he still maintained his perspective on upward social mobility through education. 178 Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective about the value of education was informed by a broad understanding of Cambodian society in the 1960s when education was perceived to be an important avenue for promoting social mobility. His father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view was that education was an avenue to move out of poverty. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father instilled a family tradition that placed education as the ultimate goal that every child in the family had to strive to achieve. His father would chat with all his children about the value of education, especially when they were working together on their farm. In Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family, his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pre-war experience and understanding of the value of education as a means for social mobility remained alive after the war. He instilled this core value in his family, thus shaping the family habitus as well as the habitus of individual children. Ratanak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story was a little different from that of Dara, Darith, and Sopheak. Ratanak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s father was a teacher before the Khmer Rouge regime but was executed before the collapse of the regime when Ratanak was still a toddler. Although Ratanak did not remember his father, still he attributed his desire to pursue higher education to his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s spirit, which still continued to shape the habitus of the family and individual children. I was not different from these four research participants. As noted above, while my mother had little education, my late father had several years of education before the civil war years in Cambodia. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, he was a school teacher for a while before he moved on to be a policeman in our local district. Both my parents valued education as a pathway to a stable living condition. All of my four younger siblings (two brothers and two sisters) managed to graduate from university. My two brothers went on to complete graduate studies in Cambodia. My late father had quite an influence in shaping a family habitus that valued higher education as an avenue for social mobility. The stories of the four research participants reveal the constitutive influence of the father in shaping the family habitus and the habitus of the individual family members, as well as the doxic order that the families adopted. For example, despite resistance from Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother about economic constraints in pursuing higher education, his father pushed ahead with his desire for Sopheak to go to university. Similarly, although his father was long deceased, Ratanak continued to adopt the family habitus primarily shaped by his late father. For the four research 179 participants, the mother figure was largely in the background in shaping their desire for higher education. Another significant aspect that these stories uncover is that the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 desire for social mobility through pursuit of higher education was wrapped within their family/father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus and doxic understandings formed through his socialization and schooling in the postcolonial, pre-war period \u00E2\u0080\u0093 one directly shaped by the colonial rationality of pursuing schooling and higher education. The contextual driver of their aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility originated in the French colonial doxa of the linkage between higher education and social mobility, which involved moving out of poverty by moving away from lives on the rice fields. Through the process of cultural capital transmission from their parents/father and the reproduction of the habitus and doxic understandings of their father, the children adopted the family habitus and pursued the value instilled by their parents/father. For the rest of the research participants, the driver of their aspirations for higher education was encapsulated within a post-conflict context, as presented below. 6.2 The post-conflict reconstruction and the English language: Neocolonial/neoliberal drivers of aspirations for higher education The socio-structural changes in Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the collapse of Communism in 1989, opened up and broadened life opportunities for the research participants. This social and structural change began with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements in October 1991 and the arrival of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) between 1991-1992 to help organize the national elections in Cambodia in 1993. Two major drivers of aspirations for higher education emerged. First, the post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction not only reintroduced but also perpetuated the familiar discourse about the linkage between higher education and social mobility. The two decades following the 1993 national elections witnessed a massive influx of donor agencies, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and foreign direct investments; the number of local NGOs increased rapidly; the expansion of educational opportunities was dramatic, especially since the government allowed private provision of higher education in 1997; opportunities to pursue further education overseas were also increasing; many 180 bilateral and multilateral country partners offered scholarships to Cambodian students. This dynamic social change shaped the overall socio-economic environment and defined the value of cultural capital obtained through the pursuit of higher education. The presence of the neocolonial agencies, including the World Bank and the IMF, beginning in the early 1990s following the UN-organized elections in 1993, re-introduced and re-emphasized the doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility, introduced by the French colonial power in Cambodia several decades ago. The massification of access of higher education in the 1990s further intensified the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility. Second, the predominant role of English as a foreign language for improving one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status was a constitutive force shaping many research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education. In the context of a rapid socio-economic and political transformation of Cambodia in the 1990s and 2000s, English emerged as a crucial cultural capital that opened the door to employment and many other opportunities. With the influx of foreign donor agencies and NGOs, the majority of which used English as their official language, there emerged an increase in demand for people who spoke English, thus creating many new employment opportunities. Meanwhile, the popularity of English led to a mushrooming of private schools that offered English language training programs, creating a huge demand for teachers or tutors of English. This was another area of employment for those who spoke the language. Therefore, most of the research participants pursued university programs in which English was either the primary focus or an important component. Moreover, many of the research participants benefited from being able to speak the language by working part time as tutors or teachers of English to support their studies. All the research participants grew up and pursed education during the 1990s and early 2000s. Their perspectives on the value of higher education and the potential opportunities afforded by acquiring this cultural capital were fundamentally shaped by their encounter with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D presented to them in the post-conflict reconstruction period and the socio-cultural and economic transformation that followed. This rapid social change not only heightened the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 awareness of the limits of their social standing but also created and opened up more opportunities for them to see possibilities for improving their lives through pursuit of education. As some of the research participants noted below, the illusio (i.e., the 181 stakes/possibilities of realizing their dreams through pursuit of higher education) was significant and looked promising, particularly for those from the disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Societal changes played an important role in intensifying their aspirations for higher education as an avenue to improve their living conditions and social standing. Phirun talked about not having a better future life if he had continued to stay in his hometown raising ducks and pigs. His reflection on the opportunities to improve his life through higher education in Phnom Penh was driven by an awareness of the socio-economic transformation in Cambodia in the 1990s. After finishing high school in 1992 when Cambodia was in the transitional period with the presence of UNTAC in the country, Phirun moved to Phnom Penh to pursue higher education: I thought to myself that if I continued to raise ducks and pigs in my village, when would I move out of this tough life? I wanted to go for further education, hoping that my life would be better, regardless of whether or not higher education would yield anything upon my completion. I thought pursuing further education would increase my knowledge and skills with which I would be able to find a salaried job. Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decision to attend university in Phnom Penh was driven by his own reflection on his life in his home village and the possibility of having a better life (i.e., the illusio) after completion of his study in Phnom Penh. Although Phirun was not explicit about the social change and the rapid developments that were taking place in Cambodia during the period, especially in the urban centers, his awareness that life in his home village would not allow him to go far in improving his life, and that only pursuing further education in Phnom Penh would allow him to improve his life, was encapsulated within a period of heightened social change in Cambodia. Phirun also pointed to an opportunity to improve his living condition through obtaining salaried employment that would be possible through his higher education credential. Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case suggests the absence of a family habitus that the first four research participants discussed above had. With his father killed by the Khmer Rouge at the start of the regime, his mother being away earning a living, and all of his siblings being farmers with little to no formal schooling, Phirun developed an aspiration for higher education in reference to the broader intensified socio-economic transformation taking place during that period. 182 Moreover, Phirun ended up pursuing an undergraduate program in English language teaching, a decision made following an awareness of the economic benefits of being able to speak the language. Phirun did not know at first what to study. After giving it a go with a program in Khmer Literature and then another one in French, he finally applied to study for a bachelor degree in English. Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decision came after he had observed that there were more labor market needs in this area. His move to Phnom Penh and the experience he underwent in the city presented to him many emerging opportunities that were only available to those who spoke English. As a cultural capital that unlocked the door to these opportunities, English language became a crucial force that shaped Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s choice of program of study at university. The socio-economic transformation in Cambodia in the 1990s had an impact on other research participants in various, sometimes subtle, ways. The material aspect of this social change had some major influence. Sovath, for instance, developed a desire to improve his socio-economic status through pursuit of higher education when he encountered a young lady driving a Mercedes Benz passing his village when he was still a high school student. The display and consumption of material goods as an indication of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status began at the end of the 1980s when Cambodia was transitioning away from Communism. This encounter heightened Sovath\u00E2\u0080\u0099s awareness of his social location and inspired him to want to have a life like that of the young lady in the Mercedes Benz sedan. As he recalled: I imagined how joyful my life would be if I had been in her situation\u00E2\u0080\u00A6owning a car\u00E2\u0080\u00A6that would be superb. I thought there was no other means for me to achieve that dream besides pursuing higher education. Sovath passed an entrance exam to a university program in Phnom Penh in 1992. When I met him for this interview, he showed me the Mercedes Benz sedan he had recently bought, along with his own home in Phnom Penh. Sovath\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspiration for higher education as a means to a more secure financial stability could be framed around a desire for material comfort characteristic of a neoliberal doxa, which was being promoted by agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank. Similar to Phirun, Sovath\u00E2\u0080\u0099s dispositional view on higher education was shaped by the broader socio-cultural and economic development; his parents and all of his siblings were farmers and had little to no formal schooling. 183 Post-conflict socio-structural change in Cambodia also opened the door to tourists from around the world. This social change created emerging opportunities for those who were ready to grab them. For Veasna, the political and economic liberalization benefited him in a unique way. He met a kind-hearted tourist who sponsored him to pursue further education in Phnom Penh. With his parents having had no formal schooling and living in destitute circumstances, Veasna viewed education as a way out of poverty \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a perspective formed through seeing the differences between his living condition and that of those who had more schooling. When explaining his view about pursuing further education, Veasna said, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI hoped that I would find a good job. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I thought that it would help me get out of the difficult living condition I was in.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspiration for higher education was shaped by his desire to move out of poverty and living a more stable life, which was intensified by the post-conflict emerging socio-economic transformation in Cambodia. This transformation not only shaped his view on the possibility for social mobility through higher education, but also provided an opportunity for him to realize his aspiration. For the first four research participants discussed above, whose desire for higher education had already been shaped by their father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus formed through the experience of postcolonial educational system in the 1960s, the post-conflict transformation further intensified and re-affirmed the view they placed upon higher educational capital as a pathway for social mobility. For example, Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s desire to pursue higher education in Phnom Penh was intensified by the changing social context of Cambodia in the early 1990s. As he recalled: My goal after finishing high school was to continue to higher education in Phnom Penh, but I did not know what field of study to pursue. ... Besides my father who influenced my desire to go for further education, I observed the surrounding environment, the mushrooming of factories, I changed my interest of becoming a teacher to being an English language translator/interpreter. ... Having seen the changing surrounding environment, I thought being an interpreter was as good as being a teacher; or I could be a teacher of English. ... So, my main goal after finishing high school was to go to university to attend an English language program to become an English language interpreter or a teacher of English. ... My first observation was that the number of factories was growing and that administrative positions opening in those factories required people who spoke English. Second, I observed that teachers of English seemed to be earning more money than teachers of other subjects; the standard of living of the teachers of English seemed to be better than that of other teachers. I dreamed of being like those teachers of English. So my dream took a proper shape at the time. When I was 184 in grade 11 or 12, I observed that teachers of English were completely different from teachers of other subjects. While teachers of English drove cars, teachers of geography drove old motorbikes. I felt it was a class difference. So I wanted to be like the ones in the better social class. In addition to the influence of his father, Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s desire to go to university in Phnom Penh was influenced by his observations of societal changes taking place at the time, including the rapid increase in factories that came with opening job opportunities. The changes that Sopheak talked about did not exist prior to the economic and political liberalization in Cambodia beginning in the early 1990s. These social transformations thus made him become more aware of his social context and the possibility for him to benefit from this change. Sopheak also associated higher education capital with moving to a higher social class. His astute observation of the economic benefits of the English language was another decisive factor that shaped this ultimate choice of program of study at university. He went on to pursue an undergraduate degree program in English language in Phnom Penh. Like most other research participants, Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Vichea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s entrance to university higher education was in the late 1990s during which the massification of access to higher education was gaining enormous momentum, particularly with the opening of the first private university in Cambodia in 1997. While Sophal and Vichea did not attend a university program in which English was a major component, English was an important cultural capital that they both had to try to accumulate to broaden their opportunities in the emerging labor market. For women research participants in particular, the socio-economic transformation in the post-conflict reconstruction period shaped their aspirations for higher education. The different discourses related to gender equality and women's empowerment through education introduced by the many donor agencies and NGOs during the reconstruction period presented a new perspective on the status of women, and created new field structures that disrupted \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D local field structures. Rapid socio-economic transformation in the post-conflict period inspired the women to pursue university education not only because their high school diploma would not be sufficient for them to secure a job, but also because new discourse and field structures presented a new doxa that could benefit them. Realizing the insufficiency of her high school diploma in the context of rapid socio-economic transformation in Cambodia at the time, one women participant, Chantrea, stated that: 185 As a grade 12 student, I didn't think I could get a job. So I continued to try. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 My eight siblings and my parents altogether worked hard to earn money in order to support me, so I could pursue higher education. This episode of Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life \u00E2\u0080\u0093 finishing high school and going to university \u00E2\u0080\u0093 took place during the late 1990s and early 2000s when Cambodia was experiencing intensified socio-economic transformation. This is the period when privatization of higher education provision peaked in Cambodia. As a Phnom Penh resident, Chantrea experienced firsthand the dynamics of socio-economic transformation in the country and the increased opportunities for her to be able to improve her living condition through pursuit of higher education. Similarly, Sokunthea talked about the limitations of her high school diploma to secure a job in the context of rapid social change in Cambodia in the late 1990s and new educational credentials required by the labor market. As she explained: \u00E2\u0080\u009Cif I had only a high school diploma, \u00E2\u0080\u00A6in the future, I would not be able to compete in the job market if I did not have a university degree. So I decided to attend university.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Within the context of rapid social change at the time, Sokunthea believed that pursuing higher education was the only way for her to improve her socio-economic status. Not unlike several other research participants, Chantrea and Sokunthea attended English language classes while in high school and went on to get admitted into university programs where English language was a major component. During their undergraduate years, they engaged in private English tutoring to support themselves and their families. English was an important cultural capital that not only got them university admissions and opportunities to support themselves financially, but also enabled them to gain admissions to graduate programs overseas. More than half of the research participants were my contemporaries. Although each of us was unique in our own life circumstances, there were similarities among us in terms of how the rapid social transformations in Cambodia in the 1990s and 2000s shaped our aspirations for higher education. I was a student in lower secondary school in the early 1990s. There were one or two adults in my neighborhood who could speak English and were working as interpreters for the UN personnel who rented office space in my village. The adults were also teachers of English. They seemed to be doing relatively well, socio-economically. That was the time when I 186 began to take English language lessons \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a decision driven by the presence of English-speaking UN peacekeeping forces everywhere and by the hopes that I could utilize English to improve my living conditions. By the late 1990s when I was a student at high school, the socio-economic and political transformation in Cambodia and the broader opportunities that came with this change made me think about English as a pathway to higher education. Therefore, in addition to my family habitus shaped by my father, my aspiration for social mobility through higher education was largely influenced by the post-conflict socio-economic transformation I experienced at the time. 6.3 Summary In this chapter, I have shown that there were two major forces that contextualized and shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility. For several research participants, whose fathers had some schooling in the newly independent Sihanouk regime of the 1960s, their father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus constituted the family habitus and shaped their aspiration for higher education. They inherited the doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility from their fathers who themselves had been socialized to adopt this disposition during their schooling and early careers in pre-war Cambodia. This doxic order was directly reproduced from the colonial doxic understanding that was introduced in Cambodia by the French colonial administration back in the beginning of the 19th century. Their desire for higher education as a pathway for social mobility could be traced back to the colonial historical context of the development of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodern\u00E2\u0080\u009D education system in Cambodia. The narratives of these research participants reveal the transmission and reproduction of their fathers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 colonial habitus and cultural capital, and the dominant role of men (fathers) in shaping the family habitus. For the rest of the research participants \u00E2\u0080\u0093 whose parents did not undergo the educational experience in the pre-war period, their aspirations for higher education were primarily shaped by the rapid socio-economic transformation in post-conflict Cambodia of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Two major forces emerged during this period which gave shape to their desire for higher education: (a) the influx of foreign donor agencies and NGOs bringing neocolonial/neoliberal discourses around educational capital, gender equality and women's empowerment through education, and (b) the role of the English language as a dominant cultural capital. The emerging 187 field structures introduced by the new socio-economic transformation caused the disruption of the local social fields and opened up opportunities for new field structures to emerge. The familiar colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility was re-introduced and perpetuated by neocolonial agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank, particularly following the massification of access to higher education with the opening of the first private university in Cambodia in 1997. For most research participants, English was an important cultural capital opening up opportunities to enter university programs and pursue studies overseas. English enabled them to generate economic capital and accumulate cultural capital. However, it is important to note that these opportunities were centered primarily in the capital city and large urban areas of Cambodia. Thus, in addition to being the colonial language itself, English as capital was part of an internal Cambodian periphery-center colonization. The English language not only perpetuated the colonial doxa of improved living conditions in the center, but was also an illusio that sustained the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education in the capital city. New socio-economic developments in post-conflict Cambodia enticed the research participants with an illusio that improved socio-economic status was worthy of their investments in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplaying the game\u00E2\u0080\u009D of pursuing higher education. The rupture in the local field structures also inspired women to grasp emerging field positions by investing in the pursuit of higher education, hoping to liberate themselves not only from their marginalized economic standing, but also from the restrictions of traditional socio-cultural codes and gender norms that did not encourage women to pursue much schooling. However, as will be discussed in the coming chapters, the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social mobility journey through the pursuit of higher education was not only a matter of family habitus, colonial and neoliberal doxic linkages (including women's equality), new cultural capitals and emerging new fields, and an illusio of study participants. Their mobility journeys were very complex processes of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccomposing a life\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Bateson, 1989) in an uneven playing field, with both opportunities and constraints intersecting their life trajectories. To help illustrate these life complexities, the next chapter focuses on the forces that facilitated and/or constrained the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 educational and social mobility. 188 Chapter 7: Forces Shaping the Journey of Social Mobility If behavior does stray from an acceptable pattern, direct action by other members of society is seldom required. Gossip and rumours are used at a social level as an effective and sometimes very destructive means of indicating displeasure with the individual and are a pervasive feature of society, both urban and rural. Informal social interaction may be withdrawn until the subject is able to either refrain from continuing the offending behavior or show that amends will be made. (Bit, 1991, p. 73) The journey of social mobility, particularly in the context of a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccollectivist\u00E2\u0080\u009D Asian society such as Cambodia, is more than an individual effort of personal endeavor, commitment, and perseverance. It is also a process shaped, facilitated, or hindered by broader forces such as the family, social networks, socio-cultural norms, and other structural facilitators and constraints that govern the society. This chapter presents findings on the second research question: Who and what facilitated and constrained the processes of higher education pursuit and social mobility? This chapter demonstrates the social practice of individuals and families in the nexus between the local field and the colonized field, as illustrated in the visual representation (Figure 4.1) of the conceptual framework in Chapter 4. The chapter builds on and adds more layers to the findings in the previous chapter about fathers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 habitus by explicating the dynamics, complexities, and power struggles within the family field in relation to different family members\u00E2\u0080\u0099 effort to define the family doxa and the family habitus. The interface between the external forces of influence (i.e., discourse of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s equality, new forms of capital and emerging field positions, colonial and neoliberal doxa) and the internal socio-cultural forces (i.e., Khmer social order, gender norms, the wat) reveals a dynamic intersection between the colonial habitus and colonial doxa and the indigenous habitus and traditional doxa. In this process, all forms of Bourdieusian capital (i.e., cultural, economic, social, symbolic), all forms of capital of the community cultural wealth, and gender-embedded capital were at play as they were drawn upon by different social 189 agents, including the research participants and their family members, in their power struggles within the intersected social field. The chapter has four sections. First, participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 narratives of the facilitating and/or constraining role of their families in their pursuit of higher education and social mobility journeys are presented. Family in this study includes parents, siblings, and extended family members such as cousins, aunts, and uncles. The second section focuses on findings on the role of research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social networks and the ways in which this social capital facilitated or constrained the processes of their social mobility. Third are findings about broader socio-cultural codes and gender norms, and the ways in which these shaped their pursuit of higher education and social mobility. Finally, the chapter discusses the role of the wat or Buddhist temples in facilitating or constraining the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 educational and social mobility journeys. 7.1 Family The family was the foundational factor both facilitating and constraining the educational, occupational, and socio-economic mobility of research participants. As noted above, family is taken to include parents, siblings, and extended family members. The values that family instilled in participants' childhood socialization constitute an essential guiding force that shaped their life decisions and journeys. 7.1.1 Parents as facilitating and constraining forces Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education, especially if they hold a positive view of education as cultural capital for their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s employment and other life opportunities. Parents are the source of various forms of capital for their children, including economic, cultural, social, aspirational, and familial. These forms of capital are provided to or transmitted to the children through the process of childrearing. As discussed in the previous chapter, for example, the fathers of Dara, Darith, Sopheak, and Sovath had received some schooling prior to the civil war years in Cambodia. Having an educated parent, regardless of how little, was a facilitating factor in the four research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 journey of schooling and a crucial jumpstart for the university education, which is important for the process of social mobility. Their fathers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 cultural capital served as a form of aspirational capital that aspires them 190 to realize their goals of obtaining higher education. Their parents were a source of familial capital through their advice and stories about higher education being able to get them out of poverty and hard lives working on the rice fields. For example, Darith talked about his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirational guidance related to the socio-economic return of pursuing higher education when he was working in the rice fields with his children. This form of aspirational capital was crucial to motivate Darith to work hard at school and continue to university. Having an educated parent (mostly a father) did not necessarily mean the other parent (usually the mother), who had no education, or did not play an important role in helping the children to chart a path towards higher education. The mother played a different, yet crucially important role in this process. For example, although my father had more years of schooling than my mother, it was she who was most involved in her children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s learning. It was my mother who woke us up early in the morning so that we could review and memorize our lessons and get ready for school. My mother was a source of emotional capital. She provided encouragement and support, in addition to other sources of capital, including familial and aspirational capital. While my mother was not able to provide cultural capital (i.e., formal educational capital) to me and my siblings the same way as my father, her emotional support and encouragement were crucial. My mother understood the importance of education. In fact, she understood the negative cost of having little or no education based on her own experience. She sometimes talked about the fact that her lack of education made her \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstuck\u00E2\u0080\u009D at home and not be able to go out to work and earn a living. She often associated the homemaker role as having low status in the household and in society. Thus, she encouraged her children to study hard so that we could have more opportunities and choices in life. My mother was not alone in providing this important emotional support. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother did not have any schooling at all. Yet Sophal recalled that his mother frequently told him and his siblings to study hard so that they would not be ignorant like her. When reflecting on his early years of schooling, Sophal told a story about how committed his mother was to making sure that her children tried their best, despite her own lack of schooling: My mother paid a lot of attention to this. Since we were young, my mother would wake us up after 5:00 a.m. so that we could review our lessons. ... She was illiterate, but she would sit with us to accompany us while we were reviewing the lessons. ... She kept 191 telling us to not be illiterate like her and to try to study to a higher level. ... My father was the same, but he did not pay much attention to making us study; it was my mother who tried to make us study. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother supported her children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s schooling through providing emotional capital despite her own lack of cultural capital. Her perspective on the value of education came from her understanding of the cost of ignorance; she did not want her children to be like her. At one point, Sophal wanted to give up his study, so that he could work to help support his family. While his father was indifferent to this idea, his mother encouraged him to continue his study. As Sophal recalled: I was about to drop out of school when I was in grade 8. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I wanted to quit school when I was in grade 8, but my mother didn't want me to. My father didn't really care much whether I continued to study or not, but my mother encouraged me to continue to study. This quote from Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative suggests that emotional capital is gendered. While Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother expressed her emotional capital in the form of an outright objection to Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s idea of quitting school, his father did not have the same emotional response. This case may be read as characteristic of Asian/Cambodian society in which traditional gender roles assign different responsibilities to men and to women, i.e., men as breadwinners and women as homemakers, thus it was her responsibilities to manage the household and the children. However, Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case cannot be generalized to all other cases. For example, Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother was indifferent to whether or not he pursued further education. His mother would continue to provide for him regardless of what decision he made in connection to pursuing higher education. Nonetheless, emotional capital does not go hand in hand with cultural capital. Some mothers were able to do more than others. In Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family, his mother considered herself illiterate, and after her divorce, his father and his older sister moved out. He then lived with his mother. He recalled his mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s valuing of education, but felt that because of her illiteracy his mother was not able to help much with his study: My mother used to tell me education was important. But her attention to her children's education, she couldn't do it. She was illiterate. What she could do was send her children to school. She didn't know how to check with her children's learning; she didn't know 192 how to ask about her children's progress; she didn't know how to ask how we did with our exams; all these questions, I thought, as an illiterate she couldn't think of these questions. And she always said that, \u00E2\u0080\u0098I cannot help with anything because I am illiterate. I don't even know Khmer alphabet.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Due to her lack of education (i.e., cultural capital), Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother was limited in her ability to be involved in her children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s schooling. But her encouragement (i.e., emotional capital) for her children was fundamental; she at least understood that education was important despite her lack of education. In addition, she was working hard to try to earn a living to support her children. The case of Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother could be read as emotional capital being socially classed. That is, as a woman from poor social origins with no formal schooling, Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s mother was only able to be a source of emotional capital, but not cultural capital, for her children. A parent\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lack of cultural capital, coupled with family poverty (lack of economic capital), took a toll of participants. Veasna became the oldest child when his mother was remarried and had five children. His differences with his stepfather forced him to leave home and struggle to survive on his own. His mother was busy trying to make ends meet and did not have time nor ability to help her children to study. Veasna was left to fend for himself, and four of his five stepbrothers and stepsisters\u00E2\u0080\u0099 lives also became marginalized. As Veasna revealed to me: because my mother had been too busy trying to make a living and she had not been able to follow up on her children's progress in their studies, four of my five siblings have failed both in their studies and in their lives. Some of them have even committed crimes. I am very regretful that as an older sibling I am not able to help them, but at the time I was not with my mother. I had left home. Only recently had she moved to live with me because no one was able to support her. I was the only one who was able to do that. Veasna also recounted that two of his half-brothers were in jail in his home province. He was now supporting two of his younger half-sisters, one of whom was pursuing higher education in Phnom Penh. For Chantrea and Sokunthea, who were women, it was fortunate for them that their parents did not hold as strong a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D view about women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of much education. As Chantrea said about the support that her parents and siblings had for her: 193 As for my family, my parents do not decide based on gender; they decided to send me to university because they think I am capable of further education. My other siblings seemed to reach their limits after they finished grade 12. Sending Chantrea to university was a rational decision because it was justified based on how capable she was. Her parents supported her in pursuing further education. Understanding the potential that Chantrea had, everyone in the family worked hard to support her so she could attend university. Similar to Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents were supportive of her going to school. In fact, her family was the only one in her community that was not much influenced by the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural mindset that denies girls the chance of schooling and higher education. As Sokunthea stated: My parents and my older siblings did not have any problem with me going to school. My family was quite different in the community. Most people in the community did not support the idea of girls attaining too much education. It has nothing to do with our religion [Islam]; it was related to our \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Khmer mindset that girls should not get too much education, so they could not write love letters or something like that. Sokunthea suggested that her parents did not object much to her pursuit of education because one of her older brothers had some education and was a civil servant. His view seemed to shape the family habitus and their perspective on education. This case shows how cultural capital could become an important symbolic capital in shaping the view of the family. However, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents were not always supportive of her pursuit of education, particularly when they faced financial hardship, or when certain socio-cultural pressures by some people in the community was unbearable (to be further discussed in the section below). On two occasions, her parents forced her to quit school. When Sokunthea was in grade 9, her parents tried to force her to quit school and help support the family. She managed to resist her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure by working harder while studying \u00E2\u0080\u0093 something she had been doing since she was in elementary school. Lack of parental involvement (emotional or otherwise) in children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s schooling did not necessarily result in children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s failure in life. For six of the research participants, their parents were mostly busy trying to make ends meet and were not much involved in their schooling. For Chantrea, Ratanak, Sovath, and Vichea, whose parents had little to no education and were mostly 194 pre-occupied with earning a living, their early schooling was largely a routine activity that school age children were supposed to do. In two cases (i.e., Phirun and Sokunthea), they were left to the care of their older siblings while their parents were away trying to earn a living. Because of this situational context, they became more responsible for their own lives early on; their taking on a role in contributing to the family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic capital was a normal part of their early life. This life experience heightened their awareness of the financial circumstances in their families and the association between the financial struggle in their families and their social status; it also shaped their view on the role of education as a possible mobility avenue. Because of their challenging living circumstances, many of the research participants developed various forms of cultural competencies associated with their socio-economic origins, including their awareness of the constraints in their lives, the ability to cope with instability in life and to deal with potential setbacks, and the ability to work together with their siblings to survive and pursue their dreams. The next chapter, Chapter 8, will focus on findings related to this question. Analysis of data also reveals that the family was a social field where the dynamics and complexities of gender identity and power struggles played out in relation to educational, spatial, and occupational mobility. Particularly, parents were the primary agents who exercised social control on their children with regard to the socio-cultural norms and expectations associated with gender. For all of the male research participants, their gender was never an issue for their parents when they made a decision whether or not to send them to school or university; the only issue that affected their decision was the financial challenge. For women, however, in addition to the lack of economic capital, their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 decisions were usually shaped by other layers of identity-related challenges and the restrictive socio-cultural norms and expectations associated with their gender. All the male research participants acknowledged the fact that they did not have to deal with the issue of gender in their social mobility journeys. Veasna captured this aspect succinctly when he talked about how different his life journey would have been if he had been born a girl: I think if I were a girl, I would not have made it to where I am today. My mother would have beaten me up and tied me at home. She would not have allowed me to wander aimlessly. In our Khmer culture, women are not supposed to wander the streets aimlessly. My mother would say that that would bring shame to her, and that women would not do that. That is the first reason. The second reason pertains to schooling. She probably 195 would not have allowed a daughter to pursue much education. That is perhaps one of the reasons that prevent women from pursuing a higher level of education. Take my younger sister as an example. She finished her bachelor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree program and I wanted her to pursue a master's degree, but she did not want to do that. She wanted to go back to our hometown to be with my mother. ... I do not underestimate women's ability to do it; I think social pressures prevent women from pursuing this path. Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective regarding the challenges that women face in making their way through the socio-cultural landscape in Cambodian society resonates with the overall frame of mind of the majority of people in Cambodia. In my own family, although my parents did not deny my sisters\u00E2\u0080\u0099 opportunities to pursue further education, my sisters still felt certain oppressive socio-cultural pressures growing up in Cambodian society. All of my brothers and sisters managed to complete university education. Lack of economic capital was the primary reason that shaped my parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 decision to support the children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of further education. Unlike my brothers, my two sisters had to work for several years after high school in order to save money for university, but they both managed to graduate from university eventually. When poverty forced participant families to make a decision, it was usually the girls who had to give up their schooling. As Sophal recalled, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMy younger sister quit school when she was in grade 6 because of poverty; she had to help support the family.\u00E2\u0080\u009D By contrast, Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents, especially his mother, did not want him to quit school even though he wanted to. Four male research participants (Dara, Darith, Sophal, and Sopheak) noted that their parents did not consider gender with regard to their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education. Any child who was able to pursue education \u00E2\u0080\u0093 boy or girl \u00E2\u0080\u0093 was encouraged to do so. For Phirun, Ratanak, Sovath, and Vichea, who were all the youngest child in their families, their older sisters were not able to complete high school or pursue university education because their school years coincided with the civil war years in Cambodia. Following the war, they considered themselves too old to pursue any education. For the three women research participants, their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 support of their pursuit of higher education was in one way or another influenced by their gender identity. Not all parents held the same perspective, however. As noted above, Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents were supportive of their pursuit of higher education. The story was different for Bopha. Among the three women participants, Bopha seemed to face continued pressures from her parents to give up 196 schooling because of her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 firmly held view that girls should not pursue much education. The indigenous habitus that Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents held presented ongoing pressures for her in her aspiration for further education. In addition, her parents were influenced by their relatives who held the same indigenous dispositions regarding women and schooling. With the indigenous habitus, Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents did not much value education, especially for girls. Her parents held a strong \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Chinese and Khmer socio-cultural mindset that women should not pursue much education, for fear they would know how to write love letters. Thus, her parents did not believe in the colonial doxic order of the linkage between further education and social mobility for women. As a consequence, all of Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s siblings did not have much formal schooling. As Bopha described it: Among all my siblings, I'm the only one who has had this high level of education. My two older sisters quit school when they were in grade 6 because they had to help my parents due to our difficult living circumstances. They wanted to continue with their schooling, but that was not possible for them. Even my mother herself had little schooling because her mother (my grandmother) did not want her to study ... And my second sister is the same as my first sister, finishing grade 5 or 6 only, and she quit school because my parents were worried that she would write love letters. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative indicates the way in which the family habitus (i.e., the indigenous habitus) of her parents was influential in shaping the habitus of their children and in defining the doxic order within the family field. However, within the field of the family, each member had their own amount and forms of capital in their power struggles to shape field structures. As will be discussed in the next section below, Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s older siblings had accumulated certain forms of capital that allowed them to influence the family habitus, particularly in relation to Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspiration for higher education. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 view in relation to women pursuing education remained strong even after she completed her master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in the United States. Bopha recalled her father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comment when she told him that she wanted to pursue a PhD program: Frankly, my father talked about this \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mindset every day. Not long ago [before she got married], I told him I wanted to pursue a PhD program; he said, \u00E2\u0080\u0098If you were a man, I would allow you to go for a PhD. But because you are a woman, don't go. Get 197 married first.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 That \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mindset still persists until the present. And that relates to gender role. I'm still struggling with this. The mindset Bopha mentioned here refers to the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D mindset that women should not pursue much education. This indigenous habitus of her parents presented a major challenge for her as someone with a more colonial habitus. In holding that mindset, her father was also concerned that she would remain single as a result of her pursuing too much education. However, as her father indicated, he would not have had a problem with a man pursuing education. Again, her father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s indigenous habitus underpinned by the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural gender norms shaped his perspective on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of further education. This gender role expectation was what Bopha continued to struggle with in her multiple roles as a mother, wife, and daughter/daughter-in-law, in addition to her professional and very demanding role as the Executive Director of an NGO. One of the main challenges for Bopha after she was married was that her parents-in-law had the same indigenous habitus as her own parents. For them, her main role was to take care of her child. As Bopha explained: The main constraint is my family. Both my parents and my parents-in-law have the same mindset; they do not want me to pursue too much education or to travel much because I am a woman, a mother who should stay home with my child. That's the mindset they continue to embrace. It is particularly challenging in my current position, which is very demanding in terms of time and thinking. I think my family's mindset is the main obstacle, and it is difficult for me to move to a higher position. For example, after this interview I will have to take care of my child when I get home; I cannot choose to do something else; if I continue to work when I get home, they will complain. They will bring my child to me when I arrive home. The indigenous habitus of Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents and parents-in-law was an obstacle for her chance to further improve her social status and social mobility. Bopha believed she should accept her role in taking care of her child. However, it was very difficult for her to manage her responsibilities both at home and at work, particularly in her current leadership role: As a mother, it is very challenging, and I should accept my role as a mother and that I should take care of my children, which I am happy about. However, it sometimes conflicts with each other. It's very difficult to divide the responsibilities when my work is 198 very demanding and at the same time my child needs my care. It is very difficult to split myself into two. As she explained, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSince my child was born, it has been very difficult for me to work. At night, if I want to do some work, I can't. My child needs me; without me around, he doesn't go to bed.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative suggests that both female capital and feminine capital are two of the major constraints for women in the pursuit of their careers. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story reveals how challenging it is for married Cambodian women to pursue their careers and at the same time fulfill the domestic unpaid labor expected of them as mothers. While striving to advance her professional ambition, Bopha seemed to be reproducing \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural norms and gender expectations for women, at the same time as she was resisting these roles as she pursued education and her career prior to her marriage. Her parents and parents-in-law were the major agents playing an important part as the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cguardians\u00E2\u0080\u009D and enforcers of these \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural norms. As a single, independent woman, Chantrea did not face the same kind of constraints that Bopha did. Sokunthea did not have the same challenge as did Bopha, but Sokunthea faced a different set of challenges because she did not live with her parents and managed everything with her husband. However, Bopha was able to pursue her professional ambition, unlike Sokunthea, as will be discussed below, since she lived with her parents after getting married. This arrangement meant that her parents were able to help take care of her child while she was at work. As presented above, however, Bopha had to deal with the constraints imposed by her parents. 7.1.2 Siblings as facilitating forces In addition to parents, siblings played a fundamental role in shaping life chances of the research participants. In the field of family, different siblings played different roles, either opposed to their parents or alongside them. While all of the research participants had to work and study to remain in school, some of them at times required additional support from their siblings. Siblings played in an important role in facilitating the social mobility journeys of the research participants by providing various forms of capital, including economic, familial, altruistic, and resistant. 199 Bopha attributed her social mobility journey to the support that her older siblings gave her. Although Bopha had to resist her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressures, very often her older siblings came to her rescue when these pressures were insurmountable. As she recalled: I am grateful to my older sisters. They knew I wanted to study. Without them, it would have been very difficult for me to get to where I am today. They wanted to study, but they didn't have the chance. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 My oldest sister has supported me a lot... She said to my mother, \u00E2\u0080\u0098Mom, don't keep her at home too much because that will make her ignorant like me. Let her go wherever she can.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Without her, my parents would have complained much more. My oldest sister's economic condition was improved, which allowed her to leverage my parents' pressure. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s older siblings were a source of not only familial capital but also resistant capital in opposing the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender view working against women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of higher education. Bopha also mentioned that her older siblings provided her with some financial support with her study, thus comprising a source of economic capital, as well. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspiration for higher education was set within a family field with the existence of multiple forms of habitus, i.e., the indigenous habitus of her parents and the habitus of her older siblings who had pursued some education but quit school due to her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s oldest sister in her status as the oldest child, coupled with her improved economic condition, had some leverage in talking to her parents. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative sheds light on the power struggles within the field of the family and how economic capital provided symbolic capital in influencing the decision making in the family. I cannot speak for Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s oldest sister, but in my own experience as the oldest child in my family I had a certain leverage to influence my parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 important decisions in the family. In a way, the oldest son or daughter may be considered the \u00E2\u0080\u009Csecond parent\u00E2\u0080\u009D; thus, he or she holds certain influence in decision-making within the household. In addition, Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s brother-in-law was also playing a very important role in helping to lessen the pressure that her parents placed on her. As Bopha continued: My oldest brother-in-law and my oldest sister helped me a lot. My brother-in-law wanted to study but he didn't have the chance. ... They encouraged me a lot. My parents tried to stop me, but my brother-in-law and my sister tried to encourage me, and that was motivating. ... They tried to talk to my father frequently. And that helped me to be able to continue with my study. 200 Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative reveals the power struggles within the family field that shaped her aspiration for higher education. Similar to Bopha, Sokunthea received support from her older siblings, especially when her parents forced her to quit school and get married when she was in her third year at university. Fortunately, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s eldest brother came to her rescue, talking to her parents to change their mind even after a wedding date was already decided. As Sokunthea recalled the experience: Another critical moment was my parents forced me to get married. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 It was so intense that my oldest brother, who was a migrant worker in Thailand, had to come back home to try to talk to my father. They finally cancelled the planned wedding. Again, like Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experience was also involved the influence that the oldest child had in many decisions in the family. With her oldest brother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s assistance in resisting her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure on her to get married, she was able to complete her bachelor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s program and went on to complete a graduate degree from Singapore and a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from Canada before she got married. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative reveals the power struggles within the family field and the ways in which cultural capital is a source of symbolic capital and utilized to shape important decisions made in the family. The narratives of Bopha and Sokunthea also highlight the simultaneous existence of multiple forms of habitus within the family field. For Chantrea, it was fortunate that she did not have to deal with the same kind of pressures that Bopha and Sokunthea had to. In addition to having parents who supported her pursuit of higher education, Chantrea also benefited from having selfless siblings who worked together to support her education. Despite certain socio-cultural pressures from people in her neighborhood, her parents supported her pursuit of higher education. Sending Chantrea to university required everyone in her family to work to support her. Chantrea had a big family, with nine siblings including herself. All of them, 11 including her parents, lived together in a small apartment. Because of poverty, all of her older siblings had only a little schooling, mostly at the elementary level. Yet seeing Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s potential to pursue further education, her parents and all her older siblings worked hard together to support Chantrea to continue her study. As Chantrea recalled: 201 Because I was an outstanding student, my family motivated me. My older siblings, because they couldn't pursue education to a higher level, they worked hard to earn money. My eight siblings and my parents altogether tried to earn money in order to support me, so I could pursue further education. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 They were very thrifty...spending money on food and trying to save for me to pay tuition. That's why I am very grateful to them. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative sheds light on the altruistic capital that she had received from her siblings, in addition to economic and familial forms of capital they provided her. The collective and selfless act of support that Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s siblings had for her was instrumental in her pursuit of higher education. Her narrative also indicates a more unified form of family habitus. Some male research participants, meanwhile, were also grateful for different kinds of support from their siblings. Four male research participants (Darith, Phirun, Ratanak, Vichea) benefited from having supportive siblings. For example, Darith was supported by his older siblings so he could come to study in Phnom Penh after finishing high school in his home village. Because he did not pass the university entrance exam right away, one of his brothers supported him financially so he could attend a one-year preparatory program. When I started a preparatory program (Bridging Course), an older brother of mine, who was studying to become a doctor, graduated and started working in 2002. He was then able to support me to study.\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 My brother supported me by paying my tuition (USD380 per year) and my living costs, about USD10 per week. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s older brother was a source of economic capital for him during the initial stage of his transition to the university. Moreover, having been in the city before him, Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s brother was also a source of navigational capital in assisting him to familiarize himself with the higher education system in the city. Similarly, Ratanak benefited from having an older brother who had attended university in Phnom Penh before him. This served as a bridge for him to transition to life in the capital city, benefiting from his older brother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s navigational capital. Moreover, Ratanak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s older siblings in his home village pooled their financial contributions together to send him to Phnom Penh for higher education. In many ways, I was very similar to these research participants who had benefited from the support of their siblings. I have five siblings, and I am the oldest child. However, I also have 202 two older siblings (one sister and one brother) who are not related to me or my family by blood. They both were the children of one of my father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s colleagues prior to the Khmer Rouge regime. Before my foster-siblings\u00E2\u0080\u0099 parents died due to starvation and illness during the Khmer Rouge regime, they asked my parents to help raise their two children, who were still toddlers at the time. My two foster-siblings were under my parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 care until later in the 1980s when my foster-brother moved to live with one of my parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 relatives in a different province. My foster-sister was living with my family until she got married in the late 1990s. When I was still in high school, I was fortunate that my brother-in-law, who was a truck driver at a local beer distribution office in my home province, recommended me to his boss who was looking for an English language tutor. That tutoring allowed me to earn some money to contribute to my family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial needs and to support my own study. My brother-in-law was a source of familial capital, leveraging his social capital to support me. A recurrent theme in the narratives of several research participants was that they were initially supported financially by their older siblings before they were able to support themselves. Most of the research participants managed to find part-time work to support themselves, and sometimes their families, after a few months to one year of starting their freshman year at university. In addition, they benefited from the support of their siblings as sources of other forms of capital, particularly familial, altruistic, navigational, and resistant. 7.1.3 Extended family as both facilitating and constraining forces Besides parents and siblings, extended family members, such as aunts, uncles and cousins, played an important role in this social mobility journey, particularly in the process of pursuing higher education. In an Asian society such as Cambodia, it is common to have extended family members who have some influential part in this process. They had different roles, from facilitating the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 transitioning from the province to the capital city to discouraging them from pursuing this dream. In the former case, as a facilitating force, extended family members were the sources of economic, familial, and social capital. Support in the form of free temporary accommodation or housing was an example of economic capital. This was a very important kind of support, considering the high cost of accommodation in Phnom Penh for those from poor households in 203 the provinces. A few of the research participants received this sort of support from their aunts or uncles living in Phnom Penh. Darith, for instance, was offered a place to stay at no cost by one of his uncles who lived in Phnom Penh. As he recalled: When I just arrived, one of my uncles was kind enough to offer me a place to stay at no cost at his land in which there was a small wooden house. It was like I was guarding that place for him. ... I lived there with a cousin. Similarly, Phirun stayed at his aunt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s house in Phnom Penh for a while before he was able to find a place to stay at a Buddhist temple. One of Vichea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s cousins ran a small business selling graphic novels written by Cambodian authors. Vichea benefited from having free access to those novels, which later shaped his choice of field of studies at university. He sometimes rented out the novels that he borrowed from his cousin to supplement his financial needs. The support that Vichea had received from his cousin could be considered both familial and economic capital. Sophal was able to attend university thanks to his grandmother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social contact. After he finished high school, he could not afford to attend university in Phnom Penh. However, when his mother attended a village ceremony in her hometown his grandmother introduced his mother to the rector of a private university who also attended the ceremony. They happened to discuss her son Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interest in pursuing higher education. The rector was then kind enough to let Sophal study for a bachelor program at his university without having to pay tuition or fees. While Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case is not very common, it points to how extended family members could be a source of capital in social mobility journeys. The cases presented above describe extended family members playing various roles in facilitating the opportunities for several male research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 educational and social mobility. Gender identity was not a factor when others assisted these male research participants. However, women research participants did not have the same experience or support. Chantrea and Sokunthea did not have any extended family members or relatives who played an influential part in their social mobility journeys. In fact, Bopha had to face socio-cultural pressures against her from her aunts and uncles. She recalled a conversation one of her uncles had with her father when she was still in junior high school: 204 He [my uncle] asked my father, \u00E2\u0080\u0098Why do you still let your daughter go to school. ... She is just a girl. She speaks Mandarin. Ask her to work as an interpreter at a garment factory.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 There were then a lot of Chinese garment factories being established in Phnom Penh. \u00E2\u0080\u0098Letting her study too much,\u00E2\u0080\u0099 he continued, \u00E2\u0080\u0098may be a trouble because she will know how to write love letters.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 It was then around the end of the 1990s, and he still had that \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mindset. Bopha added that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAll of my parents' relatives had very little education because they had that mindset. ... That \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 mindset, coupled with poverty, made them force their children to quit school.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Fortunately, with her own resistance and support from her older siblings, Bopha managed to remain in school and went on to complete her master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative sheds light on the power struggles between family members within the extended field of the family to determine what was considered the doxic order of the family field. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case is not uncommon in Cambodia. However, it is important to note that in addition one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gender, other factors such as the amount of educational capital one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s extended family member(s) has received, are important aspects shaping whether or not one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s extended family members would be supportive of one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspiration of further education. The family is the primary social field in which constant power struggles and negotiations take place. As the findings presented above reveal, parents could play an important part in facilitating or constraining the opportunities for social mobility, so could the extended family members. The gender of the research participants was an important identity that added a complex layer to the financial challenges that women faced in their aspirations for further education and social mobility. The findings also show that siblings played a fundamental supportive role regardless of the gender of the research participants. In addition to providing financial support, siblings also served as buffer against socio-cultural pressures placed on women research participants by their parents, thus comprised a source of familial and resistant capital. 7.2 Social networks as facilitating forces The research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 narratives provide insights into how their social mobility journeys were facilitated by the networks of people they had in their lives, including their friends or classmates, colleagues, or their mentors, teachers, or supervisors. For most of the research 205 participants in this study, as noted above, their families, siblings, and extended family members played a central role in shaping the opportunities for their educational, occupational, and social mobility. However, not all of the participants had the support they needed from their families to make their way on this journey; nor did their family support go far enough to enable them to build a foundation for mobility. They had to draw on all the support they could get from their social networks. These social networks were the source of various other forms of capital, including economic, social, familial, aspirational, and navigational, and was an important facilitating force for research participants' pursuit of higher education, employment, and ultimately social mobility. 7.2.1 Facilitating transition to university: Social and economic capital One way that social networks played in supporting many of the research participants was facilitating the transition to university and life in Phnom Penh. The majority of the research participants had to relocate from their home villages to Phnom Penh when they attended university. This spatial mobility required a lot of resources, and it was challenging for most of them given their limited economic capital. While some of them, including Darith, Phirun, and Ratanak, were assisted by their siblings and/or extended family members during this transition, three research participants (Sophal, Sopheak, and Veasna) benefited tremendously from the support of their social networks. In fact, for these three research participants their educational mobility would probably have not been possible without their social connections. In my case, without a high school friend who invited me to stay with him at his aunt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s house in Phnom Penh at no cost, I would not have been able to afford to go to study in Phnom Penh. My life journey would have been completely different. I would probably not have come this far in my academic and professional life. This was also true for several other research participants who were able to move to Phnom Penh to pursue higher education because of the support they received from their social networks or people they came across in their lives. Specifically, their networks were a source of other forms of capital, including social and economic capital. After Sophal finished high school, he wanted to pursue further education in Phnom Penh, but he was not able to afford to do so due to poverty. He thought his dream of studying law or business had ended at the time. He spent the next several months working as a laborer on a 206 fishing boat in the Gulf of Thailand. Life on the boat was harsh and the salary was meagre, especially with Thai policemen forcing him and other laborers to give them a portion of their salary each time they returned from the sea. So, he came back home, and was later offered a job by a man he knew at a church in his village; the job was to teach Khmer language to Vietnamese immigrant kids at a local church in his village, work which paid him about USD50.00 per month. With this salary he was able to support himself and his family. However, as described above, through his grandmother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social network, Sophal was offered a place in a bachelor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree program by the rector of a university. Sophal was excited by this new opportunity and decided to come to Phnom Penh to study, although he had many concerns about the cost of living in Phnom Penh. However, Sophal was able to secure a living space at a local Buddhist temple near the university for a couple months, and then for about one year lived in a makeshift shelter on the streets with a group of protestors from rural areas who came to Phnom Penh to protest at the Cambodian National Assembly about land grabbing. He went to class during the daytime, and at nighttime he helped draft petitions for the protestors to submit to the National Assembly; for his help he was offered food to eat; he used public washrooms and slept in other public spaces when needed. His assistance to the protestors got the attention of the same university rector who had offered him his university scholarship. Having learned of Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s living situation, the rector offered him a job in the library of the university and a space to stay with the university security guards. He was later promoted to the position of Library Manager, and then Executive Assistant to the Rector. He also helped coordinate the university\u00E2\u0080\u0099s scholarship program. He was very happy about this because he was then able to help support many other students who came from the same background as himself. Sophal completed his master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree in Cambodia and is currently pursuing his PhD in Europe through an Erasmus Mundus scholarship. When I interviewed Sophal for this research, he was a lecturer at the university where he began his university life. Without his grandmother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s connection to the rector, Sophal would not have been able to pursue his study at the university and his life journey would have been completely different. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story reveals that his social network was a source of economic and social capital that helped him move along in his social mobility journey. 207 Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story was somewhat similar to Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s. After completing high school, Sopheak wanted to pursue further education in Phnom Penh but his family could not afford the high living costs and other expenses in the city. Fortunately, his father knew a security guard from a nearby village who worked in Phnom Penh. The guard knew a man who offered a place to stay to students from rural areas. After Sopheak and his father went to see the man, Sopheak was able to get a place free of charge at the man\u00E2\u0080\u0099s house. So Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s journey in Phnom Penh began. He did not have to worry about housing, but did worry about expenses for food and other basic needs. His family was able to support him approximately 20,000 riels (USD5.00) per week for his school fees and other living costs. This money came from his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s salary as an elementary school teacher, about 100,000 riels (USD25) per month. Every weekend Sopheak rode his bicycle from Phnom Penh to his home in the village to help his parents work on their neighbors\u00E2\u0080\u0099 farms in exchange for about one or two more dollars more to supplement the money his parents gave him. Without the support of his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social network, it would have been difficult, if not possible, for Sopheak to be able to move to Phnom Penh to pursue his study. Sopheak could not afford to attend a proper English language program. So he attended any program that he could afford. Fortunately, that same security guard who gave him housing also happened to know several different NGO-funded English language schools in Phnom Penh. Sopheak was introduced to a few different schools where he paid a fee of 5,000 riels (about USD1.25) per month for a one-hour-per-day English language lessons. He attended at least four hours of class per day. In addition, he also attended free English language lessons offered at a few churches in Phnom Penh. In many ways, his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social network therefore became an important social capital for him. And through his social network, Sopheak was able to take English language lessons, which prepared him for his university education. After about one year of various preparatory classes, Sopheak passed an entrance exam to a university that offered him a scholarship. Without the support of his father\u00E2\u0080\u0099s network, Sopheak would not have been able to attend university and would not have become a successful professional. When I interviewed Sopheak for this study, he was an executive at one of the biggest life insurance companies in the world, with a branch recently opened in Cambodia. Veasna had a very unique life story, from a homeless boy to a professional staff member at a foreign embassy in Phnom Penh. However, this life journey would not have been very 208 different without the economic capital he received from a kind-hearted tourist he met in his hometown when Veasna was still a high school student and working as a motodup13 (motor-taxi) driver to support his family and his study. With his ability to speak some English, Veasna shared with the tourist his desire to pursue further education. Veasna had saved some money in the hope of going for further education in Phnom Penh. After learning of Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirations, the tourist decided to sponsor Veasna, supplementing what he had saved so that he could attend a university program. As Veasna recalled: I met a tourist in 2002 and have kept in touch with him since. And in 2003 he told me he would like to sponsor me to go to university. At the time, I didn't expect to come this far. I thought I would only take a two-year associate degree program. As a boy from a poor rural area, I never imagined that it would be possible for me to come this far, so I thought a two-year program would be sufficient. So he sponsored me to take a two-year program in Phnom Penh. Veasna came to Phnom Penh for his study. He first pursued a two-year Associate Degree. But Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspiration for further education then led him to complete two additional years for a bachelor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree, while working part-time to support himself. He later received a scholarship to pursue a master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree in a neighboring country. The initial economic capital that Veasna received from that kind-hearted tourist contributed to helping Veasna realize his aspiration of university education, which ultimately allowed him to improve his life and the living condition of his family. 7.2.2 Facilitating entry into labor market: Navigational and economic capital The roles played by social networks came in different forms and at various stages throughout the social mobility journeys of the research participants. In addition to the assistance 13 Motor-taxi, or motodup in Khmer, is a very common means of transportation service in Cambodia. A customer rides in the back of the motorbike and pays the driver according to the distance of travel. With increasingly worse traffic in Phnom Penh, a motodup is an easy means of transport to get around in Phnom Penh thanks to its size, although it may not be as comfortable as taking a taxi. But it is also quite dangerous to travel by a motodup, especially due to traffic accidents. Importantly, however, a robber or a thief might pose as a motodup driver. But what is more dangerous is when a robber disguises as a customer. There are many cases where motodup drivers are killed for their motorbikes by their customers. It is a dangerous job in many aspects. 209 described above, social networks were critical in facilitating entry into the labor market (i.e., navigational capital). While still in high school, for example, Sophal and Veasna were helped by their friends to find jobs or earn money in other ways to support themselves. Sophal was able to remain in school and help support his family because of the support he received from one of his friends. As he recalled: A classmate of mine had a motorbike. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I moved to live with him because his house was close to the school. At night I borrowed his motorbike to drive as a motodup. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I went to school in the morning. I remember falling asleep in class a lot because I drove motodup at night. Similarly, with some help from one of his friends, Veasna was able to continue his schooling and start taking an English class, which, like Sophal, enabled him to work as a motodup driver too. Through this work he got to know many foreign tourists, one of whom sponsored him to pursue further education. At the time, that friend of mine ran a business selling motorbikes, and he gave me US$1.00 per month. ... I lived with him and helped him at his shop. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 With my ability to speak a little English, I started working as a motodup driver. Between 2001 and 2003, I was studying English, driving a motodup, and studying at a public school. For both Sophal and Veasna, their friends were a source of economic capital and helped them to set foot into the labor market. In some ways, their friends also helped them to navigate the labor market, which set them on the pathway toward higher education. Regardless of gender, social networks played supporting roles in facilitating opportunities for entry into the labor market. Chantrea, for instance, was able to get a job outside of teaching thanks to her university supervisor, whom she met during her undergraduate program. I was thinking about jobs but I didn't have any specialization. I only had a little experience in teaching English, so I was looking for teaching positions. I was able to get teaching jobs at a couple schools. ... When I was doing my teaching practicum, I met my supervisor...perhaps thanks to my capability or not, he asked me if I was interested to work as an administrative assistant at [a university graduate program] ... I took the job, which involved mostly providing administrative support. But after some years of 210 supporting the program, it was as if I were running the whole program. I was able to help him a lot. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I took on a lot of responsibilities. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social contact (i.e., supervisor) helped her change her job, which paved the way for her later career. That administrative position that Chantrea held for some years proved to be a useful experience for her when she successfully applied for a position at a UN agency in Phnom Penh. Dara got his first job after graduation in the NGO sector. He later transitioned to the private sector. Thanks to a recommendation by one of his classmates from university, he got an entry level job at a bank in Phnom Penh. This entry level job was the first step for him to later become the manager of one of the branches of the bank. Similarly, Phirun, Ratanak, and Sovath leveraged their social networks in their career transitions from one sector to another. Through his former senior colleague in the non-profit sector, who had moved to the public sector before him, Phirun was able to move to a position in a government ministry where he was later promoted to the position of Director of a Department in the Ministry. Phirun recognized that within the public sector, upward mobility was not based on merit but connections and one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position in the political party with which one was associated. To be successful in this kind of work environment, it was important to have the right patron and strong connections or khsae. Sovath\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story was not very different from Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s. In transitioning from a teaching position at a university to holding a position in a government ministry, he benefited from having a khsae patron who had been appointed to a senior position at the ministry. Sovath noted that, in addition to his capability, he was promoted to that position at the ministry through an appointment, rather than, a merit-based system because of his social connections. Ratanak started his career as a university lecturer. However, after completing his master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree from a university in Japan, he transitioned from a teaching job to working at a government think tank. With his relevant educational qualification from Japan, Ratanak got the job through one of his friends, who introduced him to the head of the think tank. When I met Ratanak for this interview, he was the Director of a Department at the government ministry that made use of policy research outputs produced by researchers in the think tank that Ratanak had initially joined. 211 In my case, I benefited from different kinds of support that I received from my social connections at various stages of this journey. When I was at high school, I took an hour of English language lesson every weekday at an English language center near my house. After some months, my teacher started his own English language school and invited me to teach introductory courses at the new school. That part-time teaching, coupled with tutoring my brother-in-law\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boss, helped me to contribute to my family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial needs and to support my own study. I also benefited from having a classmate who introduced me to job opportunities in Phnom Penh when I had just started university. As a student from the province I did not know how to get into the labor market in the capital city. Fortunately, soon after I began my freshman year, my classmate introduced me to the manager of a private English language teaching center which had an opening. I got a part-time teaching position after an interview and a mini-teaching demonstration. That same friend also helped me find various tutoring opportunities. These jobs were very important for me. They enabled me to support myself and my family (whenever I could). They also allowed me to enter the job market in Phnom Penh and gain some employment experience. In my case, my social networks helped me to develop my navigational capital, which allowed me to generate some economic capital to support my pursuit of higher education. The narratives above reveal the roles played by social networks in facilitating the social mobility journeys of many of the research participants. In some cases, social connections were a source of temporary or initial economic capital which helped the research participants to enter the labor market and later move on to professional careers. In other cases, social networks helped them to transition from one position to another. Thus, their social networks were a source of navigational capital, assisting them in maneuvering the labor market and the institutional norms. 7.2.3 Providing guidance in choosing a field of studies and career planning: Familial, aspirational, and navigational capital In other cases, social networks were like mentors or career counsellors providing advice on career planning. For instance, Darith benefited from knowing a few close colleagues he regarded as his mentors. They helped guide him in planning his career and were there for him as counsellors when needed: 212 I dared to take risks because I have \u00E2\u0080\u009CBrother\u00E2\u0080\u009D Peou and \u00E2\u0080\u009CBrother\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sak, who had helped facilitate the process. If I were alone without them, I would not have dared to take risks. I would not have felt secure to do that. Take risk for what? I wouldn't know where I was heading by taking risks. With them, I know they have confidence in me and support me. And so I was confident to take risks. Peou and Sak that Darith referred to above are his senior colleagues at his workplace. Darith worked on various research projects with them and had consulted them in making many of his important decisions, especially as they related to his career planning. His use of the word \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbrother\u00E2\u0080\u009D indicates the high level of respect he had for them, as if he were related to them by blood. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social networks could be considered a source of familial and aspirational capital, helping him to plan his career. When commenting on the importance of social networks, Darith noted that \u00E2\u0080\u009CWithout a network, regardless of how high your educational qualification is, it is very hard to get into [the job market]. ... Hence, networks and friends are very important.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Darith went on, stating that: I am within this circle of networks, like \u00E2\u0080\u009CBrother\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sak and \u00E2\u0080\u009CBrother\u00E2\u0080\u009D Peou, who suggested that, \u00E2\u0080\u0098If you want to go higher, you need to do something else [more than just teaching]\u00E2\u0080\u0099. Therefore, in my teaching I try to avoid teaching English language subjects but teaching more of content-based subjects. ... I have tried to shape my thinking, to do more than teaching English language for personal development. Darith knew that teaching full time would guarantee him a stable income, but he also looked for work outside of teaching to gain experience that he thought would help him to develop his career. Besides teaching university, Darith was also involved in conducting and/or managing various consultancy projects. For several research participants, social networks played an important role in providing advice on what field of studies to pursue. For instance, Chantrea's social networks played an important part in helping her decide which field of study to pursue. After finishing high school, Chantrea did not have a clear plan as to what to study at university. As a high school graduate, Chantrea, like many others, did not receive any support or guidance from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS) in relation to labor market information. She could not rely on her parents or family members, either, because this question was beyond their knowledge or understanding. Not unlike many fresh high school graduates, Chantrea was left to learn about 213 and explore these options on her own. As she recalled, Chantrea benefited from the advice of a teacher she met at a private tutoring class: I was then feeling really stupid, not knowing what to study after finishing grade 12; there was no orientation or something like that. The MoEYS did not provide any guidance to high school graduates about fields of studies or labor market information. My choice of field of study seemed to be random. However, because I took a private English lesson at Baktouk high school, I met a teacher who played an important role in how I got to where I am today. He said to me, \u00E2\u0080\u0098If you do not know what to study, take an entrance exam to IFL [Institute of Foreign Languages]. IFL is just an English language program, but there are many opportunities for graduates after they finish their studies.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 So, I took the entrance exam to IFL. I didn't ask him much about IFL or its programs; I simply didn't ask him anything. I had only heard that having a high English language proficiency was important to get admitted to IFL. I took the exam and passed. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative about lack of labor market information resonated with the narratives of most of the research participants. Fortunately, she benefited from the advice of a teacher. Her social contact was like a family member, a source of familial capital. However, other research participants who did not have similar kind of social contacts were left to find information and make decisions about university study on their own, sometimes using a trial and error approach. For example, Bopha first pursued a degree in dentistry because her brother-in-law had wanted to pursue this degree but had not been able to himself. After six months in the program, she quit because she did not have enough French language proficiency to understand the course materials. She later pursued a degree in Accounting, as it was a short program and it would help her find a job quickly. She did not like the job she got. She later pursued a degree in Education, which she liked and managed to finish. Bopha lamented her switch from one field of study to another: I had to explore things myself. So, it was a waste of time exploring this and that field of study. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 it was like experimenting before I knew what I wanted to do in my life. It was a waste of a lot of time. ... I know many of my friends wasted their time just like I did. Phirun was another interesting case and in some respect was similar to Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s. He did not know what to study. On his way to Phnom Penh, he saw a big university, the Royal University of Phnom Penh, and decided to apply to study in Khmer Literature there. Not 214 knowing what options were available, he first studied to be a literature teacher, but then decided he did not want to do this. So, he pursued a degree in French instead. He later did not want to be a teacher of French, so he applied to study for a bachelor degree in English. This option was chosen after he had observed that there was more labor market demand in this area. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narratives reveal that the lack of update-to-date and accurate labor market information was a major challenge for high school graduates when deciding which field of studies to pursue at university. The stories indicate the important role of social capital in the process of social mobility as it is a source of other forms of capital. 7.3 Broader socio-cultural framework as facilitating forces for men and constraining forces for women The broader \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural order and gender norms and expectations for men and women present another layer of facilitating or constraining forces for the research participants in making their way through the socio-cultural landscape in contemporary Cambodian society. Overall, the broader socio-cultural framework was a facilitating force for men and a constraining force for women. This broader framework represents societal expectations for men and women in the society and shapes the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 processes of social mobility on three levels: the family field and decision-making, career choices of the research participants, and the opportunities for their career mobility. 7.3.1 The family field and decision making within the family The narratives of some of the research participants reveal the ways in which societal expectations of its members had a defining effect on the decisions parents made within the family field. Certain members of the community within which the research participants resided represented a form of social control exercised over community members. As noted in previous sections, two of the three women research participants experienced constant pressures from certain neighbors about their aspirations for higher education. These pressures were not usually placed upon the women directly but through their parents. For example, when Sokunthea was in her third year at university, her parents unsuccessfully forced her to give up her study and get married. While financial hardship in the family had some role to 215 play her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure on her to quit university, the pressure of other members of her community on her parents was a major factor. This comprised \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca Khmer mindset: Most people thought that girls should not stay single too long,\u00E2\u0080\u009D as Sokunthea explained. For this reason, most women in her community attained little education. As Sokunthea continued: In my community, I am the only woman different from others. No other women in my community have done what I have done. They only finished grade 1, 2, or 3 because their parents asked them to quit school and stay home or go to work to help support their families. Within this context, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of higher education and her being single became the subject of disapproval by community members and her parents. For her parents, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s marriage would have helped alleviate financial difficulties because her husband would help support the family. Further her parents would not have had to worry that she would remain single, and would gain the approval of their neighbors. As Sokunthea recalled: At the time, I confronted my parents. I argued with them, saying that I had to go to school; I didn't want to just get this low level of education. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Initially, they did not want to force me to quit school, but due to the pressure from the community they really tried to force me to quit school. In trying to fight for her freedom to pursue higher education, Sokunthea even asked her parents to identify the community members who influenced her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 view so that she could confront them and reason with them. Fortunately, her situation was resolved with the assistance from one of her older brothers. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative sheds light on the ways in which the broader field of the community had an influence on the smaller field of the family. It also shows the power struggles between different social actors within the field. Ultimately, however, the decision made within the family field, with its own habitus and doxa, was based on the influence of the dominant actor within the family field. In Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case, one of her older brothers who had a good level of cultural capital had \u00E2\u0080\u009Csalty saliva\u00E2\u0080\u009D (a Cambodian slang for \u00E2\u0080\u009Cinfluence\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Csymbolic capital\u00E2\u0080\u009D) in shaping important decisions in the family, including her pursuit of higher education. 216 Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case was similar to Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s but was framed around a combination of socio-cultural norms and economic capital. The pressure of some neighbors in her community on her family, especially her parents, for keeping her in school and sending her to university was built around her family's poverty. A general sense was that the people in her community did not value education, especially for girls. Her family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s poor living condition made her family an easy target for the community, at least among certain neighbors, who criticized her parents for supporting her to pursue university education. The neighbors did not value education and held the view that education would not help them to become better off. Chantrea recalled how her family was looked down upon by her neighbors and their children for her family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s poverty: \u00E2\u0080\u00A6in fact, my neighbors didn't just start looking down on me when I finished high school. My family have never asked them for any food to eat, but they seem to have judged that such a big family had nothing to eat. My mom and my older sisters used to tell me that after they returned from buying food at the market, some neighbors even came to see what food we had for eating. ... They have looked down on us since I was younger, but I didn't understand it then because I was too young, and I played with other kids in the neighborhood. Even those young kids also looked down on us because their parents looked down on us. While Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative was framed around jealousy, it seemed her family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic capital vis-\u00C3\u00A0-vis that of some of her neighbors was an important part of this power struggle within the field of the community. More economic capital was associated with more symbolic capital. In addition, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D view that some of her neighbors upheld with regard to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education was a contentious matter as well. According to Chantrea, most young women in her neighborhood had pursued little education and did not go to university. Again, ultimately, it was the decision by the dominant actor(s) within the field of the family that shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 opportunities for higher education. Fortunately for Chantrea, her parents did not let the belittlement and pressures of some people in her neighborhood influence their decision to send Chantrea to school and university. Chantrea remembered her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 words of encouragement (i.e., emotional capital): But, fortunately, my parents valued education. And they said to me, \u00E2\u0080\u0098Whether or not you will get a job after graduation, just study hard so that you are not ignorant; it is not a 217 loss.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 The surrounding environments were not favorable, but my family was encouraging me. That's why I've been working hard ever since. Moreover, Chantrea was even grateful to those neighbors who had looked down on her and her family. Because of them, she managed to get to where she was presently and showed them that her effort had not been for nothing. I think after a while we became used to a life being looked down upon. In fact, I am grateful to them. If at the time they had been more considerate and hadn't looked down on me and I had chosen to submit to their pressure on and belittlement of my family, I am not sure if I would have been able to push myself to where I am today. Chantrea has achieved what she had tried to fight for. She was now the only woman in her neighborhood who had completed a graduate degree program from an overseas university and has held a high professional position with a United Nations agency based in Phnom Penh. With that salaried position, she is able to support her family financially and has also improved her social status. While women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narratives show that the broader socio-cultural framework as imposed by some in their local context within which they grew up largely constrained their social mobility journeys, men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences were rather mixed. Similar to Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experience, Dara talked about the negative view that some of his neighbors in his farming village had for his family when his parents saved money so that they could send him and his siblings to school. As Dara recalled, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMy family was sometimes ridiculed by some neighbors for spending money on sending my siblings to school; they said that my family would still work on the farms later on.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Dara said that most of his neighbors were farmers and had little to no formal schooling. In some respects, Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative shows how the limited cultural capital of his neighbors constrained their view on the value of higher education. By contrast, Darith had a positive experience in his farming village. When someone in his village passed a university entrance exam, the villagers generally showed support and encouraged other young people who were capable to follow suit. Based on Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experience, this kind of event helped raise the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cface\u00E2\u0080\u009D of his village. Therefore, the villagers were happy if someone from their village was admitted to a university or received a scholarship to pursue their 218 studies overseas. Similarly, Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experience in his community was very positive. The parents of one of his friends in the community were kind to him. As he recalled, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMy friend's parents liked me, helped me when they could, gave me food to eat, bought books for me.\u00E2\u0080\u009D This support was more than for Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s temporary survival. Giving books indicated a long-term vision of the parents of Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s friend. Moreover, Sophal was offered a job as a construction worker by another villager. This enabled him to go to school in the morning while working in the afternoon to support himself and his family. Darith\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s experiences indicate the general attitude that the broader community had for men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of further education. While the analysis showed mixed evidence, the socio-cultural framework on gender norms clearly had an important effect on how supportive the people in a community were for those aspiring to pursue (higher) education and improve their socio-economic status, which in turn shaped their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 decisions, as indicated in the case of Chantrea and Sokunthea. In addition, a family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status within the community had a further effect on how supportive the community was for those who desired higher education. The experiences of Dara and Chantrea speak to this aspect. However, Darith and Sophal had a different experience. Despite their socio-economic status, the people in their villages showed kindness and encouragement. Overall, the analysis revealed the dynamics and complexities of the socio-cultural framework and gender norms and how they constrained and/or facilitated the opportunities for the research participants to pursue their aspirations. However, it was clear that this same cultural frame tended to have a negative effect on parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 decision-making with regard to women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirations for schooling and higher education. 7.3.2 Career choices The societal socio-cultural framework and gender norms also shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 choices of their careers. While none of the men interviewed indicated any constraints that the framework had any bearing on their decisions regarding which careers to pursue, it had a major influence on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s choices of profession. For Sokunthea, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework also shaped her career choice. Her first career goal was to work with an NGO: 219 I wanted to work with an NGO because I like a changing environment. I like meeting different people. And I want to share with them the little knowledge that I have. I wanted to help different communities. But that \"traditional\" mindset influenced my career choice to choose the position as a lecturer because it does not require me to travel anywhere. As Sokunthea explained further: Now I'm a university lecturer. But, originally, I did not want to be a lecturer. My first career option was to work with an NGO. I had applied for positions at organizations such as UNDP. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 But, another thought...my father thought it was not good for women to travel a lot, a narrow mindset that women may be gossiped for traveling a lot. Even after I graduated from university, he was concerned about what other people thought about. He did not want me to do much more than the age-old \"traditional\" Khmer mindset, which did not even allow women to have much education. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 women who travel from place to place are not considered \"good\" women. ... So, I turned to the job of teaching at university. Teaching was my second career choice. For Sokunthea, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer doxa of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood\u00E2\u0080\u009D woman as one who does not travel to places like a man prevented her from pursuing her first career dream of working for an NGO, which usually requires frequent travels. Gender norms and expectations for women made it difficult for Sokunthea to pursue her first career choice. \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf I had been born as a boy,\u00E2\u0080\u009D continued Sokunthea, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit would have been easier for me to travel anywhere without having to worry about what others think about me.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative highlights that gender was a constraint for women to pursue a career of their choice, thus limiting their contributions to the broader socio-economic development of the country. A gender mobility constraint was shared by other female research participants. Chantrea shared a similar view about challenges for women to work in a position that requires travelling to provinces or rural areas, especially as it concerns personal safety: As I said previously, when I was involved in research activities, being a woman, going to provinces to do fieldwork, and sometimes walking alone in villages or across rice fields to interview research participants \u00E2\u0080\u0093 it was a challenge. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 one thing I worry about is my safety as a woman, going by myself to work in the provinces. I think that's a constraint. 220 Although Chantrea did not have to make the same choice as did Sokunthea, opting out of her first career option, Chantrea was constantly worried about not only her personal safety but also the societal codes that put ongoing pressures on her. Bopha had to constantly deal with socio-cultural pressures because her job in an NGO required her to travel a lot, usually to different parts of the country and sometimes overseas. It was even more challenging for her because she was married with a little child. Her burden as a mother, a wife, and a daughter-in-law, coupled with her job responsibilities, represented another level of constraints for her in pursuing her career within the contemporary socio-cultural context. As Bopha explained: But the main constraining factor for me to be able to pursue my dreams is that I am a mother, a wife, [and] a daughter-in-law. I have to fulfill these responsibilities. And it becomes very challenging when these family responsibilities conflict with my other responsibilities. In particular, in my current position it is very difficult for me to excuse myself from my responsibilities. If I were a regular staff member, it would be easier for me; after completing my work at office, I would just head home and relax with my family without having to worry about anything. But in my current position at the NGO, I have a lot to think about to sustain my organization, thinking of new projects, networking; I have to do all of these. Thus, they often conflict with each other. Thus, for Bopha, the responsibilities within her household as a mother, a wife, and a daughter, in addition to her professional responsibilities at work, which at times required her to travel to provinces, made it extremely challenging for her to fulfill all of them equally. These constraints also discouraged her from aiming for a higher position. The narratives of the three women illustrate how female capital constrains their opportunities to choose the career they liked, or to pursue this preferred career without having to worry about the broader socio-cultural norms and gender expectations. Unlike their female counterparts, men did not have to think about these constraints. 7.3.3 Career mobility The broader \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural norms, gender roles and expectations also shaped the opportunities for occupational or career mobility for the research participants. Specifically, the three women in this study continued to face all sorts of constraints from pursuing higher 221 education to career mobility. For Bopha, because her job required her to travel frequently to provinces, her family seemed to become accustomed to her out-of-the-city travels. However, she continued to face constraints in relation to the status and influence of women in the predominantly male world in her work. As she recalled her experience working with men both in rural villages and in government ministries: There are more constraining than facilitating factors [for being a woman]. When I work in villages or deal with people with position in government ministries, it is very difficult to influence them because I am a woman. Moreover, because I'm younger than them, it is even more difficult to influence them. In addition to gender norms as one layer of constraints for her, seniority in terms of age added another layer of constraints for Bopha in working with men. This is a common constraint particularly for women who work within the socio-cultural framework of Cambodia, which presents different layers of constraints for women and structures their opportunities for educational, career, and social mobility. Chantrea shared a similar view about challenges for women about certain places where \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood\u00E2\u0080\u009D women should not go to, such as a karaoke parlor, places where men hang out and socialize. As Chantrea explained it: I think women don't have the same kinds of opportunities to socialize as men do. I think when working in a place where promotion is important, for women I think they have their capabilities but not social networks. For example, men might socialize in a karaoke parlor and hang out together; I'm not saying that's not good, but I want to say that the more people spend time together, the closer they grow. In spite of trying to be fair in a performance evaluation, I think a man is preferred because he has spent more time socializing together. Karaoke parlors are generally not considered good places to go for both men and women because they are associated with sexual exploitation of women and alcohol consumption. Yet they tend to be more socio-culturally acceptable for men to hang out at these kinds of places. Because a male boss may be treated to entertainment at a karaoke parlor, or he may hang out with other junior staff members there, Chantrea considered it a disadvantage for women not being able to do the same. 222 Sokunthea shared a similar perspective about \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural norms and how they constrained the opportunities for women to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgo far in life\u00E2\u0080\u009D or to go up on the career ladder. As she explained: Overall, I think it's easier for men to go anywhere. Men do not have to worry much about getting things organized before leaving home. They just get themselves ready and leave home. For women, there are many household chores to attend to before they can get themselves ready. ... I think men can go far in life. I think women still think they should not have much higher level of education. Even if they can pursue education to a much higher level, they are still stuck in the kitchen. Based on my personal experience, I have achieved a high level of education and have opportunities to take up a high-level job, but I am still stuck at home, taking care of my children. I have had little time to devote to my career. I am not able to make the most use of my knowledge. In Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative, female capital represents a major constraint for women to move up the career ladder given the socio-cultural framework and gender norms that are imposed on women. Regardless of how much education she had pursued, Sokunthea suggested that she still was not able to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgo far\u00E2\u0080\u009D in life. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decision to spend a lot of time at home taking care of her children was partly for the sake of her husband\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Cface,\u00E2\u0080\u009D and his social status seemed to be a fundamental factor that underpinned the sacrifice of her own ambitions. As Sokunthea explained: As a matter of fact, I did not want to volunteer to stay home. I wanted to go out and make the most use of my little knowledge I have gained. But my family circumstances have forced me to take this decision. My negative experience with having housemaids has contributed to this decision. Ultimately, the household responsibilities fall on women. As one of our Khmer sayings goes, \u00E2\u0080\u0098women's place is in the kitchen.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 It might be my fate that leaving my kids to the care of the housemaids is not as good as I take care of them personally. So I end up staying at home. I am not too regretful about this because I have been able to work a little bit and contribute to the community work. That's how I have tried to compensate for these lost opportunities. I am sometimes stressed out that I am spending a lot of time at home. I do not want to be just stuck at home like this. I want to do more. But I have tried to compensate myself for these lost opportunities. My husband does not have difficulty finding a job, and he has his own position. So, another thought I have is that because he is a man I must give him more space for his \"face\" and status. I want him to be of a higher status than I am. I think along this line. 223 While Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decision to not pursue a higher post at the university where she was working is framed as a lack of institutional mechanisms in terms of reliable childcare support and presented as women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sacrifices for their husbands, the foundational framework within which women are expected to perform \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender roles within the household remains predominant. Moreover, Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decision seemed to be framed by her articulated belief that: \u00E2\u0080\u009CHuman beings are born equal, but women's roles follow the natural way of life. That means men's roles are to go out and earn a living. Men must fulfill their responsibilities as breadwinners.\u00E2\u0080\u009D It seems, therefore, that Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life after marriage was a reproduction of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural norms and gender roles as expected in Cambodian society. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story is an example of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctriple burden\u00E2\u0080\u009D (productive, reproductive, and community service) that women in the Global South societies fulfill regularly. The narrative also reveals that female capital and feminine capital (women being good at taking care of children were major constraints for women in their pursuit of their careers. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative indicates the ways in which the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework and gender norms continue to be a major constraint for women after their marriage. Sokunthea indicated that her husband was supportive of her desire to pursue further education: My husband is very supportive of me pursuing further education, and he encourages me to pursue further education as high as I want to; he trusts me to do the right thing. He does not care about what other people in the community think about me wanting to pursue further education. However, her husband\u00E2\u0080\u0099s encouraging words in fact seemed to be merely \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwords\u00E2\u0080\u009D rather than concrete action. When asked whether her husband would take up more responsibilities of unpaid domestic labor at home and give up some of his professional ambitions, Sokunthea responded this way: Not, he can't. I don't know whether it is our tradition or not. In case a husband is disabled or unable to work, the wife can go out to work and the husband can stay home. In my case, my husband is not disabled or unable to work and he has his position, so I am willing to sacrifice my ambitions. 224 Thus, from Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective, unless a man is disabled or unable to go to work for another reason, he must work and build his career and status, while a woman stays home taking care of the household. This perspective of Sokunthea on gender roles and expectations after she was married contradicted the view she previously held when she was still single and strove for equal status with men. While Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story indicates her selfless, altruistic act of giving up her aspirations for the sake of her husband\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of his career ambition, it also reveals that the Khmer \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural codes and gender norms continue to shape the social practice of both men and women, facilitating the opportunities for men while constraining the opportunities for women. The women research participants acknowledged these constraints. Bopha, for example, was cognizant of what she called the existence of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgender imbalance\u00E2\u0080\u009D within her household: There exists gender imbalance. If my husband arrives home late, everything is fine; no one complains at all regardless of how late he may be stuck in a meeting. Children are for mother to care for, not for father! Everything falls on mothers! In Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s view, everything falls on women, while men are not necessarily bound by the same kind of duties or responsibilities for their children. As she explained, taking care of the children is women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s responsibility. The life stories of Bopha, Chantrea, and Sokunthea demonstrate that the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural norms and gender roles seem to be constraining their opportunities for career and social mobility in the contemporary Cambodian society. For married women, in addition to a lack of men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s more active assumption of more roles and responsibilities within the household, women themselves seemed to be complicit in the continued imposition of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural codes of conduct and gender norms on themselves. 7.4 Buddhist temple (wat): A facilitator for men The wat or Buddhist temple is the oldest educational institution of Cambodia. It used to play a crucial educational role in Cambodia, from the pre-colonial period to the recent past. As discussed in Chapter 2, the wat-based school system was the primary formal educational system in the pre-colonial period. However, this traditional educational institution no longer plays the 225 same role it once did. In the contemporary context of Cambodia, the wat is primarily a place where male students from rural areas stay at during their transitioning from rural areas to the capital. Wats are not open to female students. Among all the research participants, four male research participants (Dara, Phirun, Sophal, and Veasna) stayed, temporarily or otherwise, at a temple during their pursuit of university education in the capital city. Sophal and Veasna stayed at a temple temporarily during their initial transition to lives in the capital city. For example, Sophal stayed for a short while when he first moved to Phnom Penh to attend university: I was looking for a place to stay at different wats in Phnom Penh and was able to get a room shared with a few others at Wat Chen Dom Dek and stayed there for about two months; but after the room was rented to others, I was forced to leave. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative reveals that there was competition to get a space at the temple where he was staying at. While, in general, Buddhist temples offer free accommodation to male students from rural areas, this varies from one temple to another. On top of that, there is a process to ensure that the students allowed to stay at a temple have a good background. In Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case, the temple charged a rent, which Sophal could not afford. Dara and Phirun stayed at a temple for the most part of their four-year bachelor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree program. As Dara stated, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI stayed at Wat Mahamuntrei because I couldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t afford to stay elsewhere.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Phirun was staying at a few different places before he was able to secure a room at a temple where he shared with several other students: \u00E2\u0080\u009CI was staying at different places, but the longest place I stayed at was at a temple.\u00E2\u0080\u009D While staying at the temple, Phirun was able to help many other students staying at the same temple. This help was mostly in the form of tutoring other students English language, possible because Phirun was an undergraduate student at one of the top English language training programs in the country. As the narratives of the research participants indicated, the wat played a facilitating role in supporting the process of educational pursuit of those from rural areas who did not have or could not afford any other accommodation options. However, it is important to note that only men are allowed to stay at the wat, which is an issue strongly criticized by Veasna. As he put it, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwomen without economic capital to rent a place to stay ultimately decide not to pursue 226 university education in Phnom Penh.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Therefore, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework about the Buddhist temples or wat as a place for men only limits the opportunities for women to pursue their aspirations and improve their socio-economic status. 7.5 Summary In this chapter, I have presented findings that reveal the social practice of individuals and families within the intersection of the local field and the colonized field. In particular, the findings point to the forces that facilitated and/or constrained the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of higher education for social mobility. These forces included the family (i.e., parents, siblings, and extended family members such as cousins, aunts or uncles), social networks, the broader \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural codes, and the wat or Buddhist temples. In general, these forces played a more facilitating role for men but a constraining role for women. Within the field of the family, constant power struggles and negotiations took place on a regular basis, especially for women whose thirst for schooling and higher education to improve their socio-economic status was under ongoing pressure of the socio-cultural norms and gender role expectations. Parents, whose habitus is colonial rather than indigenous, adopted a colonial doxa and were more supportive of their daughters\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of higher education. Regardless of their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 habitus, men did not face the same obstacle that women did in their pursuit of higher education. Within the broader Khmer socio-cultural framework and the field of Cambodian monasteries, men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s journey of higher education pursuit and social mobility continued to be fully facilitated and supported by these socio-cultural codes and the wat as a fundamental educational institution. In contrast, women continued to be restricted from opportunities to pursue their educational aspirations and to improve their socio-economic standing. The findings reveal the dominant influence of the broader social field and its doxa overlapped and shaped the smaller social field (i.e., family field) and its doxa. Fortunately, there were certain facilitating forces, particularly their siblings and social networks, that helped pave the ways for women as they navigated the contemporary Cambodian societal landscape in pursuit of their aspirations for better lives. The findings reveal that siblings played a fundamental supportive role regardless of the gender of the research participants. In addition to providing financial support, siblings were the source of other forms of capital, 227 including familial, altruistic, and resistant capital, and were a buffer against socio-cultural pressures placed on women research participants by their parents. Outside of the family field, regardless of their gender, study participants were supported by their social networks and friends who were another crucial source of different forms of capital, including economic, social, familial, aspirational, and navigational. The research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 journey of social mobility through pursuit of higher education was filled with both facilitating and constraining forces. As they composed a life through this journey, they navigated and negotiated a complex and multi-layered socio-cultural landscape, sought support from different sources, and simultaneously equipped themselves with necessary forms of capital. It is a process illustrative of their agency in confronting the socio-economic and structural constraints. The next chapter will dig deeper into the struggles of women and men and the agency they exercised as they overcame constraining forces in realizing their aspirations of higher education attainment and improved socio-economic location. 228 Chapter 8: Muddling through Liminality \u00E2\u0080\u0093 Material Scarcity and \u00E2\u0080\u009CSituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D Agency [M]icropolitical resistance is defined as resistance at the level of meanings, identity or subjectivity. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 It is premised on the idea that power operates not through coercion or force, but through ideas that operate to fix individuals as members of particular categories, that carry sets of rights, obligations and norms of conduct. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Micropolitical resistance is seen when individuals refuse, disrupt or contest these categorizations, often in an attempt to micro-emancipate \u00E2\u0080\u00A6, i.e. to obtain a sense of empowerment. (Dick, 2015, p. 18) The previous chapter focused on the forces that facilitated and constrained the processes that underpinned the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility. This chapter attends specifically to the agency of the research participants in their social mobility journeys. It focuses primarily on the third research question: How did the research participants overcome the challenges that constrained their pursuit of higher education as an avenue for social mobility? This chapter emphasizes the value of the cultural resources of people growing up in the margins (i.e., working-class cultural complements) and how these resources not only heightened the study participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 awareness of socio-economic standing but also became essential forms of capital for their educational, occupational, and social mobility. It also sheds light on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s exercising of their \u00E2\u0080\u009Csituated agency\u00E2\u0080\u009D (i.e., Southern agency) as they navigated within the liminal space of personal emancipation and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework. The chapter has two main sections. The first section presents findings that focus on how the marginalized socio-economic conditions of the research participants not only shaped their awareness of their social location but were also the sources of dispositional qualities essential for the pursuit of their aspirations. The second part focuses on the narratives of women research participants and emphasizes the continuous negotiations women had to engage in, exercising 229 their \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocio-culturally situated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency to chart their own life course and pursue their aspirations within the bondedness of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework of Cambodia. 8.1 Cultivating the resources of lives in the margins One of the primary themes that cuts across the life mobility journeys of all the research participants is that they had to work hard and study at the same time. All of them experienced material scarcity in their lives when they were growing up. They performed various types of labor, usually from a very young age, and helped their parents with their work and/or to help generate income to contribute to the basic needs of their families. In this way, they became more aware of their poor socio-economic standing and the constraints or instability that they faced on a regular basis. Concern over having enough to eat, finding sufficient money to live on and so on occurred nearly on a daily basis. In addition, their socio-economic circumstances helped cultivate a capacity to persevere through the constraints and juggle multiple responsibilities simultaneously \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a dispositional quality built through confronting unpredictable situations and setbacks in life. For all of the research participants, myself included, household poverty when we were growing up was one of the main factors that dominated our thinking about where we stood socio-economically; our constrained economic situations forced us to constantly think about how we could help support our families. For all of us, trying to find ways to contribute to household basic needs from a young age was a normal part of our daily life. At the same time, I and others did not give up school because we hoped that education would free us from our challenging living circumstances. Research participants tried to find ways to remain in school and to pursue higher education. At university, they again had to work to support themselves. They worked and studied at the same time to keep alive their hope of a better life. My own life journey was marked by ongoing performance of different types of work while studying. I began helping my mother sell homemade cake even before I had started first grade; I remember walking from house to house in my home village trying to sell the cake. Throughout my elementary school years (Grades 1-5), I continued to help my mother sell her homemade cake whenever I could. When I was in lower secondary school (Grades 6-8), I went to school in the morning and herded my two cows in the fields around my school in the 230 afternoon. It was normal for me to bring along a book to read while my cows were eating the green grass, so long as the cows did not distract me by trying to go into the local villagers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 rice paddies. I sometimes tried to follow English language lessons without paying a fee (because I could not afford it) by standing outside a classroom where a private English language lesson was going on and eavesdropping by the window. Or I would peek through a small hole in the window to try to learn a few words, syntax, or some grammar lesson that was going on. When I did this, I first made sure that my cows were tied to a tree nearby \u00E2\u0080\u0093 but not too close to the classroom, so that I was not caught \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceavesdropping.\u00E2\u0080\u009D I was literally working and studying at the same time. Throughout my upper secondary school and university years, as described throughout this dissertation, I engaged in different kinds of work to contribute to my family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial needs and to support my studies. This life experience of working and studying at the same time increased my awareness of my social locations and enhanced my desire for further education. It was considered in my family as a pathway towards a better and more stable living condition. I am not alone in this regard; all of the research participants in this study went through a similar kind of experience from a young age. While my own life story is unique in its own way, it is similar to the life journeys of all the research participants. They had to work and study at the same time to contribute to the basic needs of their families and to be able to remain in school. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s story is very similar to mine. As the oldest child in his family, he started working at an early age, taking on responsibilities to earn some income to help support his family. As he recalled: Seeing it very difficult for my family to even make ends meet, I decided to find work to do as a construction laborer when I was in grade 8. I didn't quit my study; I went to school in the morning, and in the afternoon I worked for a man at a Catholic church. I received some money with which I could help support my family. ... I worked there for about one year. Later, a friend of mine had a motorbike. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I moved to live with him as his house was close to the school. At night I borrowed his motorbike to drive as a motodup; I went to school in the morning. I remember falling asleep in class a lot because I drove motodup at night. ... Driving motodup allowed me to help my mother and pay for some gas for my friend. By working and studying at the same time, Sophal was able to help keep himself and most of his other siblings in school. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic circumstances had socialized him 231 not only to be aware of the ongoing constraints that he would be facing but also to see these constraints as a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnormal\u00E2\u0080\u009D part of his life. In this case, taking on multiple responsibilities while keeping his aspiration (of pursuing further education) alive had ultimately enabled him to realize his goal. As he explained, \u00E2\u0080\u009CBesides my younger sister after me who quit school, my other siblings were able to continue to remain in school because I was able to help support my family. ... They have completed university; my youngest brother just started university this year.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Not unlike me and Sophal, Sopheak worked to contribute to his family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial needs and at the same time did not give up his study. Sopheak was also the oldest child in his family and played an important part in contributing to his family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s basic needs while he was growing up. He recounted his living conditions when he was younger: We were a farming family. We managed to make ends meet. But making ends meet in our situation was a tough life. I remember when I was in lower secondary school, whenever there was no school or on weekends, I usually went around the village to search for wild fruits or vegetables such as waterlily or crabs in the rice fields and collected them to sell at the local market. I was in grade 8 or so at the time. That was our normal way to earn a living. We also grew different vegetables such as cabbage, radish, and chili. So after school, I would go fetch water using a pair of buckets from a nearby pond to water those plants. I would do that about 80 times every evening. The distance from the pond to the plants was about 300 meters or so. I was around 13 years old at the time, so carrying that much water every day was quite difficult. Sopheak was an exemplary case whereby juggling multiple responsibilities as a necessity for survival had built not only his physical strength, but also his mental capacity to persevere and to tackle any constraints life threw at him. His early socialization had cultivated a habitus that would help him to cope with all sorts of later challenges. Sopheak adopted the same disposition when trying to accumulate necessary capital when he was trying to get admitted into a university program; he was actively looking for any opportunities that would allow him to equip himself with the necessary capital for his social mobility journey. As he recalled: I heard of an English language school called Pa Vanna. It was a private school. I was told that the owner of the school assisted poor students. So I went to see him and offered to help clean his school in exchange for free English language lessons. He agreed to allow me to take one hour of free English language lessons every weekday. ... In return, I helped clean the school with other cleaners every Friday. 232 With that extra hour of free lessons, coupled with his other lessons at different churches, Sopheak passed an entrance exam to attend a university program on a scholarship. He drew on his dispositional quality of perseverance to face challenges to his completing higher education and realizing its economic benefits. The cases presented above exemplify the experiences of the oldest child in the family. However, taking on responsibility to help support the family was not necessarily only the role of the oldest nor male child. The material scarcity associated with poverty respected no gender or hierarchy. Sokunthea, for instance, was the second youngest child in her family, but she had to work hard from the time she was an elementary school student to help support her family. Her parents were away most of the time earning a living and left her in the care of her older siblings. In addition, two of her older brothers were away earning a living, too. Thus, she had to take on more responsibility at home. As she recalled: We were financially struggling, but we were able to generate some money from our vegetable garden in the back of our house along the river bank. We planted cassava and several kinds of vegetables. So when we did not have any money to buy food, we relied on the produce from there. Moreover, another thing that helped was, because we were living by the river, we went fishing in the river. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I was left to the care of my older siblings. My older sister was at home, preparing food. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I usually went fishing with my third older brother. It was tough at the time; we sometimes had nothing to eat but rice with tamarind; sometimes we had fish that we caught in the river. Because two of my older brothers were not around, I started experiencing difficult life since I was very young. Since I started grade 1, I attended public school in the daytime and our faith-based (Islam) school in the evening. I brought along vegetables from our garden to sell at school. I was also helping with household chores. I sometimes had to go fetch water from the river; we did not have running water yet at the time. I sometimes went to the market to buy some biscuits and fruits and resell them in my neighborhood, making a little profit which I used to support my study. It was a difficult life for Sokunthea; in fact, one time she almost died: \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt was a tough life. I had to dive into the river and under the boat to catch fish. I almost lost my life once; my brother came to the rescue in time! \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 It was a very difficult life I went through at the time.\u00E2\u0080\u009D But she did not give up her study despite these difficult living circumstances. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s difficult living 233 circumstances had instilled in her a capacity to understand this kind of constraints in life and to find ways to confront them, to persevere, and to move forward in life. Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s dispositional quality continued to be a very useful capacity when she was pursuing university. She worked and studied at the same time to support her family and pursue her desire of obtaining higher education, hoping to get a better job upon graduation. Sokunthea recalled a quandary she faced at the time: I had a dilemma when I passed high school exit exam and the university entrance exam. I passed the university entrance exam, but I was thinking of not pursuing it. I wanted to go to work at a garment factory. It was a good-paying job; my family had financial constraints. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I wanted to give up my plan to attend university and go to work because my parents needed financial support; I wanted to help support them. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 But another idea that came to my mind then was that pursuing university education would allow me to gain more knowledge than what I had learned at high school. And if I pursued university education, I could still find part-time work to do to help support my family. So, I decided to decline the job offer. I already passed the job interview. I decided to go back to university. Like Sokunthea, Chantrea was the second youngest child in her family. When she was still very young, she helped her parents and older siblings who were blacksmiths and welders with all sorts of work. At the same time, she did not give up her study. For Chantrea, helping with the family's manual work was a necessary responsibility; at the same time, going to school and studying hard was equally important to keep her hopes of moving out of a difficult living condition. As she explained: I think I wanted to move out of that life. That's why I tried to study hard; that was one of my goals. Because I had experienced difficult times, I had to study hard because after I finished my study, I would have a job to do and move out of that life, without having to live that life again. For Chantrea, her difficult living situation had not only made her aspire for higher education as an avenue out of that living condition, but it had also built her strength of character and capacity to persevere through the constraints towards achieving her goal of getting a good job after completing university. 234 Veasna had a unique life story. His experience of homelessness and its resultant living circumstances had brought about pain and suffering, which made him well aware of setbacks in life and the need for hard work to improve his living situation. Although he left school for a while due to his living conditions, Veasna had hopes of having a better life through pursuit of education. With the help of a friend and a kind-hearted tourist, Veasna was able to go to school and pursue higher education. He recalled the life challenges and how he overcame them: One of the main factors for me is pain, which has made me overcome life challenges. I had experienced all sorts of sufferings: eating leftover food from under or on the table [at restaurants], scavenging garbage bins looking for food and eating whatever I could find, sleeping wherever and whenever it was dark, working 18 hours a day at times, wearing the same clothes for a whole year. All these sufferings have made me work hard. Veasna\u00E2\u0080\u0099s living circumstances and the resulting pain and suffering had made his more aware of his social location; this experience had also harnessed a perseverant capacity that fueled and drove him to take a course of action that led to his better living condition. Importantly, the fact that he did not give up schooling and his aspirations of higher education played a fundamental role in his life journey. When I met Veasna for this interview, he held a professional position at a foreign embassy in Cambodia and was living comfortably in his own home in Phnom Penh. The narratives of other research participants also portray their difficult living conditions due to their poor socio-economic standing. They contributed in one way or another to supporting their families; they did not quit school. Those who were the youngest children in their families, including Bopha, Phirun, Ratanak, Sovath, and Vichea did not have to take on as much responsibility as those who were the oldest ones. However, they still needed to work in some way to help support their families. Phirun, whose mother was away trying to earn a living and left him in the care of his older siblings, had to work in his family rice fields as well as help to raise ducks and pigs. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents started as street hawkers selling iced water before having a small food stall where they sold porridge; Bopha helped them out, from cleaning dishes at the food stall to selling the porridge. Similar to Bopha, Vichea helped his parents with their job of repairing bicycles and, later on, hand-making cigarettes. Ratanak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s family lived in a village located near the Cambodian-Thai border. His mother and older siblings earned their living by getting clothes from Thailand and selling them in a local market in his village. He helped them 235 whenever he could. Other research participants engaged in different forms of work to help their families while they were in school. Dara, Darith, and Sovath, whose parents were farmers, usually helped them on their farms after school and/or on weekends. For all of the research participants and myself, while our early years of growing up, socialization, and living conditions shaped our identities, the fact that we had to regularly deal with life challenges \u00E2\u0080\u0093 those generally characterized by material scarcity \u00E2\u0080\u0093 forced us to constantly reflect on our living circumstances and struggle to survive. It heightened our awareness of our social standing and forced us to think about how we could improve our lives. It also instilled in us a capacity to deal with setbacks in life, to juggle multiple roles and responsibilities, and to persevere through these challenges. Our contextual circumstances were the impetus that fueled and drove us on our social mobility journeys. Our embrace of education as a central avenue to improve our living circumstances motivated us to remain in school and pursue further education while engaging in different forms of labor to survive and to support our studies. 8.2 Maneuvering liminality: Exercising \u00E2\u0080\u009Csituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency All research participants, regardless of their gender identity, were able to overcome the limits of their social location by drawing on capacities born out of their experiences of growing up confronting numerous life challenges. For women research participants, however, it took more than hard work to realize their aspirations. As previously noted, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural doxa comprised another layer of constraints that women had to confront in their pursuit of higher education and mobility. The narratives of the women revealed the extent to which they were conscious of the limits of both their social locations and their gender role expectations. Still, they were able to exercise their agency within the confines of a liminal space, i.e., between the limits of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework and their complete emancipation from the bounds of this framework. Their pursuit of higher education and social mobility was marked by ongoing maneuvering of and, at times resistance to, the multiple and temporal constraints of the multiple fields within which they navigated. Sokunthea exercised her agency by assuming different agentic orientations, switching and recomposing her orientations depending on the contexts. When she was growing up, for example, she performed dual boy and girl gender roles. In supporting herself and her family from 236 an early age, she performed a \"male\" role within the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural cosmos. As she explained: I thought of my role as a man's. I think I performed a man\u00E2\u0080\u0099s role despite being a woman. As I said, I did not know much how to do a woman's tasks; I did a lot of men's tasks\u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I was a man, I thought to myself, and if I had quit school at the time, my future would have been finished, I would not have been able to provide for my family. Sokunthea continued: \u00E2\u0080\u009CIt was like I was both a boy and a girl growing up.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Having been socialized to perform men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s roles, Sokunthea built on her capacity to recompose her gender orientation and expanded on it as a way for her to negotiate the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural framework and to imagine alternative possibilities. Performing men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tasks made Sokunthea more conscious of the limits of the expected gender roles for women, and it also liberated her from the gender role expectations for women. At other times, Sokunthea was confrontational in dealing with her family and community; this approach showed her agency in resisting the socio-cultural forces that pressured her to give up her aspirations. Sokunthea recalled a confrontation with her parents when they tried to make her quit school when she was still in grade 9: I argued with them and told them I didn't want to stop going to school, and that my future would be finished if I stopped going to school at this grade. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 They tried for about one whole month to force me to quit school. We were arguing back and forth. I was so upset that I did not accept the daily allowance that they gave me. I used my own money that I earned because I was very upset with them. I tried to argue with them for one month until they understood me. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I even confronted with my mother, asking her to call the community member(s) to see me face to face and tell me why they liked minding other people\u00E2\u0080\u0099s business so much. ... If I had not confronted with them at the time, I would not have been where I am today. Even at that young age, Sokunthea did not shy away outright confrontation with her parents and the people in her community to resist the constraints of \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural codes and pursue her aspirations. Sokunthea defied these limits by equipping herself with necessary forms of capital she considered important for her to change her social standing. It was through this negotiation and confrontation with the constraints of her existence and gendered 237 roles that Sokunthea came to define her possibilities and realize her agency and strength of her character. Being aware of job market demands for high academic credentials in a changing economy in the 1990s, Sokunthea thought, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cif I had only a high school diploma, in the future, I would not be able to compete in the job market because I would not have a university degree.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Within the context of the societal changes at the time, Sokunthea believed that pursuing higher education was the only way for her to improve her socio-economic status. Thus, in addition to pursuing a university program, she attended various short courses to equip herself with forms of capital deemed necessary to compete in the demanding and changing job market at the time: I didn't just pursue a bachelor's degree program; I even tried to pursue different short courses at the weekends because I was from a poor family. If I didn't make an effort, who would do that for me? I looked for different learning opportunities through scholarships or courses that required me to pay a small fee. I studied very hard. Pursuing higher education was a way for her to be prepared for the emerging labor market; at the same time, however, she continued to be confronted by the constraints of the socio-cultural codes and gender norms. As she added, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAnother reason [for trying to pursue different programs] was that I wanted to defy the perspective of the people in the community.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative was similar to that of Sokunthea. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s performing of work supposedly done by men made her more aware of the differences between men and women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s gender role expectations: \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhen I was younger, I did all kinds of men's work ... My life was like that. When I saw other girls holding and playing with their dolls, I felt my life was so different.\u00E2\u0080\u009D As Chantrea said: Before I helped my family a lot. Because I wasn't able to help financially, I helped physically. ... I didn't like that life. I sometimes felt ashamed of myself because I am a girl doing all sorts of manual labor. ... It wasn't the kind of work I wanted to do; that's why I tried to study hard and find a job to do. As a young girl, Chantrea felt ashamed of doing men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s manual labor but her life experience allowed her to imagine and desire an alternative future possibility beyond the limited versions available to girls. Besides allowing her to become more aware of the limits of her social location 238 and prescribed gender roles, performing men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tasks also motivated her to change her life and remove the burdens of traditional gender roles. Pursuit of higher education was an avenue to change. Moreover, crossing different social fields through her work and her pursuit of higher education, both in Cambodia and overseas, not only created moments of crises and disjunctures but also revealed the ambiguities and contradictions of the gendered socio-cultural framework, which in turn enabled her to re-position herself and redefine the relationships of power with the constraining structure. In referring to what she had learned from crossing different social fields in her two different positions, one at a university setting and the other at a UN agency, Chantrea commented that: After having engaged in a number of research projects [at a university\u00E2\u0080\u0099s graduate program], I have learned a great deal. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I had the opportunity to engage in research projects with them [faculty members], going to fieldwork in the provinces. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I have gained new experiences, which\u00E2\u0080\u00A6might be a good experience for the future. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I am growing a lot in the current position [at a UN agency]. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I have attended meetings with senior leaders, major development partners, to discuss work at the policy level with concerned government ministries; I feel that a lot is happening during my current position. Reflecting on what she had learned from navigating different social fields in relation to the constraints of traditional gender norms, Chantrea offered the following thoughts: I think the Khmer in general are more reserved and down-to-earth. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I think this makes me lose a lot of opportunities. ... Only after I began my graduate study in Australia did I realize how important it is to be able to communicate with people, revealing my potential. ... I think the fact that I showed my potential and changed my Khmer mindset \u00E2\u0080\u0093 that women are reserved and not talking much \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I began to tell myself to be brave. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 We need to change our mindset. That doesn't necessarily mean that we need to change ourselves from being Khmer, but it means we don't have to be a samput knong phnot14, which is a \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Khmer value that women have to be a samput knong phnot, not going out, etc. In fact, sometimes when we do not go out and meet new people, we lose opportunities to build our networks. 14 Samput knong phnot is a Khmer saying, which literally means \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca robe in its perfect folds\u00E2\u0080\u009D or perfectly spotless or pure. The saying is normally used to describe how a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgood\u00E2\u0080\u009D woman is expected to behave according to the Khmer culture. 239 Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative reveals that her exposure to a different socio-cultural environment, in addition to her crossing of different social fields in Cambodia, opened up contradictions in gender norms and was a factor that facilitated her change of mindset and practice. Being in an unfamiliar context created a moment of crisis and pushed her to be more aware of the constraints of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural mentality for Khmer women. Chantrea believed the idea that Khmer women should be reserved and not speak until spoken to was a clear disadvantage in educational, social, and occupational spaces. Chantrea thought that it was important that women change this mindset so that they were able to show their potential, which might open the door to new opportunities. In reflecting on her social mobility journey, Chantrea had this to say to all parents: I would like to appeal to all families to not discourage their children who want to study from studying. Some families think that girls do not have to study too much: just get married when they turn into adults and live like others. This makes them lose their opportunities. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational mobility, from obtaining educational credentials in Cambodia to getting a graduate degree from an overseas university, brought her growing respect and influence, and a sense of independence within her family. It also became an important cultural capital which she utilized for occupational mobility, which then allowed her to improve her living conditions and social status. Her educational/cultural capital, economic capital (secure income), professional status, and the symbolic capital that came with the accumulation of these forms of capital enabled her to assume a better socio-economic standing. However, like Sokunthea, all this was not achieved easily. Chantrea assumed multiple gender roles. This process helped her to make sense of the different prescribed gender identities and enabled her to recompose her orientation towards a future possibility. While Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s life experience seemed to indicate her complete emancipation from the bondedness of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural framework, she exercised an agency bounded by the power relations and socio-cultural framework of the Cambodian society. Her continuous maneuvering against gender constraints, in fact, comprised a meaningful aspect of her existence and allowed her to envision alternative possibilities. 240 Bopha had a slightly different experience than Chantrea and Sokunthea. However, she did not shy away from carrying herself as if she were a boy, experimenting with different gender roles. For instance, while a girl is normally expected to sit sideways when riding on the back of a motorbike, she defied this norm and straddled the back of a motorbike, a way of riding that is normally associated with men. For her, this was liberating because it implied that she could do whatever men could do. This mindset empowered her to defy and negotiate other gender roles expected of women within the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural landscape in Cambodia. She also exercised agency in crossing of different social fields in her volunteer work and professional employment, as well as in her educational pursuit. As Bopha described it: My experience of going to different places\u00E2\u0080\u00A6shapes my thinking. The experience of going out, not necessarily going overseas but also going out into society, shapes our thinking. This kind of experience helps us to soften our rigidity, accept diversity, and become more open-minded. I have observed that those without this kind of exposure are very rigid in their thinking. This kind of experience has enabled me to get to where I am today, especially to improve myself, my thinking, and my open-mindedness. It also helps improve my courage. Moreover, my networks, including the universities I have attended, have helped shape my ideas and my vision and mission. They help me find my self. This whole process exposed the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in the gender norms and opened up new opportunities for her to imagine alternative future possibilities for her and others. As Bopha continued: \u00E2\u0080\u00A6the opportunities I had to travel to provinces and see the difficult living circumstances of the villagers, understanding Cambodian history through my job, but importantly the living circumstances of the villagers I met encouraged me to pursue further education, so that I could help them upon my return. That was when pursuing further education was for me an opportunity to contribute to society. ... The opportunities I had to study overseas, the opportunities to meet villagers, all these are stepping stones for me to gradually change my way of thinking. It is not an overnight change of thinking. I think the opportunity to get exposure to external environments is an important factor that shapes my perspective. However, this process was not a straightforward journey for Bopha. To be able to pursue education and remain single a bit longer so that she was able to do more before getting married and settling down, Bopha had to navigate a very challenging socio-cultural landscape; she had to 241 negotiate, directly, the constraints within her family, and, indirectly, the broader socio-cultural norms and gender expectations for women in Cambodia. Her remaining in school from elementary to secondary level was a result of constant negotiations with her parents, in addition to her older siblings\u00E2\u0080\u0099 encouragement, support, and interventions. University and graduate studies were also challenging gendered spaces for her. As she recalled: When I wanted to pursue further education, I knew that my parents would not approve, and giving them many details would not help, either. So, what I did was I proved myself to them as a way to transform their perspective. That was because my parents did not want their children to pursue much education, especially for me as a woman. They often said, \u00E2\u0080\u0098If you were a man, we would allow you to pursue further education. But as a woman, you should not pursue much education.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 When I was a sophomore at [name of the University], my father said to me, \u00E2\u0080\u0098Don't pursue any further education after this program. Women cannot become leaders.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 He said to me like that. I went with the flow, agreeing with what he said. I did not confront him. Instead of displaying outright resistance to her parents, Bopha tried to gradually make her parents become accustomed, first, to the idea of her being away for a short period of time, before departing for a longer master\u00E2\u0080\u0099s degree program in the United States. As Bopha continued: When I applied for a master's program, I did not tell them that I had applied. I told them after I knew that I had been admitted into the program. When I told them that I was admitted to a master's program in the US, they tried to stop me from attending the program. They did not want me to go. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I tried to accustom them gradually. I had tried to get them accustomed to this first when I attended a two-week training course in the US, and then another two-week training course in Sweden, and several other short training courses overseas. Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative reveals her continuous maneuvering of the constraints of the socio-cultural framework. This experience not only uncovered the burden of the socio-cultural framework on women but also motivated her to do more to contribute to her society and perhaps, in her role as the Executive Director of a local NGO oriented to empowering women and youth, to help those less fortunate. However, her struggle did not end and was ongoing. Her exercising of agency was situated within the broader socio-cultural framework being enforced continuously by her parents and parents-in-law, as discussed in the previous chapter. 242 For the women in this study, crossing different social fields and dealing with consequential contradictions and ambiguities opened up opportunities for imagining alternative possibilities to redefine their relationships with the socio-cultural framework. These opportunities were possible because the women accumulated different forms of capital, which enabled them to re-position themselves within the changing social fields through which they were navigating. 8.3 Summary This chapter showed that the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 difficult living circumstances marked by poverty and material scarcity had particular qualities that acted as crucial resources for them to successfully pursue higher education as an avenue for social mobility. Their socio-economic standing within the context of rapid socio-economic transformation not only made them more aware of their social locations but also shaped their aspirations and fueled their desire for alternative futures. Their pursuit of higher education was not merely based on an understanding of the value of education, but also a defiance of the limits of their social locations. They did not let the socio-economic locations into which they were born determine their life course; they exercised their agency to confront the socio-economic forces; they worked to survive; they did not give up their studies; they studied hard to move out of the bounds of their socio-economic backgrounds. Their social mobility journey was underpinned by the collective endeavor of their families and of themselves, but also driven by their individual agency, persistence, and perseverance \u00E2\u0080\u0093 qualities associated with growing up in the margins. The narratives of women research participants reveal the dynamic interface between socio-culturally embedded structural forces and their agential deliberations. The women needed to continuously exercise their agency, wrestling with \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural codes and gender role expectations in order to chart their life course in educational, occupational, and social spaces. They drew upon their agentic capacities over multiple social sites (i.e., family, community, education, occupation, broader society) to acquire resources or capitals necessary for them to reposition themselves within the social space. Their stories show that crossing multiple social fields through their pursuit of education and occupational opportunities not only uncovered the ambiguities and contradictions of their gender roles but also inspired them to 243 imagine and create alternative possibilities. While their pursuit of higher education was in and of itself an act of resistance to the socio-cultural norms, the cultural capital that they had accumulated became an essential capital for them to defy the norms and negotiate the socio-cultural space as they charted their mobility paths. The life stories of the women illustrate their agency, whose essence resided within ongoing struggles and maneuvering of the socio-cultural framework and gender norms \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a process that not only gave meaning to their existence but also defines the notion of agency in a Global South society such as Cambodia. In the next chapter, I address the final research question, focusing on the meaning and end goals of social mobility as defined and pursued by the research participants in the study. 244 Chapter 9: Social Mobility towards What End(s)? The past empowers the present, and the groping footsteps leading to this present mark the pathways to the future. (Bateson, 1989, p. 34) This chapter presents findings that address the fourth research question: What was the meaning(s) or purpose(s) of social mobility? The chapter focuses on exploring the meanings of the social mobility journey as characterized by the research participants. It builds on the findings in Chapter 8 by juxtaposing the Global South, collectivistic notion of social mobility and \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocio-culturally situated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency vis-a-vis the Global North/Euro-centric, individualistic conception of social mobility as framed through the lens of colonial, neo-colonial, and neoliberal rationality. Specifically, the chapter brings to light the distinctions between Global North and Global South epistemologies and how they influenced the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 definition of the meaning and purposes of their social mobility journey. There are two main sections in this chapter. The first section presents narratives of the research participants revealing four main themes describing their social mobility journeys. The second part discusses the emergence of a middle class in Cambodia. This section builds on the first by explicating an emerging middle class that the research participants defined and to which they considered themselves belonging. 9.1 Meaning(s) or purpose(s) of social mobility Unsurprisingly, all the research participants attributed how they got to where they were to the pursuit of higher education. For several of the research participants, higher education was a vehicle for them to break the poverty cycle. Their narratives show that, within this context of rapid social transformation, their pursuit of higher education was an act of confronting the limits of their socio-economic locations, of lifting themselves out of poverty, and of improving their lives. Pursuing higher education in and of itself was a form of resistance to the boundaries and limitations of the social categories into which they were born. For instance, Darith talked about higher education as an avenue for him to come so far in his life journey: \u00E2\u0080\u009CI personally think I 245 have broken out of poverty cycle. Ten or twenty years ago when I came to study here, I rode a bicycle; now I drive a car. It is just great.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Similarly, Dara talked about how higher education had equipped him and his other siblings with necessary resources to improve their lives, allowing them to move out of poverty: \u00E2\u0080\u009CWe have enjoyed better lifestyles and had better means to generate more stable income. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 My life has transitioned from being one of the poorest children in a rural village to living a middle-class lifestyle in Phnom Penh.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Reflecting on her own experience, Bopha argued that: \u00E2\u0080\u009Ceducation can change a person's life; it breaks the poverty cycle.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Overall, there emerged four main meanings or purposes of social mobility as described by the research participants, each of which is discussed below. 9.1.1 Towards personal and family-oriented financial stability Overall, all of the research participants attributed a similar meaning to their social mobility: a journey towards a financial security or stability. Given their socio-economic origins, it is not surprising that what they had tried to achieve was to have some sense of predictability in relation to their financial situation. Several of the research participants characterized this in neoliberal terms, particularly in terms of acquisition of consumer goods as indicators of their financial security. For example, Dara commented that: I moved from being a child in a rural poor farming family to being in the middle class, having a good car to drive, living in a house worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, able to send my children to a good, private school, not having to worry about lack of basic needs, earning a high income \u00E2\u0080\u0093 I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve moved from below poverty line status to the middle class. Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s description of his financial achievement included the ability to afford services such as private education for his children and material consumption such as owning a vehicle. Dara\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative focused specifically on his own family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial stability. A few of the research participants were quite explicit about their acquisition of consumer goods as indicators of their socio-economic status. Sovath, for instance, was very open in terms of what one would need to possess to be part of the contemporary \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodern\u00E2\u0080\u009D society. His effort has been to build a happy family, and for Sovath a happy family needs a few important things: 246 To have a happy family in the contemporary society, it is essential we build a family that is not different from other families in this century. What era are we in? We are in the era of materialism, so we must be able to show that we live in a decent house, drive a modern car, hold a good position, so that we are highly regarded by others. We must be able to flow in this course; I am now part of this course. But whether this is a good thing or not, I am still not sure. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 If you asked me: \u00E2\u0080\u0098Have you been successful?\u00E2\u0080\u0099 My answer would be: \u00E2\u0080\u0098Yes, I have.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 While Sovath was less certain whether this material possession as indicators of success, he had tried to accumulate these possessions, among others. Sovath was also very explicit in describing his success in neoliberal terms. Other research participants described the meaning of their social mobility in relation to the economic wellbeing of their families. For example, Sopheak expanded the notion of financial freedom beyond his own family to include that of his parents. When asked as to what his effort to get to where he was had been for, Sopheak responded: For a sense of fulfillment as measured by the level of happiness of the people around me. For example, I can afford to send my children to a good and expensive private school; I can afford to pay the bills if my parents are sick; my parents and my siblings are able to talk proudly about where I am working. I feel a sense of fulfillment when the people around me are happy and proud of what I have achieved, which in turn motivates me to continue to put more effort into what I am doing. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 My self-fulfillment has been the main driver for me so far. Sopheak\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sense of fulfillment is reflected in the level of happiness of his extended family members, from his own children to his siblings and parents. The notion of happiness for Sopheak was not only the extent to which he could afford material consumption but also the feeling of pride his family had in his achievement. Similarly, Phirun stated that, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI want to have a decent living standard. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 We all always think about our family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic standing.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Like Phirun, Ratanak said, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit has been for the livelihood of my family\u00E2\u0080\u00A6to have financial security like many other families in society.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sophal added, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMy initial goal of having tried to get this far in life was to not go back to work as a construction worker and to be able to support my mother. That was my initial goal.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The first person in the family who had pursued university education both in Cambodia and overseas, Veasna wanted to better his family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s living circumstances. Veasna elaborated: 247 At the time, it was primarily for my family. No one in my family had pursued much education; I thought if I could pursue higher education, \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I would be able to gain more knowledge, have a job, earn more income; I would be able to help improve the living conditions of my family. So far, I have been able to do just that. Two of the research participants were emphatic in describing the goals of their efforts as having been for their family (i.e., parents and siblings) because of the support that they had been provided by their families. Interestingly, these were the women who had received enormous support from their parents and/or siblings during their initial steps on this journey, from early years of schooling to attending university programs. Sokunthea, for example, stated that: Frankly, what I have done to earn an income is not for myself, but for my family. I have supported an older brother financially with his wedding. I did not have to financially help my eldest brother, but after his marriage I have supported him a little bit. ... I also financially helped my younger sister when she got married. ... I also helped my older sister a bit as well when she built her own house. ... For me, helping my family is more important than my social status. Similarly, Chantrea, who was supported by her parents and all her siblings during her pursuit of higher education, commented that: I have tried to help each of my siblings to have a job, to be independent financially. I prioritize them because they have supported me. Moreover, before my dad passed, I promised him that I would help support my family. I have helped my elder sisters to have their own small businesses and my older brothers to have some work to do. And I will continue to help them based on what I can do. The two women were now returning the support they had received from their parents and their siblings, helping their siblings to improve their own economic status. Their own personal needs came last. One research participant was quite uncertain about his financial stability. This view was very likely driven by the fact that he had just moved from working for a donor agency, where the income was substantial, to working at a public university, where the income was much less. As Vichea mentioned: 248 I think I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m still not financially stable. I don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have a sustainable source of major income. My income still fluctuates. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not that I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not at the point of having no food on the table, but economically I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not stable yet. I have my own house, but of course I have debt. Vichea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative also points to the new reality of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodern\u00E2\u0080\u009D middle class society where home ownership comes with a debt load. In this section, the narratives of the research participants reveal the meaning of social mobility as economic or financial freedom, or at least some stability or predictability in their living conditions, for themselves and, in several cases, for their families as well. This financial or economic stability is an important economic capital that resulted from participants' accumulation and conversion of cultural capital and other forms of capital, including social capital. A number of the research participants described this notion of financial security in terms that are characteristic of neoliberalism, such as the accumulation of consumer goods as an indicator of their success and economic status. However, an overall characteristic of the meaning of social mobility as described by most of the research participants was one that indicates collective, family-oriented goals, i.e., the financial stability not only of themselves but also of their parents and other siblings. 9.1.2 Towards social status and reputation While many of the research participants did not consider social status or reputation as an important goal of their social mobility, a few did, particularly those who were or had been in the public sector. For example, as an individual who had occupied positions in academia and in the public sector, Sovath considered himself to be successful \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocially.\u00E2\u0080\u009D By this he meant he was somebody recognized by the people with a respectable position in Cambodian society. Happy and smiling, Sovath gave an example: I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m somebody in this society. For example, last night I attended an event with more than 300 participants with respectable positions in the society; upon arrival many of them came to greet me, indicating I am somebody with certain status in this society. That means I am successful, socially. 249 For Sovath, this social status was an indicator of his success. This recognition indicated his reputation and was a form of symbolic capital that worked to Sovath\u00E2\u0080\u0099s advantage. Though no longer in the public sector, Sovath seemed to be capitalizing on this symbolic capital in heading a private institution that offers training programs in soft skills, such as critical thinking. Two other research participants (Phirun and Ratanak), who were still working in government ministries at the time of the interviews, were quite muted in terms of characterizing their social status as success. However, they were emphatic that it was important to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Csomebody\u00E2\u0080\u009D in a position with decision-making power if one were to effect change in Cambodian society. For example, Phirun had moved from being a self-employed entrepreneur to working in the non-governmental sector and now ending up as a deputy director of a government department. He commented that: \u00E2\u0080\u009CTo be able to change something, one has to occupy a certain position.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Based on decades of experience in different sectors, Phirun argued that: I have pursued three pathways, from entrepreneurialism to non-profit sector to the public sector, which I think is the last career pursuit I need to build. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve observed that policy impact in the non-profit sector was very small. If one wants to have a major policy impact, one has to engage in the public sector. I uphold a principle of promoting change through engagement, not confrontation. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 So, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m working [in the public sector] to promote change in Cambodian society through direct engagement. Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative suggests the importance of having a respectable social status in contemporary Cambodian society since it comes with other \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbenefits\u00E2\u0080\u009D (economic or otherwise). That is why, wary of the infamous corruption in Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s public sector, Phirun hastened to add that \u00E2\u0080\u009CI\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not a greedy person. I just want to have enough. I want to have a decent living standard\u00E2\u0080\u00A6but I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m not planning on grabbing everything for myself.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Phirun gave an example: \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf the top government officials can afford to go on vacation in Italy, I just want to go on vacation at the beach city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Therefore, while Phirun emphasized the importance of holding a respectable position in the public sector as an avenue to for have a policy impact, there was a parallel narrative that the symbolic capital he gained from occupying this position could also yield economic capital. Ratanak, who was the director of a government department when I interviewed him, held a similar perspective to Phirun regarding his desire to have a positive effect on the Cambodian 250 society. As he stated, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI want to see our country develop like other developed countries, so I have contributed in whatever ways I can.\u00E2\u0080\u009D When asked whether wanting to have a respectable social status or privilege had ever crossed his mind in his social mobility journey, Ratanak responded: Overall, I like the status in the public sector more than in the private sector. But I like being simple and do not wish to go higher on the hierarchy. I want to be at the technical level, so that I can maintain a work-life balance, having time to spend with my family and friends. Going higher on the ministerial hierarchical organization would come with more reputation and benefits (i.e., more symbolic and economic capital). However, Ratanak did not want to take this path. Interestingly similar to Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s comment, Ratanak reasoned that: My personal philosophy is to not be greedy as no one can take anything with them when they die. I just want to be able to support my children, so that they can study as much as or higher than I have. Generally speaking, in Cambodian society, there is an implicit assumption that holding a respectable position in government ministries comes with certain \u00E2\u0080\u009Cadvantages\u00E2\u0080\u009D (i.e., symbolic and economic capital). Both Phirun and Ratanak were quick to pre-emptively guard themselves against being judged for occupying a government position. Meanwhile, their statement about \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnot being greedy\u00E2\u0080\u009D signals the possibility of gaining economic benefits from occupying a respectable position in a government ministry. Another participant, Veasna, used to want to work in the government because he thought that would give him respectable social status. He later changed his mind and pursued a career in the non-profit sector, stating that: \u00E2\u0080\u009CI couldn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t stand the widespread corruption in the public sector.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Similarly, Sophal, who had been offered various positions in the government and at one point developed a strong desire to be the Minister of Education, commented that he did not want to work in the government for the social status because, as he stated, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t want to be co-opted by the system.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Among the three women research participants, Bopha was emphatic about building her own social status, which she considered important for inspiring other youth, particularly women, to aim to improve their own socio-economic status. In her current role as the Executive Director of a local NGO, Bopha argued that her status as a women executive director would have an 251 influential impact on the lives of other young women she was trying to assist through the various programs of her organization (more on this below). This section has highlighted the narratives of a few research participants whose purpose of social mobility was associated with improving their social status and reputation (i.e., symbolic capital). Findings reveal that this purpose of social mobility was pursued largely by those working in the government/public sector. This symbolic capital seemed to be able to generate other forms of capital, particularly economic capital. A couple other research participants who associated the economic capital gained through occupying a certain social status in the public sector as a form of corruption avoided pursuing this goal in the first place. For one women research participant, social status and reputation represented a symbolic capital that would enable her to do more to contribute to a broader collective good. 9.1.3 Towards personal emancipation As discussed in the previous chapter, women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of higher education involved not only continuous maneuvering but also a defiance of the broader \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural codes and gender norms. The framework and gender norms restricted women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s liberty and capacity to engage in activities that could have enabled them to improve their social and economic status. Therefore, their social mobility was more than a pursuit of economic outcome; it was also a journey of emancipating themselves from the limitations imposed by the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D framework. Being able to pursue schooling and higher education was an opportunity for them to realize their potential and to achieve more than just being a housewife, a \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender role still expected of them in contemporary Cambodian society. Reflecting on what higher education meant for her, Bopha stated that: \u00E2\u0080\u009CMy pursuit of higher education was not just for getting a job to do; it was an avenue for me to gain critical thinking, to understand the social contexts and to contribute to the society, to become an active citizen.\u00E2\u0080\u009D As she proudly stated: I have managed to transform my parents' perception. Now they give high value to education. My nephews and nieces are strongly encouraged to go to school, and my parents have referenced me as a model to encourage them. I mean I have proved myself to them. 252 Bopha has become a model not just in her own family but also within the sphere of her extended family. As she put it, \u00E2\u0080\u009CI think making a difference in my family is already making me happy.\u00E2\u0080\u009D For Bopha, thus, higher education was a liberation from the socio-cultural restrictions that women like herself continue to face in contemporary Cambodian society. Similarly, Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of higher education was an act of resistance to and defiance of the broader gender norms. As Chantrea proudly told me: In my neighborhood, I am the only person, the only woman, since the older generation of my older brothers, I am the only female person who has completed this high level of education, has a proper salary, completed graduate studies in Australia. In addition, I learned from Chantrea that some young women in her neighborhood had approached her for advice and suggestions about pursuing higher education, both in Cambodia and overseas. So, in a broader social context, Chantrea managed to embody new possibilities for women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of schooling and higher education. Within her own family, Chantrea felt a sense of liberty and influence, a form of symbolic capital that she had not experienced before. This freedom, she argued, was possible thanks to her accumulated cultural capital and the resultant economic and symbolic capital. As Chantrea reflected on her current status within her family: I have reached a level where what I say is taken seriously by the other family members. I mean I have an influential role in the family that I didn't have before; now I have major influence in the household. For example, when they want to do something, they now come to consult me, asking for my opinion; and when I offer my advice, they seldom reject it because they are confident in me. ... Overall, when there are major events in the household, my presence makes them feel warmth. I feel I am the central pillar of my family because they feel warmth in every aspect, whether it is about income, or support, emotional support. I sometimes feel proud, appreciating my household members for the fact that they are older than me, but they have respect for me even though I am just a younger sister; they respect my education, my job, my decisions. Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social mobility through pursuit of further education enabled her to equip herself with necessary cultural capital to earn an influential status in her family, as the person to consult regarding any important decision within the household. Coupled with her ability to earn a considerable income through her professional salaried employment with a UN agency, Chantrea 253 became what she called the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccentral pillar\u00E2\u0080\u009D of her family. Moreover, this improved socio-economic status freed Chantrea from having to do the domestic chores that most Cambodian women continue to perform. For Chantrea, this status within her family equaled personal independence and a sign that she has moved out of poverty and the kind of life she once lived and despised when she was still in her childhood. As Chantrea explained, \u00E2\u0080\u009CNow I'm not doing any household chores. I am only doing my job. ... And no one asks me to help with any of that work. ... It means I have somehow achieved what I wanted to achieve.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Chantrea achieved her desire of escaping the hard life she was ashamed of when she was younger \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a life when she had to do men\u00E2\u0080\u0099s work when her family was very poor. In addition, her present life suggests that she was not \u00E2\u0080\u009Cbound to the kitchen\u00E2\u0080\u009D and did not do the household chores that the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural framework expects \u00E2\u0080\u009Cideal\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer women to be doing. She seemed to be content with her present life focusing on her professional work, usually reserved for Cambodian men. However, it was not clear whether this freedom from performing household chores was due to the fact that Chantrea was still single at the time of the interview. As the narratives of Bopha and Sokunthea, discussed previously, revealed, their domestic responsibilities increased after they were married and had children. This section has shown that personal emancipation from the constraints of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D social-cultural framework and gender norms had significant meaning for social mobility as attributed by the women research participants. This liberty was expressed in the forms of being able to effect a positive view on women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of higher education, being influential in important decision making within the family, and not having to be \u00E2\u0080\u009Cstuck in the kitchen\u00E2\u0080\u009D and do domestic chores that Cambodian women are supposed to perform. However, it is crucial to note that despite change (i.e., personal emancipation) that women such as the three research participants have effected through their resistance to and negotiation with the ongoing pressures of Khmer socio-cultural codes and gender norms, women continue to face these challenges on a regular basis. As discussed previously, parents continue to play influential roles in imposing the traditional socio-cultural norms on their daughters. In addition, married women such as Bopha and Sokunthea have no choice but impose these norms and gender role expectations on themselves while juggling multiple burdens. This personal emancipation might be temporary and is, in fact, covering the entrenchment of certain gender 254 roles and socio-cultural norms as these married women become mothers themselves. Despite emerging sense of autonomy that the women feel, the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D center of power seems to continue to dominate, and they seem to be playing an important role in re-empowering this locus of power. 9.1.4 Towards a broader collective good A few research participants pondered their \u00E2\u0080\u009Cwhat next,\u00E2\u0080\u009D highlighting considerations beyond their personal or family-oriented goals in their social mobility journeys. Their reflections on how they could utilize their personal experiences and their improved socio-economic standing to help improve the lives of others beyond their immediate and extended families emphasized their concern about the collective good at the societal level. Their narratives shed light on the various approaches they had taken to give back to society in some small ways. For instance, Bopha was developing various youth/women empowerment projects in her capacity as the Executive Director of a local NGO. In particular, one of the key objectives of her projects was to promote the value of education, of which she was a beneficiary. Bopha reflected on what she was doing in her organization: I wanted to make a difference beyond my family. I wanted to help the people I had met, the vulnerable groups, women victims, to help them get out of victimhood to become leaders of their lives and what they want to pursue in their lives. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 Hence, my ambition becomes bigger as I am exposed to more opportunities. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 I want to give this kind of opportunity to others. Therefore, in my current role I want to create programs that provide opportunities for sharing and learning. I think what is important is that these programs help younger generations of youth and young people I have worked with. I want to help them to find themselves and their full potential. Bopha believed that she could use the symbolic capital resulting from her status as a women executive director to help improve the livelihoods of other women. In so doing, she thought that other women would also be respected and offered opportunities to improve their lives. As Bopha explained: I don't want women to be labelled that they can only reach a certain level. While I want to challenge others, I also want to give value to myself. I think when I give value to myself 255 and build a status or identity for myself, that is also when women in general will also be valued. It is important to note that this consideration of broader societal justice came after Bopha had ensured her family had a relatively secured financial standing. As Bopha stated: I want to help others, but of course I cannot ignore my family. I do not want to help others but let my family fall into poverty. I have my own investment and passive income now, so I can devote all my time to do social work. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narrative was similar to that of Bopha. Although his initial goal of pursuit of higher education was for improving his own economic condition, Sophal began to broaden his concern for others beyond his own family after he had witnessed the suffering of other fellow Cambodians, particularly those from a similar background like himself. As Sophal elaborated: My initial goal of having tried to get this far in life was to not go back to work as a construction worker and to be able to support my mother. That was my initial goal. Later on, after I was able to support my mother and my younger siblings, a new goal emerged. I thought to myself: \u00E2\u0080\u0098My obligation should not just be supporting my mother and my family; there are many other people who are like me. I thought I could perhaps contribute to improving their lives in some small way.\u00E2\u0080\u0099 Therefore, initially, what I had tried to achieve was largely for myself, but this goal changed after I have witnessed the sufferings of other people from similar backgrounds like myself, particularly after I had assisted farmers from rural areas who had come to Phnom Penh to protest land grabbing and after having worked with so many youth from poor rural areas of Cambodia. I thought I could contribute to helping not only my family but also other people. Like Bopha, Sophal thought that he could contribute to improving the lives of other people by using the knowledge and experience he had accumulated. But, again, this concern for others emerged after Sophal realized he had improved his family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic situation. Importantly, both their initial views and goals were challenged and transformed through their exposure to the sufferings of other people. Vichea had given up his career and other employment opportunities with major organizations such as the World Bank and UNDP to pursue a position at a public university where he thought he would be able to make more meaningful contributions to society. That is why, as noted above, Vichea argued that his family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s financial situation was not secure. 256 However, he stated that his effort had not been just for himself or his family. As he asserted, \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf what I have been doing has been just for myself, I would not have left my job at the World Bank and moved to work at the university. I did not want to get deeper into that aspect.\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u009CThat aspect\u00E2\u0080\u009D Vichea referred to is what he also called the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccomfort zone\u00E2\u0080\u009D in which, as Vichea critiqued, many seemed to be stuck and enjoyed themselves after they had moved up from the marginalized backgrounds. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099ve been thinking about two views. Some have moved up to this level but lack the other view, which is social contribution. I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m talking about the definition of social justice, i.e., imported aspect and exported aspect. For the imported aspect, one moves from a difficult living circumstance to an improved situation and then they claim this society is just and fair because they have moved up on the social ladder. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 If we look at the society as a whole, what is missing is the exported aspect. Now that I have reached this stage, how are others doing? \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 So, for the exported aspect, the question is: what have those who have moved up on the social ladder done for others? This is the \u00E2\u0080\u0098comfort zone\u00E2\u0080\u0099 of many people who have reached this stage; they have merely encouraged others to follow their footsteps but have not done more for social change and social justice. Even while Vichea was worried about the financial security of his family, he was driven to do more for broader collective good and social change in Cambodia. He believed that his accumulated cultural capital would allow him to contribute to improving the lives of others. In this section, I have shown that a few of the research participants had the broader collective good as one of the goals of their social mobility. It seems that this social justice goal was developed out of the disjunctures they experienced through their work when they witnessed the sufferings of other people. Their narratives point to the ways in which their dispositions (i.e., habituses) were challenged, which resulted in emerging dispositional views. This goal of social mobility \u00E2\u0080\u0093 concern about the livelihoods and wellbeing of other fellow Cambodians who were less fortunate than themselves \u00E2\u0080\u0093 came after they had realized their personal and family-oriented goals. However, within Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s contemporary context of neoliberal capitalism where consumerist culture is becoming more widespread and deepening, this ideal, commendable purpose of social mobility that only few research participants attributed to their journey may be at odds with the dominant neoliberal ideology but may not be disrupting it. The fact that the personal and family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic status of virtually all the research participants took the 257 priority and that this goal of promoting a broader collective good and social justice seemed to emerge as an afterthought for only a few research participants indicates that this emerging force might not be leading to any major structural change in Cambodian society, at least not any time within the foreseeable future. 9.2 An emerging middle class? All the research participants considered themselves belong to the middle class, ranging from lower to upper middle-class. While acknowledging the absence of a proper definition of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmiddle class\u00E2\u0080\u009D in the context of Cambodia, most of them referred to their income level and occupation, their ability to afford good food and different services such as private education for their children, healthcare, travel, housing, vehicles, and their level of education as indicators of their social class. For example, when defining his middle-class status, Dara stated that in addition to high income, there were other criteria: We have secure housing, secure jobs, good transport, so we have moved long past the poverty line; I can afford to send my children to an international private school in Cambodia. That\u00E2\u0080\u0099s my definition of the middle class\u00E2\u0080\u00A6including good education, and access to good food. Similarly, Sopheak defined his middle-class status along the following lines: \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe ability to afford children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s access to services, material consumption, travels and vacations, being part of a social cause, such as contributing to fundraising, level of education.\u00E2\u0080\u009D. Veasna, however, argued that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cit\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sometimes misleading to define social class through materialistic consumption or display of wealth.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Veasna considered himself as belonging to the middle class but he did not own a car or did not consider materialistic consumption or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdisplay of his wealth\u00E2\u0080\u009D by driving a car as an indicator of his middle-class status. Veasna gave an example about some people he knew who had a very low income but were heavily in debt trying to display their wealth to show that they also belonged in the middle class. Similarly, when reflecting on what his middle class constituted, Phirun asked, \u00E2\u0080\u009CAre we talking about knowledge accumulation or wealth accumulation? In terms of knowledge accumulation, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m between the lower- and middle-class. As for wealth accumulation, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m in the upper lower-class.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Like Phirun and Veasna, Bopha considered herself as belonging in the middle class. However, unlike most 258 research participants, she had a different perspective about the criteria for defining the middle class. As she explained: For me, an upper class refers to those with higher education, high social status, having a lot of money, owning cars, living in a big house, eating out at a big restaurant, wearing brand name clothes, that is what a higher class means in my view. To me, a middle class is just ordinary. Education is not part of it. Some who only run businesses are considered a middle class. So, for Bopha, the criteria that many research participants considered to be part of the middle class were for the upper class. Further, she did not consider education to be part of the definition of the middle class because there were middle-class people who had little to no education, but had money and other wealth. One unique element that a few research participants considered to be an essential criterion for defining the middle class was concerned with moral or ethical value and contributions to society. For example, Sophal argued that: One thing that people who earn in this income bracket should do is they should not abuse or exploit others. That is an ultimate obligation for those in this social class. \u00E2\u0080\u00A6 they should not be corrupt or exploit others for their own benefits. Even better, they should help contribute to improving the lives of others less fortunate than themselves. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s definition of the middle class included how one in this class should treat others, including one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s contributions to the betterment of the lives of others. Similarly, Chantrea argued that a person in the middle class should have a high moral or ethical value. A person in this social class, Chantrea maintained, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmust have high morality, respecting others whether or not they are poorer or richer than them; they should not just respect the rich but look down on the poor.\u00E2\u0080\u009D Sopheak shared Chantrea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s perspective on moral value as an important aspect of the middle class; however, he cautioned that it was hard to apply this definition to the broader society: I consider social value and morality are important parts of this social class, but it is hard to expand this definition to the broader society when many other people are not up to this 259 standard. Thus, I am part of a very small social class because our current societal context is not open enough to include these aspects in the definition of this social class. Hence, Sopheak considered himself belonging to a small middle class in which high moral values were an important element. This section reveals some indicators of an emerging middle class in Cambodia. Although the predominant element of the middle class was defined in relation to accumulation of material goods and display of wealth, a few crucial elements emerged that some research participants considered essential for this social class: level of education, moral or ethical value, and social contributions. For these research participants, these three criteria placed them among a small and emerging middle class, which is distinctive from many other middle-class people in Cambodia whose class status is measured primarily in terms of accumulated wealth or material goods. Whether this emerging small middle class will be effecting a major structural change or leading to the emergence of a new major social class in Cambodian society is beyond an evidentiary conclusion this study can draw. However, it seems the majority of the people in this middle class align themselves with the dominant neoliberal ideology and may be perpetuating its rationality; the culture of materialistic consumerism seems to be characterizing their primary pursuit of social mobility. They may not be disrupting the existing center of power but may instead be indirectly cementing its foundation. 9.3 Summary This chapter has addressed the final research question of the study. The narratives of the research participants reveal four meanings or goals of their social mobility journeys: (i) personal and family-oriented financial security, (ii) social status and reputation, (iii) personal emancipation, and (iv) broader collective good. Personal and family-oriented financial security was the initial and primary goal of all the research participants in their pursuit of higher education and social mobility. There were a few research participants that attributed their social mobility to each of the other three meanings or purposes. Overall, the findings underscore the collective pursuit of higher education for collective social mobility, at least within the family field, which reflects a Global South notion of social mobility. 260 One significant point to note in relation to the meaning of social mobility as described by the research participants is that social mobility involves moving from rural areas to urban centers, mimicking the unidirectional periphery-center movement that underpins the colonial notion of social mobility. This pattern sheds light on not only the high concentration of highly educated Cambodians in the urban centers, particularly in the capital city, but also the shortage of both educated professionals and locally relevant development in the rural areas of Cambodia. There emerged a small middle class whose markings as characterized by a few research participants were framed around contributions to a broader collective good, level of education, and moral or ethical value, in addition to the accumulation of wealth and material goods. However, despite emerging purposes of social mobility as personal emancipation, broader collective good, and social justice, these were few in number and formed as a by-product of the primary purpose of realizing the personal and family-oriented success first. The findings reveal the dominating influence of neoliberal capitalism in shaping the meaning and purposes of social mobility, which bears fundamental resemblance to the Global North/Euro-centric, colonial notion of social mobility. The final chapter of this dissertation threads together the research findings in connection to the theoretical concepts and perspectives proposed, the context of the study, and the literature from different studies around the world. Directions for further research and educational policy are also discussed. 261 Chapter 10: Discussion and Recommendations It could be that all my studies of other people are partly a roundabout way to know myself better. (Schwalbe, 1995, p. 331, as cited in Cole and Knowles (2001, p. 10)) I set out to conduct this research when grieving the loss of my father who passed away on June 27, 2014. In his memory and as a way to reflect on his (and my mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s) roles in paving the way for me to get to where I am today, I pursued this research with the primary aim of gaining insights into my own social mobility journey and the journeys of others who came from similar socio-economic origins. My basic research question was to understand how we (the research participants and I) got to where we are today. Central to this study is the linkage between higher education and social mobility. I was particularly interested in the processes that underpinned the pursuit of higher education for social mobility, not least the interface between the internal socio-cultural forces and the external forces of colonial legacies, neo-colonialism, and capitalism, and the ways in which these complexities played out in structuring the social mobility opportunities of the research participants in the contemporary context of postcolonial Cambodia. The purpose of this final chapter is to situate the findings within the broader body of scholarship reviewed and the conceptual framework developed in this study. The chapter is organized as follows. First, a discussion of the findings is presented under seven themes that relate to the four research questions of the study. Second, the conceptual framework is revisited and some reflections on its usefulness and relevance (or lack thereof) are offered in its application in this study. Finally, directions for further research, and educational policy recommendations are presented before concluding the chapter with some final thoughts. 10.1 Key findings 10.1.1 Centrality of the family Findings in this study show that family plays a fundamental role in the process of social mobility through pursuit of higher education. Family represents the primary institution of 262 socialization from the time a person is born. Each person\u00E2\u0080\u0099s habitus is shaped within the family (Bourdieu, 1984, 2002). It is within the family that dreams of young people take shape. From the earliest stage of socialization through to the later endowment of individuals with social, economic, cultural capital, family plays a central role in all aspects of this process (Bertaux & Thompson, 1997; Bourdieu, 1990b). These findings are similar to the results found in many existing studies across different social contexts, including Poland (Botterill, 2014), Mexico (Cervantes-Soon, 2016), Iran (Hashemi, 2012), Colombia (Marzi, 2018), Africa (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012; Webb, 2018), and Cambodia (Estes, 2019; Green & Estes, 2019). Findings also show that the family is a field within which an aspiration for higher education as an avenue for social mobility is developed, the family habitus defined, different forms of capital transmitted inter-generationally, and the fruits of the mobility endeavour shared. Similar findings are found in a number of studies in the Global South societies, such as the Phillipines (Cruz, 2019), Iran (Hashemi, 2012), and Mexico (Cervantes-Soon, 2016). In addition, the family is a space where struggles for domination occur and the enforcement of socio-cultural norms is carried out, similar to what Atkinson (2014) and Bourdieu (1996) have argued. The family is both a facilitor and a constraint in shaping the opportunities for social mobility. Parents are the dominant agents in the family field; in particular, the father is the figure that not only shapes the doxa of the family field but also cultivates a family habitus and the habitus of the other family members. The narratives of Dara, Darith, Ratanak, and Sopheak reveal the constitutive role of the father in instilling in the family the doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility. He also fosters a family habitus that embraces this doxa. Parents are the sources of different forms of capital, including economic, aspirational, emotional, social, and cultural; they transmit, consciously or unconciously, these capitals to their children to try to ensure they realize their aspirations. In the cases of Dara, Darith, Ratanak, and Sopheak, their fathers cultivated within the family a doxa of the relationship between higher education and social mobility representing an important transmission of cultural capital to their children. In all cases, mothers had very little to no formal schooling, but that did not prevent them from supporting their children in their mobility journeys. Although mothers were not able to provide cultural capital to their children, they played an important role as a source of emotional capital to their children. The narratives of Chantrea, Sopheal, and Veasna, for instance, reveal 263 how important a mother\u00E2\u0080\u0099s emotional capital is for inspiring their children to remain committed to pursuing higher education. Their narratives resonate with the findings of a number of existing studies where emotional capital is found to be classed and gendered (Gillies, 2006; O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Brien, 2008; Reay, 2000, 2004). Contrary to the findings by Cottingham (2016), my study does not find any indication of emotional capital expressed by men or fathers. Within the field of the immediate family, in addition to parents, siblings play a crucial role and are a source of various forms of capital in the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of higher education for social mobility. Besides providing economic, familial, and aspirational capital, siblings of some research participants are the source of altruistic capital. Bopha, Darith, and Ratanak, for example, were financially supported by siblings to a certain extent during their pursuit of higher education. The narratives of Chantrea, Sokunthea, and Sophal reveal the selfless sacrifices that their siblings made, including giving up their own studies, in order to ensure their brother or sister was able to remain in school and continue to university. This finding is similar to the results of studies in Cambodia by Estes (2019) and Rogers and Anderson (2019). In the field of extended family, aunts, uncles, or cousin play an important role in the social mobility journey, as a source of different capitals such as familial, aspirational, and economic. For example, Darith was assisted by one of his uncles who offered him free housing when he moved to Phnom Penh to attend university; similarly, one of Phirun\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aunts let him stay at her house for a while during his transition from his home village to attend university in Phnom Penh. Sophal\u00E2\u0080\u0099s grandmother was an important person who facilitated his ability to attend a university program in Phnom Penh. This finding resonates with the findings in studies by Marzi (2018) in Colombia and by O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil (2012) in West Africa about socially situated aspirations for social mobility shaped by members of extended family members and a broader community. However, extended family members could also constrain opportunities for social mobility. Bopha is a good case in point. While parents are the dominant agents in defining the family doxa and the family habitus, the study also found that siblings, especially the oldest one who possesses certain forms of capital, are influential in the same matter. These dynamics also point to the level of authority that eldest child (usually a son) has vis-a-vis their parents. The eldest child is commonly considered 264 the second parent in the socio-cultural hierarchy within the family in Cambodian society. In this framing, authority also comes through the amount of responsibility that the eldest child has. The narratives of Bopha and Sokunthea, for instance, reveal that their oldest siblings, who possess either cultural capital or economic capital, are able to draw on their capital to shape the family doxa. Thus, their cultural capital or economic capital is converted into symbolic capital. While Sokunthea\u00E2\u0080\u0099s eldest brother did not have much economic capital, he played an important role in helping support the family. He had a certain level of authority in negotiating his parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure on Sokunthea to give up her study. This is where the symbolic capital that comes through one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s position in the family\u00E2\u0080\u0099s social hierarchy translates into influence in the family. In Bopha\u00E2\u0080\u0099s case, her eldest sister, together with her brother-in-law, played a central role in buffering her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pressure on Bopha. Her eldest sister\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economic capital, in addition to its important role in supporting the family, enabled her to hold certain authority (symbolic capital) in influencing her parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 decision to allow Bopha to remain in school and continue to university. The level of economic capital that an eldest child may have allowed him or her to increase his or her symbolic capital (authority) in the family space. In all cases, capital could be converted from one form to another (Bourdieu, 1984, 1990a, 1990b, 2007). This finding also illustrates the older siblings being a source of resistant capital, which not only served as a buffer between their parents and their sister but also cultivated a resistant dispositional quality in their sister. This finding shows the dynamic power struggles within the family field (Atkinson, 2014; Bourdieu, 1996). In addition, it indicates the simultaneous existence of multiple dispositions (i.e., habituses) within the field of the family and the dynamic interface between them (Ingram, 2011; Jin & Ball, 2019; Lahire, 2011; Nimer, 2020). The women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 indigenous habitus and their subscription to the traditional doxa translated into opposition to their daughter's aspiration for university education. Meanwhile, their older siblings\u00E2\u0080\u0099 colonial habitus and belief in the colonial doxa conflicted with their parents\u00E2\u0080\u0099 view and demonstrated an ongoing maneuvering and negotiation of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework and gender norms. This leads to the next theme about the dominant role of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural codes of conduct and gender norms. 265 10.1.2 Centrality of social networks and friendship Outside of the family field, both women and men benefited from the support they received from their social networks and friends. This social capital is a source of other forms of capital, particularly navigational and economic capital for those who left their rural community/family and navigated social space to chart their life journeys in the urban center. This is a crucial source of information for the research participants in the context of the study where the labor market information is very limited for high school graduates contemplating what field of study to pursue (D'Amico, 2011; Dy, 2015; HRINC, 2010; Sen, 2013; Sen & Ros, 2013; United Nations Development Program, 2011; World Bank, 2010, 2012). These findings resonate with the general benefits that social capital plays in facilitating an individual\u00E2\u0080\u0099s transition to the labor market and movement up the occupational ladder in terms of social mobility, as evidenced in numerous studies (Aguilera, 2008; Fernandez et al., 2000; Lin, 1999; Tholen et al., 2013), and in the transition to the labor market (Granovetter, 1995; Montgomery, 1991; Mouw, 2003). The findings also confirm the results of a study by Rogers and Anderson (2019) in the context of Cambodia about the instrumental role of social capital for schoolgirls\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of schooling in rural Cambodia. In this study, social networks played a crucial role for the research participants, especially when they had exhausted their family support or resources needed for them to move forward on their social mobility journeys. Their social networks and friends emerged as an important mechanic of support in their negotiation of mobility opportunities and a major source of navigational, economic, and social capital. 10.1.3 Persistent influence of the socio-cultural codes, gender norms, and \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D educational institution (the wat) Outside of the family, women had to face another layer of constraints. Findings in this study uncover the continuous negative influence of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural codes of conduct and gender norms on structuring the opportunities for women to pursue higher education and to improve their socio-economic status. None of the men had to worry about or negotiate gender norms or socio-cultural expectations when they wanted to pursue further education. They only needed economic and cultural capital to go on to university. In Cambodia it is \u00E2\u0080\u009Cnormal\u00E2\u0080\u009D (a doxa) that men pursue education and go on to university if they can do it. In most 266 cases, they are encouraged and fully supported to do so, which is in stark contrast to the situation for women. Unlike men, however, women had to deal with different layers of challenges to remain in school and to chart their paths to university. In addition to the economic capital that they needed to pursue university education and the cultural capital or capability necessary for their pursuit of social mobility, women also needed to negotiate and maneuver the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D societal norms and gender expectations imposed upon them not only by their parents but also the broader societal expectations. This is a finding reflected in existing research on the ongoing struggle that Cambodian women have to face in negotiating their gender roles and their interests in pursuing personal and professional development, as well as gender equality, as confirmed by Brickell\u00E2\u0080\u0099s (2007, 2011) research. The findings also highlight the continued restrictions of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D educational institution (the wat) in structuring the opportunities for educational and social mobility for women, similar to the result of a study conducted decades ago (Kalab, 1976). From the pre-colonial to the end of the colonial period in Cambodia, the wat was the primary educational institution for boys only. In present-day society this institution continues to facilitate the educational and social mobility opportunities for men only. Although its educational role is now reduced to providing (usually free) accommodation to students from poor rural backgrounds who move to Phnom Penh to pursue university education, female students are still not allowed access to this housing resource. Women without economic capital to afford rents or student housing usually end up giving up their desire for higher education, thus losing opportunities for educational, occupational, and socio-economic mobility. The findings also indicate that the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework and gender norms constrain married women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s opportunities in particular. Overall, married women continue to carry the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctriple burden\u00E2\u0080\u009D of labor (Maxwell et al., 2015; World Bank, 2017a). The narratives of Bopha and Sokunthea reveal that in addition to performing productive roles and community service, they continue to engage fully in their reproductive roles. Married women view their female and feminine capital as a disadvantage for their social mobility journey. Narratives of the two married women in this study reveal that they are actively re-enacting the socio-cultural codes and gender norms they were resisting when they were younger and single. Findings also show that married women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s parents, as well as parents-in-law, are contributing to perpetuating these 267 gender norms. Social change and emerging field structures may have opened new field positions and perhaps disrupted the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D field structures and gender norms, as Brickell (2007, 2011) and Derks (2008) argue. Brickell (2011, pp. 457-458) observes: As women form an ever-more-visible part of the evolving structures of public life in twenty-first-century Cambodia, the continued importance placed on hierarchy as a key pillar of Khmer society is proving especially difficult to uphold. Mobility and, perhaps to a greater extent, education are two emerging catalysts fracturing such established patterns of social life. However, the findings re-iterate the warnings by McLeod (2005) and Thorpe (2009): that this kind of socio-economic change may not necessarily lead to \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca dramatic transformation of gender,\u00E2\u0080\u009D but may instead result in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe re-inscription of \u00E2\u0080\u0098traditional\u00E2\u0080\u0099 gender in new but old ways\u00E2\u0080\u009D (McLeod, 2005, p. 23), or the entrenchment of certain aspects of patriarchy (Thorpe, 2009). Therefore, there exist both change (i.e., women pursuing higher education) and continuity (i.e., women continuing to perform the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender roles) in gender relations. This point brings me to the notion of \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocially and culturally situated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency of women in the Global South. 10.1.4 \u00E2\u0080\u009CSituated\u00E2\u0080\u009D agency Findings reveal women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agency in their pursuit of improved socio-economic status, but show their agency as situated within the confines of the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer socio-cultural framework. Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narratives show the dynamic interface between socio-culturally embedded structural forces and agency. To define their life path in educational, occupational, and social spaces, the women needed to negotiate the \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D socio-cultural framework and gender role expectations on a regular basis. From trying to remain in school to trying to do well in their jobs, women had to draw upon their agentic capacities and other available resources from multiple social fields to navigate the liminal space in order to re-position themselves and their socio-economic standing. In addition to the economic capital that came from working and the cultural capital that came from the knowledge gained through pursuit of education, they also accumulated symbolic capital from their accumulation of economic and cultural capital. Accumulated capitals gave the women necessary resources and some authority to negotiate the 268 socio-cultural framework, and some sense of self-fulfillment and achievement. However, this conception of agency and autonomy was situated within the boundedness of the broader socio-cultural framework and relationships of power (Hilsdon, 2007; Pham, 2013). The women's narratives reveal that the essence of their agency is enveloped within ongoing struggles and maneuvering in regard to the socio-cultural framework and gender norms; this is a crucial aspect that both gives meaning to their existence and defines their agency. This notion of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agency is articulated perfectly by Brickell (2011) in her study on women in present-day Cambodia. As Brickell (2011) argues, \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe ideal woman in contemporary Cambodian society is ultimately one who can creatively negotiate and balance the multiple demands placed on her by society, family, and self\u00E2\u0080\u009D (p. 458). This is a reality that women continue to face not only in Cambodia but also in many other societies (Chhoeun et al., 2008; Davids & van Driel, 2001; Ledgerwood, 1994; World Bank, 2017a). 10.1.5 Dispositional qualities of living lives in the margins The narratives of all research participants, regardless of gender, show overwhelming evidence of not only their acute awareness of their social locations but also how their living circumstances helped them develop particular qualities associated with growing up in the socio-economic margins, lacking material comfort, and taking on heavy responsibilities early on in life. Their capacity to cope with instability and constraints in life and their persistent commitment and perseverance \u00E2\u0080\u0093 all indicative of their agency \u00E2\u0080\u0093 are essential qualities that form their aspiration to move out of the socio-economic conditions into which they were born. The findings resonate well with evidence from existing studies showing that young people from less privileged backgrounds demonstrate agency and a high degree of awareness of the constraints of their socio-economic circumstances and their commitment and responsibilities to improve their living situations (M. S. Archer, 2007; de Bruijn, 2007; Farrugia, 2011; Hashemi, 2012; Laughland-Boo\u00C3\u00BF et al., 2015; McDermott & Graham, 2005; Streib, 2016). The findings also confirm evidence from existing scholarship that these men and women have developed a dispositional quality to be able to juggle multiple responsibilities, to persevere through life challenges, and to possess collective and open mindsets in their engagement with others (de Bruijn, 2007; Hashemi, 2012; Piff et al., 2010; Snibbe & Markus, 2005; Streib, 2013). These are 269 some of the crucial dispositional qualities that developed out of living in the socio-economic margins and are essential to navigate the social space of contemporary Cambodia towards a more improved socio-economic standing. 10.1.6 Social mobility as a collective endeavor and for collective outcome? The narratives of all the research participants provide insight into the collective endeavor of journeys of social mobility. Regardless of their gender, all research participants described their journey of social mobility as a collective, rather than an individual, pursuit. In most cases, their own efforts were backed up by an enormous amount of support in various forms from their parents, siblings, extended family members, friends and other social networks. Like African American women in the United States (Higginbotham & Weber, 1992), and young people in many Global South societies (Cervantes-Soon, 2016; Cruz, 2019; Hashemi, 2012; Inui & Kojima, 2012; Webb, 2018), the research participants in this study attached important meaning to their families and social networks in their social mobility journey. This finding confirms the results of recent studies in Cambodia that show the increasing interdependence and collective effort among siblings to support able young ones to attend university (Estes, 2019; Green & Estes, 2019). The findings also reveal that the fruits of participants' social mobility pursuit are the betterment and improved socio-economic status of their families. All research participants have given back to the family members who supported them, such as providing for their parents, helping their siblings to get on their feet, and supporting their younger siblings to pursue higher education. These findings are similar to the results of many other studies in societies such as Colombia (Marzi, 2018), Iran (Hashemi, 2012), South Africa (Webb, 2018), and West Africa (O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, 2012). However, it is important to note that for the majority of the research participants, the financial security of their own family and their person wellbeing was where the purpose of their social mobility journey ended. Only a few research participants had started to think about and engage in activities to contribute to the broader collective good of the society. This finding resonates with the result of a study in Latin America (Cervantes-Soon, 2016). 270 10.1.7 Colonized minds, \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccaptive\u00E2\u0080\u009D subjects? Findings show that the overall underpinning for pursuing higher education for social mobility encapsulated in a colonial doxic pre-configuration introduced by the French in Cambodia in the late 18th century. This social mobility is characterized as a rural-urban mobility of young people to pursue higher education, settle in the city center, and not return to their local communities. Evidence from the study reveals two major ways through which the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility is reproduced and perpetuated in contemporary Cambodian society. First is the intergenerational transmission of colonial habitus and doxic understanding about this pattern of social mobility. The narratives of a few research participants about the contextual foundation of their aspirations for social mobility through pursuit of higher education can be attributed to the colonial legacies in the 1960s. Their fathers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 subscription to the colonial doxa and the formation of their colonial habitus during their schooling and employment experiences in the pre-war period were transmitted to their children through their cultivation of a family habitus and family doxa. These research participants, thus, inherited the colonial habitus and colonial doxa from their fathers (Ayling, 2019; Dhareshwar, 1989). The second way was the re-introduction and perpetuation of the colonial doxa by neocolonial agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank and neoliberal capitalist discourses, policies, and approaches to development in the post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There was an influx of foreign donor organizations, foreign direct investments, and other NGOs into Cambodia (Slocomb, 2010). The number of local and international NGOs rose dramatically during this period, thus opening many employment opportunities (Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, 2013; World Bank, 2014). There was also a rapid massification of access to higher education during this period (Chet, 2006; Sen, 2013; Sen & Ros, 2013). This drastic socio-economic transformation (Hughes & Un, 2011) was a driver of many research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 aspirations for higher education as an avenue for social mobility. This structural transformation in Cambodia gave hope to many young Cambodians who aspired to improve their lives through the pursuit of higher education, an illusio they deemed worthy of pursuing. However, like the results of many studies in Global South societies (Anwaruddin, 2014; deSouza, 2020; Gyamera & Burke, 2018; Howson & Lall, 2020; King et al., 271 2019; Lebeau, 2008; Nguyen et al., 2009; Papoutsaki & Rooney, 2006; Sakhiyya & Rata, 2019; Shrivastava & Shrivastava, 2014; Tilak, 2008), the Western/Eurocentric influence and supremacy in Cambodia (i.e., neocolonialism) and the widespread neoliberal economic policies and practices being spearheaded by agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank are enslaving the minds of Cambodians and perpetuating colonialism in the country. Part of this transformation was the role of the English language as a cultural capital for improving one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic, intellectual, and political status (S. Clayton, 2008; T. Clayton, 2006; Hashim et al., 2014; Neau, 2003; Phan & Barnawi, 2015; Piquemal, 2017). The rapid post-conflict socio-structural transformation and the massification of access to higher education, which resulted in a massive mobility of young people from rural areas to urban centers, particularly the capital city, resembled the developments in the newly independent Cambodia in the 1960s and was underpinned by a similar rationale; that is, higher education was an avenue for social mobility and for moving out of life in the rice paddies in rural areas (Ayres, 2003). The doxic linkage between (higher) education and social mobility introduced by the French colonial administration represents a major field change in Cambodia. The inertia of its effects remains predominant to this day in the mindset of Cambodians. Cambodians\u00E2\u0080\u0099 (mis)recognition of the configurations of capital in this logic of the colonized field remains decades later. Cambodians are still grappling with this change in field structures and engage in the illusio of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cplaying the game\u00E2\u0080\u009D but have not come to realize the socio-cultural, economic, and political consequences and implications of engaging a game that is structured according to the colonial logic. They continue to remain \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccaptive\u00E2\u0080\u009D subjects trapped in this illusio and do not critically question whether or not the colonial configuration of the doxic linkage between (higher) education and social mobility is relevant and socially just in their own society. They do not question whether this game is worth playing, given the rules/field structures it dictates. The illusio keeps them engaged in pursuing the stakes in the colonized field (Ayling, 2019; Threadgold, 2019). Consequentially, the colonial doxa introduced by the French a century ago continues to be embodied and practiced in Cambodian society to this day. 272 10.2 Conceptual framework revisited The conceptual framework developed in Chapter 4 was aimed at capturing the dynamic and complex layers of processes that underpinned the journey of social mobility of the study participants. As evidenced in the four finding chapters, the model has fruitfully served the purpose of uncovering the interface between internal and external socio-cultural, political, and economic forces that shaped the research participants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 pursuit of higher education for social mobility. An important strength of the framework lies in its potential for explaining the ways in which the internal and the external forces play out in shaping the field, doxa, habitus, and the strategies or courses of action undertaken by social actors in navigating the intersected space to realize their particular end goals. The multi-dimensional nature of the framework \u00E2\u0080\u0093 i.e., the overlapping broader social field, the smaller education and occupation fields, and the primary family field, as well as the ways in which each field has its own dynamic interface between the colonial and traditional doxa, and different value assignment to different forms of capital \u00E2\u0080\u0093 illustrates how all these multiple layers of forces shape the disposition of each person and their agency as they navigate different levels of fields. Overall, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts as used in this framework are generally useful for explaining the life experiences of the research participants in this study. In particular, these concepts provide a broad conceptual frame to the understanding not only of the early socialization within the family and the inculcation of a particular family habitus and doxa within the field of the families, but also of the dynamics and complexities within different social fields, including the family, the community, and the broader society. The different forms of capital and the mechanisms through which they are converted from one form to another were helpful for making sense of the ways in which the research participants positioned themselves in relation to other people within a specific field. The conception of capital also helped capture where the research participants were socio-economically situated and how they negotiated the constraints they faced in the hopes of moving towards goals of improved living conditions. However, Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptual toolbox is limited when utilized in the Global South, postcolonial context of Cambodia. Without the added Global South-oriented conceptual perspectives, the conceptual frame itself and the analysis of the rich life experiences of the research participants in this study would have been incomplete. The insights of other conceptual 273 and analytical perspectives that are relevant to the Global South context in which the study is situated were helpful in several ways. First, the incorporation of the notion of coloniality and the continuity of colonialism through colonial residue, neocolonialism, and neoliberal capitalism resulted in a number of constructs that are essential for examining the life experiences of people in Global South, postcolonial societies. The integration into the framework of the concepts of colonized field, colonial habitus, family habitus, and family field borrowed from other scholars (L. Archer et al., 2012; Arnot & Naveed, 2014; Atkinson, 2011; Ayling, 2019; DeLuca, 2016; Dhareshwar, 1989; D. Liu & Morgan, 2020; Tomanovi\u00C4\u0087, 2004), coupled with my own added concepts of local field, traditional doxa, colonial doxa, and indigenous habitus, resulted in a model with more capacity to unravel complexity, nuances and dynamic relationships within overlapping space \u00E2\u0080\u0093 i.e., the nexus between the local field and the colonized field \u00E2\u0080\u0093 reflective of postcolonial Global South societies that Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s primary constructs could not explain. Furthermore, the community cultural wealth framework and its different forms of capital (Rogers & Anderson, 2019; Yosso, 2017) enrich Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of capital and provide explanatory power that enables more in-depth understandings of the life experiences of the people in the context of the study. The same may be said about the gender-embedded forms of capital (Cottingham, 2016; Gillies, 2006; Huppatz, 2009; O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Brien, 2008; Reay, 2000, 2004; Santoro, 2010), which highlight the social experiences of women and men in Global South societies and beyond. The working-class cultural complements (Streib, 2016) were helpful in analyzing levels of awareness, capacity to juggle multiple responsibilities, as well as the commitment and perseverance of the research participants in their social mobility journeys. These cultural resources emphasize the important value of the kinds of capital and agency (de Bruijn, 2007) that develop from living lives in the socio-economic margins. Finally, the notion of Southern agency was insightful for analyzing the socio-culturally bounded nature of agency and emphasized the collectivistic, rather than individualistic, ways of being of women and men in the Global South societies. It added more conceptual richness to the relationalism aspect (Arnot & Naveed, 2014) of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conception of habitus and revealed the socio-cultural situatedness of agency (Hilsdon, 2007; Pham, 2013; van Dijk et al., 2007). While Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts are not fully capable on their own of making sense of social realities in postcolonial Global South societies, one important contribution of his theorizing is 274 that his epistemological and methodological approach to social science research emphasizes the embeddedness of theoretical narratives and political programs in social relations (McCall, 1992). This approach makes it fruitful to draw on, expand, and apply Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts in studies in collective, socio-culturally embedded Global South contexts. Scholars will benefit from adapting Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts to investigate problematics in their specific contexts if they take into account the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political dimensions of their context and develop conceptual perspectives relevant to that context, as was the case in this study. The conceptual model developed in this study has demonstrated possibilities of so doing. If I were to redraw the visual representation of the conceptual framework developed at the start of the study (Figure 4.1), I would move \u00E2\u0080\u009CSouthern agency\u00E2\u0080\u009D into the intersected field between the colonized field and the local field (see a modified visual representation of the conceptual framework in Figure 10.1). Southern agency is shaped not only by the internal socio-cultural framework but also by the external forces of colonialism, neocolonialism, and neoliberal capitalism. It is not a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpure\u00E2\u0080\u009D notion of agency as its characteristics are also formed and defined through its interface with the colonized and local space. Placing Southern agency within this nexus would better represent its meaning as \u00E2\u0080\u009Csocially and culturally situated\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Hilsdon, 2007; Pham, 2013; van Dijk et al., 2007). In addition to it being embedded within the political and economic developments (van Dijk et al., 2007), I would argue that it is also \u00E2\u0080\u009Chistorically situated.\u00E2\u0080\u009D The notion of Southern agency emerges from long historical developments shaped by colonialism and its residue and the ongoing globalization, neocolonialism, and neoliberal capitalism that are taking place in Global South societies. In light of the research findings, another revision I would make to the visual representation of the conceptual frame would be to explicitly identify the interface between the local field and the colonized field as a broad social field representative of the Global South, postcolonial society. Moreover, within this field there exist multiple, smaller social fields, including education, occupation, community, and the primary family field. This modification would make the visual show explicitly that the Global South, postcolonial context is a social space defined as the intersection between the local field and the colonized field within which other smaller social fields of similar nature exist and overlap. 275 Figure 10:1: Revised visual representation of the conceptual framework 10.3 Directions for further research There are several limitations in this study, as described in Chapter 1. These limitations are shaped not only by my own particular interest in the specific problematic in this research, but also by the scope and limitations of a doctoral research project. I would, therefore, like to suggest the following areas of further research. 276 First, a study that examines lack of social mobility of those from similar socio-economic backgrounds to the research participants in this study would provide an insightful comparative perspective on the kinds of constraints or an absence of facilitating factors for educational, occupational, and social mobility in Cambodia. Second, research that examines the kinds of contributions that successful, socially mobile individuals have made to their societies would be important to gain a better understanding of their role in socio-economic development and societal change. This research should also include research participants who pursue their social mobility through other avenues besides (higher) education, such as entrepreneurship or political patronage system. Specifically, this research would shed light on whether the emerging middle class would have the potential to effect major societal change or whether this social class would only be perpetuating and strengthening the existing center of power in contemporary Cambodian society. Third, a large-scale quantitative study should be done that would shed light on the broader picture of the trends of social mobility in Cambodia, especially since the end of the prolonged civil conflict and during the period of economic and political liberalization. This large quantitative study would provide an important baseline and contribute to developing a better understanding of social classes, social mobility and societal change in contemporary Cambodian society. Fourth, a research project that explores and documents the Khmer \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D epistemologies and meanings related to schooling, social mobility, and development would provide some useful contributions and perhaps offer some concepts to rethink schooling, social mobility, and development that are locally relevant and socially just. Finally, a study that examines social mobility from a transnational immigration perspective would make important contributions to the existing body of scholarship. While this potential topic of research is personally relevant for me (since I have now relocated to Canada), it also has the potential to shed light on the instability inherent in social mobility, the dynamics and complexities of social mobility, and the implications for both the country of origin and the country of destination. 277 10.4 Policy recommendations Based on the findings of this study, there are a number of policy recommendations that I would like to make that may contribute to promoting social mobility and socio-economic development in Cambodia \u00E2\u0080\u0093 one that is relevant to the specific local and national development needs of the country. First, it is important that the government, especially concerned ministries responsible for higher education and training provide relevant and up-to-date labor market information to students in high school to help them make informed decisions about what field of study to pursue at university. This will not only minimize skill mismatch but also foster graduate employability, thus contributing to economic growth when they graduate with relevant knowledge and skills. Up-to-date labor market information with relevance to Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s development needs is crucial to assist high school graduates to choose a field of study that will allow them to participate fully in contributing to the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic development upon graduation. In addition, student support services at higher education institutions, including career planning and counselling, are critically important. These are two of the main issues that are raised by the research participants in this study and are discussed in various publications as well (Sen, 2013; Sen & Ros, 2013; United Nations Development Program, 2011; World Bank, 2012). Second, funding and other forms of support for students, particularly those from poor rural backgrounds, were and continue to be important challenges. As the narratives of the research participants in this study show, lack of economic capital is a major issue for them to pursue higher education. Promoting access and equity in higher education in Cambodia through scholarships, student loans and subsidies is one of the key strategies of the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (Ministry of Education Youth and Sport, 2017), and a national policy on these matters has been drafted as well (Mak et al., 2019). However, more effort should be invested in finalizing, endorsing, and implementing this policy. Moreover, students from poor rural backgrounds continue to face challenges in relation to housing when they pursue education at university in the capital city. Although some efforts have been made by the government and concerned ministries to expand access to higher education in provinces across the country, building more affordable student housing in the city would contribute to increasing access to higher education for students who pursue fields of studies not available in their provinces. 278 Third, the findings in this study show that \u00E2\u0080\u009Ctraditional\u00E2\u0080\u009D gender norms continue to be a major obstacle that prevents women from participating equally in educational and occupational mobility, which affects their opportunities for socio-economic improvement. This in turn affects the country\u00E2\u0080\u0099s socio-economic growth. More discursive interventions at the national level should be done to promote better understandings of the important contributions of women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s pursuit of education to socio-economic development and the improvement of individuals\u00E2\u0080\u0099 social-economic conditions and their overall wellbeing. Finally, it is essential for all concerned actors to seriously rethink educational planning and policies to better take into account local and national development needs and to approach these agendas from a Cambodian worldview. This process involves participation of all actors at different levels, from government ministries to multinational agencies such as the World Bank to higher education institutions. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 For concerned government ministries: Educational development planning, policies and discourses should de-emphasize economic growth and development agendas defined purely in terms of catching up with the global hegemonic development discourse of \u00E2\u0080\u009Cmodernity\u00E2\u0080\u009D and neoliberal globalization, and instead re-emphasize the importance of local and national development that takes pride in cultivating and developing existing natural and agricultural resources and in improving the livelihoods of local communities. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Multinational organizations such as the World Bank, UNESCO, and the Asian Development Bank should continue to support the development of a Cambodian higher education system but should do so in a way that does not prescribe a particular global neoliberal framework. Instead, these organizations should make room for local Cambodian thinkers and practitioners to reconceptualize their own (higher) education system that reflects their local \u00E2\u0080\u009Cindigenous\u00E2\u0080\u009D perspectives and to redefine pursuit of higher education for an alternative, local meaning of socio-economic improvement and local and national development. This collaborative developmental approach would promote local ownership of locally relevant development and at the same time support the donor/funder\u00E2\u0080\u0099s agenda of poverty reduction and local/national development \u00E2\u0080\u0093 a win-win approach to realizing some common goals. 279 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Higher education institutions and concerned actors, including university administrators and faculty members, have a key role to play in reframing the pursuit of higher education for an alternative meaning of social mobility \u00E2\u0080\u0093 one that does not necessarily mean holding a white-collar job in urban centers and leaving behind rural communities, but instead one that contributes to and takes pride in dwelling in and developing rural communities. This process involves translating a locally relevant educational policy into educational programs at the university level, reforming and updating curricular content, and applying appropriate pedagogical strategies. The growing number of regional universities established to cater for the needs of students in different regions of the country is a positive development. It is important these institutions of higher education offer programs that are relevant to the local potentials of each region and community and utilize those programs as a means to reconstruct an alternative, local view of development and socio-economic mobility. 10.5 Closing thoughts This dissertation was born of my grief upon the passing of my father on June 27, 2014. The research itself and the process of writing this dissertation has been not only a way for me to grieve his death but also a healing journey for me personally. It has also been a way for me to reflect on the sacrifices my parents made for me to get to where I am today. I was socialized to value education and to pursue it so that I could move out of the difficult living circumstances I was in when growing up. I was raised to pursue higher education so that I could obtain a salaried job and live a more financially secure life in the city, and to not go back to herd cows or grow rice. I was raised to consider life in the rural community as a life to escape, as one that is of low socio-economic status, as one that is filled with uncertainty and insecurity. I did not realize at the time that this perspective came from a particular place and a particular historical moment \u00E2\u0080\u0093 the French colonial period. Many other young people like myself, then and most likely to this day, still continue to uphold this perspective. Instead of pursuing programs of study with relevance to the development needs of our local rural communities where most of us are from, we pursued programs in areas which we hoped would land us white-collar jobs in office buildings in urban 280 centers, preferably in the capital Phnom Penh. As a consequence, the rural communities are left to bleed and die a slow death, from the past to the present. My journey in pursuing this PhD program in general, and this research project, in particular, has been a process of personal emancipation and decoloniality of my mind. I started off with my mind deeply entrapped in the colonial doxic linkage between higher education and social mobility, so much so that I believed that this colonial doxa was the only pathway for social mobility for people from marginalized socio-economic origins like myself. My mind was so deeply enslaved by the coloniality of power that I believed the Western/Euro-American concepts to be the only way of thinking for me to view the world and to make sense of my own non-Western society. I was somewhat blind to the shortcomings of these Western-oriented concepts and ignored the relevance and robustness of the growing Global South scholarship and conceptual perspectives in making sense of social realities in my own society of Cambodia. Added to that, I was educated to highly value Western concepts and theories in the different undergraduate and graduate programs I had attended, with the exception of this PhD program. My mind was colonized at different levels and in many contexts. My PhD supervisory committee, the many scholars whose work I have read, and the many fellow students/colleagues I have encountered during this long journey have, in one way or another, helped me to begin to liberate myself from the oppression of the coloniality of power, from being enslaved by the colonial constructs that framed my lens of viewing the world and making sense of it. However, I am conscious that this is only the beginning of a long and hard journey of self-emancipation and decoloniality. While I am beginning to see some light at the end of the long tunnel, it is still a long way to go for me. Nonetheless, I am profoundly indebted to all who have pushed and pulled me, so that I have arrived at this point. Beyond my own decolonization, it is my hope that this research will contribute to liberating the minds of many fellow Cambodians and beyond from the coloniality of power that continues to persist to this day despite the almost complete abolishment of colonial administrations around the world. It is my hope that this dissertation will help others to see the ways in which the colonial hegemonic approach to enslaving the minds works. It is my hope that this work will inspire many to rethink the meaning(s) of their social mobility and the purpose(s) of their pursuit of (higher) education. I also hope this work will encourage state leaders, policy 281 makers, and all concerned stakeholders to rethink educational development planning in their specific context \u00E2\u0080\u0093 one that should place their national and local development needs at the center. 282 References Achera\u00C3\u00AFou, A. (2011). Questioning hybridity, postcolonialism and globalization. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Adams, M. (2006). Hybridizing habitus and reflexivity: Towards an understanding of contemporary identity? Sociology, 40(3), 511-528. doi:10.1177/003803850663672 Agee, J. (2009). Developing qualitative research questions: A reflective process. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22(4), 431-447. doi:10.1080/09518390902736512 Aguilera, M. B. (2008). Personal networks and the incomes of men and women in the United States: Do personal networks provide higher returns for men or women? Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 26, 221-233. Allen, T. (1998). Interpretive biography as a method: researching tenants' experiences of housing renewal. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1(3), 231-249. doi:10.1080/13645579.1998.10846877 Altbach, P. G. (1971). Education and neocolonialism: A note. Comparative Education Review, 15(2), 237-239. Altbach, P. G. (2004). The past and future of Asian universities: Twenty-first century challenges. In P. G. Altbach & T. Umakoshi (Eds.), Asian universities: Historical perspectives and contemporary challenges (pp. 13-32). Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press. Altbach, P. G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. E. (2009). Trends in global higher education: Tracking an academic revolution. Chestnut Hill, MA: Centre for International Higher Education, Boston College. Anderson, E., & Grace, K. (2018). From schoolgirls to \u00E2\u0080\u009Cvirtuous\u00E2\u0080\u009D Khmer women: Interrogating Chbab Srey and gender in Cambodian education policy. Studies in Social Justice, 12(2), 215-234. Andres, L., & Adamuti-Trache, M. (2008). Life-course transitions, social class, and gender: A 15-year perspectives of the lived lives of Canadian young adults. Journal of Youth Studies, 11(2), 115-145. doi:10.1080/13676260701800753 283 Andrle, V. (2001). The buoyant class: Bourgeois family lineage in the life stories of Czech business elite persons. Sociology, 35(4), 815-833. Anwaruddin, S. M. (2014). Educational neocolonialism and the World Bank: A Ranci\u00C3\u00A8rean reading. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 12(2), 143-174. Appiah, K. A. (1993). Thick translation. Callaloo, 16(4), 808-819. Archer, L., DeWitt, J., Osborne, J., Dillon, J., Willis, B., & Wong, B. (2012). Science aspirations, capital, and family habitus: How families shape children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s engagement and identification with science. American Educational Research Journal, 49(5), 881-908. doi:10.3102/0002831211433290 Archer, M. S. (2003). Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, M. S. (2007). Making our way through the world: Human reflexivity and social mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, M. S. (2010). Routine, reflexivity, and realism. Sociological Theory, 28(3), 272-303. Archer, M. S. (2012). The reflexive imperative in late modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Armstrong, P. F. (1987). Qualitative strategies in social and educational research: The life history method in theory and practice. Yorkshire, England: School of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Hull. Arnot, M., & Naveed, A. (2014). Educational outcomes across the generational and gender divide: The rural family habitus of Pakistani families living in poverty. Gender and Education, 26(5), 505-523. doi:10.1080/09540253.2014.949635 Atkinson, W. (2011). From sociological fictions to social fictions: Some Bourdieusian reflections on the concepts of \u00E2\u0080\u0098institutional habitus\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and \u00E2\u0080\u0098family habitus\u00E2\u0080\u0099. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32(3), 331-347. doi:10.1080/01425692.2011.559337 Atkinson, W. (2014). A sketch of \u00E2\u0080\u0098family\u00E2\u0080\u0099 as a field: From realized category to space of struggle. Acta Sociologica, 57(3), 223-235. doi:10.1177/0001699313511470 Ayling, P. (2019). Distinction, exclusivity and whiteness: Elite Nigerian parents and the international education market. Singapore: Springer. 284 Ayres, D. (2000). Tradition, modernity, and the development of education in Cambodia. Comparative Education Review, 44(4), 440-463. Ayres, D. (2003). Anatomy of a crisis: Education, development, and the state in Cambodia, 1953-1998. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books. Bateson, M. C. (1989). Composing a life. New York: Grove Press. Bathina, J. (2014). When the subaltern finally speaks: Personal narrative as a means to identity and voice. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(1), 27-35. doi:10.1002/jaal.317 Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage. Bell, D. (1973). The coming of post-industrial society: A venture in social forecasting. New York, NY: Basic Books. Beller, E. (2009). Bringing intergenerational social mobility research into the twenty-first century: Why mothers matter. American Sociological Review, 74(4), 507-528. Benei, V. (2010). To fairly tell: Social mobility, life histories, and the anthropologist. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 40(2), 199-212. doi:10.1080/03057920903546062 Berg, B. L. (2009). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York, NY: Viking Penguin. Berger, R. (2015). Now I see it, now I don't: Researcher's position and reflexivity in qualitative research. 15, 2(219-234). doi:10.1177/1468794112468475 Bergeron, S. (2008). Shape-shifting neoliberalism and World Bank education policy: A response to Steven Klees. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 6(4), 349-353. doi:10.1080/14767720802506680 Bergman, M. M., & Joye, D. (2005). Comparing social stratification schemata: CAMSIS, CSP-CH, Goldthorpe, ISCO-88, Treiman, and Wright. Cambridge Studies in Social Research, No. 10. Cambridge, England: Social Science Research Group. Bertaux, D. (1981a). From the life-history approach to the transformation of sociological practice. In D. Bertaux (Ed.), Biography and society: The life history approach in the social sciences (pp. 29-45). Beverly Hills, California: Sage. 285 Bertaux, D. (Ed.) (1981b). Biography and society: The life history approach in the social sciences. Beverly Hills, California: Sage. Bertaux, D., & Kohli, M. (1984). The life story approach: A continental view. Annual Review of Sociology, 10, 215-237. Bertaux, D., & Thompson, P. (1997). Introduction. In D. Bertaux & P. Thompson (Eds.), Pathways to social class: A qualitative approach to social mobility (pp. 1-31). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Berthold, N., & Grundler, K. (2014). On the empirics of social mobility: A macroeconomic approach. Retrieved from http://econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/102662/1/797133321.pdf Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. New York, NY: Routledge. Bison, I. (2011). Education, social origins and career (im)mobility in contemporary Italy. European Societies, 13(3), 481-503. doi:10.1080/14616696.2011.568257 Bit, S. (1991). The warrior heritage: A psychological perspective of Cambodian trauma. El Cerrito, California: The author. Blau, P. M., & Duncan, O. D. (1967). The American occupational structure. New York, NY: Wiley. Blau, P. M., & Duncan, O. D. (1978). The American occupational structure. New York, NY: Wiley. Blythe, S., Wilkes, L., Jackson, D., & Halcomb, E. (2013). The challenges of being an insider in storytelling research. Nurse Researcher, 21(1), 8-13. Bochner, A. P. (2016). Notes toward an ethics of memory in autoethnographic inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & M. D. Giardina (Eds.), Ethical futures in qualitative research: Decolonolizing the politics of knowledge (pp. 197-208). New York: Routledge. Booth, M. N. (2014). Education and gender in contemporary Cambodia. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 4(10), 42-50. Borg, S. (2001). The research journal: A tool for promoting and understanding researcher development. Language Teaching Research, 5(2), 156-177. Bossuroy, T., & Cogneau, D. (2008). Social mobility and colonial legacy in five African countries. Paris, France: D\u00C3\u00A9veloppement Institutions & Analyses de Long terme (DIAL). 286 Botsis, H. (2018). Subjectivity, language and the postcolonial: Beyond Bourdieu in South Africa. New York, NY: Routledge. Botterill, K. (2014). Family and mobility in second modernity: Polish migrant narratives of individualization and family life. Sociology, 48(2), 233-250. doi:10.1177/0038038512474728 Bottero, W. (2010). Intersubjectivity and Bourdieusian approaches to \"identity\". Cultural Sociology, 4(1), 3-22. doi:10.1177/1749975509356750 Bourdieu, P. (1961). The Algerians. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1980). A diagram of social position and life-style. Media, Culture and Society, 2, 255-259. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990a). In other words: Essays towards a reflexive sociology (M. Adamson, Trans.). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990b). The logic of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power (G. Raymond & M. Adamson, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (1996). On the family as a realized category. Theory, Culture and Society, 13(3), 19-26. Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian meditations (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2001). Masculine domination (R. Nice, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Bourdieu, P. (2002). Habitus. In J. Hillier & E. Rooksby (Eds.), Habitus: A sense of place (pp. 27-34). Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Bourdieu, P. (2007). The forms of capital. In A. R. Sadovnik (Ed.), Sociology of education: A critical reader (pp. 83-95). New York, NY: Routledge. 287 Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (R. Nice, Trans.). Newbury Park, California: Sage. Bourdieu, P., & Sayad, A. (2004). Colonial rule and cultural sabir. Ethnography, 5(4), 445-486. doi:10.1177/1466138104050692 Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. D. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Boyden, J. (2013). 'We're not going to suffer like this in the mud': Educational aspirations, social mobility and independent child migration among populations living in poverty. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 43(5), 580-600. doi:10.1080/03057925.2013.821317 Brannen, J., & Nilsen, A. (2005). Individualization, choice and structure: A discussion of current trends in sociological analysis. The Sociological Review, 53(3), 412-428. Brar, V. (2016). Using Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theory of practice to understand academic under achievement among inner-city students in British Columbia: A conceptual study. (Unpublished PhD dissertation). Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Bray, M. (1993). Education and the vestiges of colonialism: Self-determination, neocolonialism and dependency in the South Pacific. Comparative Education, 29(3), 333-348. Breen, R. (2010). Educational expansion and social mobility in the 20th century. Social Forces, 89(2), 365-388. Breen, R., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (1999). Class inequality and meritocracy: A critique of Saunders and an alternative analysis. British Journal of Sociology, 50(1), 1-27. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.1999.00001.x/abstract Breen, R., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (2001). Class, mobility and merit - The experience of two British birth cohorts. European Sociological Review, 17(2), 81-101. Breen, R., & Karlson, K. B. (2014). Education and social mobility: New analytical approaches. European Sociological Review, 30(1), 107-118. doi:10.1093/esr/jct025 Brehm, W. (2019). Historical memory and education privatization: A portrait from Cambodia. Ethnography and Education, 14(1), 34-50. doi:10.1080/17457823.2017.1387065 Brickell, K. (2007). Gender relations in the Khmer 'home': Post-conflict perspectives. (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of London, London. 288 Brickell, K. (2011). \"We don't forget the old rice pot when we get the new one\": Discourses on ideals and practices of women in contemporary Cambodia. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 36(2), 437-462. Brooms, D. R., & Davis, A. R. (2017). Exploring Black males\u00E2\u0080\u0099 community cultural wealth and college aspirations. Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 6(1), 33-58. doi:10.2979/spectrum.6.1.02 Brown, D. E. (1988). Hierarchy, history, and human nature: The social origins of historical consciousness. Arizona: The University of Arizona Press. Brown, P., Hesketh, A., & Williams, S. (2004). The mismanagement of talent: Employability and jobs in the knowledge economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brown, P., Reay, D., & Vincent, C. (2013). Education and social mobility. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34(5-6), 637-643. doi:10.1080/01425692.2013.826414 Burlutskaia, M. G. (2014). Higher education as a means of upward social mobility. Russian Education and Society, 56(4), 52-63. Bylander, M. (2014). Contested mobilities: gendered migration pressures among Cambodian youth. Gender, Place & Culture, 1-17. doi:10.1080/0966369x.2014.939154 Calhoun, C. (2006). Pierre Bourdieu and social transformation: Lessons from Algeria. Development and Change, 37(6), 1403-1415. Cambodia Development Resource Institute. (2007). Youth migration and urbanization in Cambodia. Working paper #36. Phnom Penh: The author. Cervantes-Soon, C. G. (2016). Mujeres truchas: Urban girls redefining smartness in a dystopic global south. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 19(6), 1209-1222. doi:10.1080/13613324.2016.1168543 Chan, T. W., & Boliver, V. (2013). The grandparents effect in social mobility: Evidence from British Birth Cohort Studies. American Sociological Review, 78(4), 662-678. doi:10.1177/0003122413489130 Chanana, K. (1993). Accessing higher education: The dilemma of schooling women, minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in contemporary India. Higher Education, 26, 69-92. 289 Chandler, D. P. (1976). The Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia): The semantics of revolutionary change: Notes and comment. Pacific Affairs, 49(3), 506-515. Chandler, D. P. (1984). Normative poems (Chbap) and pre-colonial Cambodian society. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 15(2), 217-279. Chandler, D. P. (2008). A history of Cambodia (fourth ed.). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Chea, P. (2019). Does higher education expansion in Cambodia make access to education more equal? International Journal of Educational Management, 70, 1-9. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.102075 Cheng, J. Y. S. (1995). Higher education in Hong Kong - The approach to 1997 and the China factor. Higher Education, 30, 257-271. Chet, C. (2006). Cambodia. In. In Higher education in Southeast Asia (pp. 13-33). Bangkok: UNESCO Asia. Chhoeun, T., Sok, P., & Byrne, C. (2008). \u00E2\u0080\u0098Citadel of Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099: strengthening female leadership in rural Cambodia. Gender & Development, 16(3), 535-547. doi:10.1080/13552070802465433 Chopra, R. (2003). Neoliberalism as doxa: Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s theory of the state and the contemporary Indian discourse on globalization and liberalization. Cultural Studies, 17(3-4), 419-444. doi:10.1080/0950238032000083881 Chou, T.-K. (1992). The customs of Cambodia. Bangkok: The Siam Society. Clandinin, D. J., Steeves, P., & Caine, V. (2013). Introduction. In D. J. Clandinin, P. Steeves, & V. Caine (Eds.), Composing lives in transition: A narrative inquiry into the experiences of early school leavers (pp. 1-13). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group. Clayton, S. (2008). The problem of \u00E2\u0080\u0098choice\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and the construction of the demand for English in Cambodia. Language Policy, 7(2), 143-164. doi:10.1007/s10993-008-9084-9 Clayton, T. (1995). Restriction or resistance? French colonial educational development in Cambodia. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 3(19), 1-14. Clayton, T. (2000). Education and the politics of language: Hegemony and pragmatism in Cambodia, 1979-1989. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Clayton, T. (2002). Language choice in a nation under transition: The struggle between English and French in Cambodia. Language Policy, 1, 3-25. 290 Clayton, T. (2005). Re-orientation in moral education in Cambodia since 1975. Journal of Moral Education, 34(4), 505-517. Clayton, T. (2006). Language choice in a nation under transition: English language spread in Cambodia. New York, NY: Springer. Cloward, R., & Ohlin, L. (1960). Delinquency and opportunity. New York, NY: Free Press. Cole, A. L., & Knowles, J. G. (Eds.). (2001). Lives in context: The art of life history research. New York: AltaMira Press. Colley, H. (2012). Not learning in the workplace: Austerity and the shattering of illusio in public service work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 24(5), 317-337. doi:10.1108/13665621211239868 Collins, P. H. (1998). It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s all in the family: Intersections of gender, race, and nation. Hypatia, 13(3), 62-82. Connell, R. (2007). Southern theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Connell, R. (2014). Using southern theory: Decolonizing social thought in theory, research and application. Planning Theory, 13(2), 210-223. doi:10.1177/1473095213499216 Cooper, M. (2014). Cut adrift: Families in insecure times. Oakland, California: The University of California Press. Cooperation Committee for Cambodia. (2013). CSO contributions to the development of Cambodia 2012: Opportunities and challenges. Phnom Penh: Cooperation Committee for Cambodia. Cottingham, M. D. (2016). Theorizing emotional capital. Theory and Society, 45(5), 451-470. doi:10.1007/s11186-016-9278-7 Courtney, J. (2017). An exploration of the interaction between global education policy orthodoxies and national education practices in Cambodia, illuminated through the voices of local teacher educators. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 47(6), 891-907. doi:10.1080/03057925.2017.1338937 Craig, D., & Pak, K. (2011). Party financing of local investment projects: Elite and mass patronage. In C. Hughes & K. Un (Eds.), Cambodia's economic transformation (pp. 219-244). Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. 291 Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Crompton, R. (2003). Class and gender beyond the 'cultural turn'. Sociologia, Problemas e Pr\u00C3\u00A1ticas, 42, 9-24. Crompton, R. (2006). Class and family. The Sociological Review, 54(4), 658-677. Crompton, R. (2008). Class and stratification (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Crossley, M., & Tikly, L. (2004). Postcolonial perspectives and comparative and international research in education: A critical introduction. Comparative Education, 40(2), 147-156. Crul, M., Schneider, J., Keskiner, E., & Lelei, F. (2017). The multiplier effect: How the accumulation of cultural and social capital explains steep upward social mobility of children of low-educated immigrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(2), 321-338. doi:10.1080/01419870.2017.1245431 Cruz, R. (2019). An inheritance that cannot be stolen: Schooling, kinship, and personhood in post-1945 central Philippines. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 61(4), 894-924. doi:10.1017/S0010417519000240 Curto, R. (2016). Bourdieu and Fanon on Algeria. In R. Dalleo (Ed.), Bourdieu and postcolonial studies (pp. 102-118). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. D'Amico, S. (2011). An enabling environment for high growth and sustainable development for Cambodia--Labor market needs and human resource development. Paper presented at the 2011 Cambodia Outlook Conference, Phnom Penh. Davids, T., & van Driel, F. (2001). Globalization and gender: Beyond dichotomies. In F. J. Schuurman (Ed.), Globalization and development studies: Challenges for the 21st century (pp. 153-175). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Davies, B., & Bansel, P. (2007). Neoliberalism and education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(3), 247-259. doi:10.1080/09518390701281751 de Bruijn, M. (2007). Agency in and from the margins: Street children and youth in N\u00E2\u0080\u0099djam\u00C3\u00A9na, Chad. In M. de Bruijn, R. van Dijk, & J.-B. Gewald (Eds.), Strength beyond structure: 292 Social and historical trajectories of agency in Africa (pp. 263-284). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. de Bruijn, M., van Dijk, R., & Gewald, J.-B. (Eds.). (2007). Strength beyond structure: Social and historical trajectories of agency in Africa. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Deer, C. (2008). Doxa. In M. Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key concepts (pp. 119-130). Durham, UK: Acumen. Dei, G. J. S. (2019). Neoliberalism as a new form of colonialism in education. In S. Chitpin & J. P. Portelli (Eds.), Confronting educational policy in neoliberal times: International perspectives (pp. 40-58). New York, NY: Routledge. DeLuca, J. R. (2016). \u00E2\u0080\u0098Like a \u00E2\u0080\u009Cfish in water\u00E2\u0080\u009D\u00E2\u0080\u0099: Swim club membership and the construction of the upper-middle-class family habitus. Leisure Studies, 35(3), 259-277. doi:10.1080/02614367.2014.962581 DeNicolo, C. P., Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez, M., Morales, S., & Roman\u00C3\u00AD, L. (2015). Teaching through testimonio: Accessing community cultural wealth in school. Journal of Latinos and Education, 14(4), 228-243. doi:10.1080/15348431.2014.1000541 Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive biography. Newbury Park, California: Sage. Denzin, N. K. (1992). Symbolic interactionism and cultural studies: The politics of interpretation. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Derks, A. (2008). Khmer women on the move: Exploring work and life in urban Cambodia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. deSouza, P. R. (2020). The recolonization of the Indian mind. In B. d. S. Santos & M. P. Meneses (Eds.), Knowledges born in the struggle: Constructing the epistemologies of the Global South (pp. 183-202). New York, NY: Routledge. Dhareshwar, V. (1989). Self-fashioning, colonial habitus, and double exclusion: V. S. Naipaul\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Mimic Men\u00E2\u0080\u009D. Criticism, 31(1), 75-102. Dick, P. (2015). To see ourselves as others see us? Incorporating the constraining role of socio-cultural practices in the theorization of micropolitical resistance. Gender, Work and Organization, 22(1), 16-35. doi:10.1111/gwao.12062 293 DiMaggio, P. (1982). Cultural capital and school success - The impact of status culture participation on the grades of United States high school students. American Sociological Review, 47(2), 189-201. Dom\u00C3\u00ADnguez, S., & Watkins, C. (2003). Creating networks for survival and mobility: Social capital among African-American and Latin-American low-income mothers. Social Problems, 50(1), 111-135. Duryea, S., de Freitas, L. B., Ozemela, L. M.-G., & Sampaio, B. (2019). Universities and intergenerational social mobility in Brazil: Examining patterns by race and gender. Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2(4), 240-256. doi:Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy Dwyer, S. C., & Buckle, J. L. (2009). The space between: On being an insider-outsider in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 54-63. Dy, S. (2015). Higher education -- Trends, issues and policy options. In S. Khieng, S. Madhur, & R. Chhem (Eds.), Cambodia education 2015: Employment and empowerment (pp. 31-56). Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Cambodia Development Resource Institute. Ebihara, M. (1966). Interrelations between Buddhism and social systems in Cambodian peasant culture. In M. Nash (Ed.), Anthropological studies in Theravada Buddhism (pp. 175-196). New Haven: Yale University Press. Ebihara, M. (1968). Svay, a Khmer village in Cambodia. (Unpublished PhD dissertation). Columbia University, Ebihara, M. (1984). Societal organization in sixteenth and seventeenth century Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 15(2), 280-295. Ebihara, M. (1990). Revolution and reformulation in Kampuchea village culture. In D. A. Ablin & M. Hood (Eds.), The Cambodian agony (pp. 16-61). Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. Edgerton, J. D., & Roberts, L. W. (2014). Cultural capital or habitus? Bourdieu and beyond in the explanation of enduring educational inequality. Theory and Research in Education, 12(2), 193-220. doi:10.1177/1477878514530231 294 Edirisingha, P. A., Aitken, R., & Ferguson, S. (2018). Bridging family boundaries: Mediating postmodern complexity in urban Sinhalese Sri Lankan families. Consumption Markets & Culture, 21(4), 373-395. doi:10.1080/10253866.2018.1462172 Eilenberg, J. H. (1961). New directions in Cambodian education. Comparative Education Review, 4(3), 188-192. Eisenbruch, M. (2018). The cultural epigenesis of gender-based violence in Cambodia: Local and Buddhist perspectives. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 42(2), 315-349. doi:10.1007/s11013-017-9563-6 Elder, G. H. (1994). Time, human agency, and social change: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57(1), 4-15. Elder, G. H., Johnson, M. K., & Crosnoe, R. (2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 962-1023. Erikson, R., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (1992). The constant flux: A study of class mobility in industrial societies. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. Erikson, R., Goldthorpe, J. H., & Portocarero, L. (1979). Intergenerational class mobility in three Western European societies: England, France and Sweden. The British Journal of Sociology, 30(4), 415-441. Erola, J., & Moisio, P. (2007). Social mobility over three generations in Finland, 1950-2000. European Sociological Review, 23(2), 169-183. doi:10.1093/esr/jc1027 Espino, M. M. (2014). Exploring the role of community cultural wealth in graduate school access and persistence for Mexican American PhDs. American Journal of Education, 120(4), 545-574. Estes, J. (2019). Growing up in anxious times: Youth and families in Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s new economy. (Unpublished PhD dissertation). University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Evans, K. (2009). Beyond individualization: Human strivings for control of their lives. In. In Learning, work and social responsibility: Challenges for lifelong learning in a global age (pp. 199-262). Dordrecht: Springer. 295 Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin, white masks (C. L. Markmann, Trans.). New York, NY: Grove Press. Fanon, F. (2004). The wretched of the earth (R. Philcox, Trans.). New York, NY: Grove Press. Faraday, A., & Plummer, K. (1979). Doing life histories. Sociological Review, 27(4), 773-798. Farkas, G. (2003). Cognitive skills and noncognitive traits and behaviours in stratification processes. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 541-562. Farrugia, D. (2011). Youth homelessness and individualized subjectivity. Journal of Youth Studies, 14(7), 761-775. doi:10.1080/13676261.2011.605438 Fergusson, L. C., & Le Masson, G. (1997). A culture under siege: Postcolonial higher education and teacher education in Cambodia from 1953 to 1979. History of Education: Journal of the History of Education Society, 26(1), 91-112. doi:10.1080/0046760970260106 Fernandez, R. M., Castilla, E. J., & Moore, P. (2000). Social capital at work: Networks and employment at a phone center. American Journal of Sociology, 105(5), 1288-1356. Filmer, D., & Schady, N. (2008). Getting girls into school: Evidence from a scholarship program in Cambodia. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 56(3), 581-617. Fiske, E. B. (1995). Using both hands: Women and education in Cambodia. Manila: Asian Development Bank. Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L. (2008). Social structure and individual agency in second language learning: Evidence from three life histories. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 5(4), 201-224. doi:10.1080/15427580802286173 Francis, B., & Wong, B. (2013). What is preventing social mobility? A review of the evidence. Retrieved from http://www.ascl.org.uk/download.0621F643-3196-4A73-BFEA9F2ABB3C1383.html Friedman, S. (2014). The price of the ticket: Rethinking the experience of social mobility. Sociology, 48(2), 352-368. doi:10.1177/0038038513490355 Frieson, K. G. (2011). No longer a \"happy balance\": The decline of female status in Khmer village culture. In J. Marston (Ed.), Anthropology and community in Cambodia: Reflections on the work of May Ebihara (pp. 171-188). Victoria, Australia: Monash University Press. 296 Fuwa, N. (1999). An analysis of social mobility in a village community: The case of a Philippine village. Journal of Policy Modeling, 21(1), 101-138. Gair, S. (2012). Feeling their stories: Contemplating empathy, insider/outsider positionings, and enriching qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 22(1), 134-143. doi:10.1177/1049732311420580 Ganzeboom, H. B. G., & Luijkx, R. (2004). Recent trends in intergenerational occupational class reproduction in the Netherlands 1970-1999. In R. Breen (Ed.), Social mobility in Europe (pp. 345-381). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gaztambide-Fern\u00C3\u00A1ndez, R. (2019). Foreword. In P. Ayling (Ed.), Distinction, exclusivity and whiteness: Elite Nigerian parents and the international education market (pp. vii-xiii). Singapore: Springer. Ghiso, M. P., & Campano, G. (2013). Coloniality and education: Negotiating discourses of immigration in schools and communities through border thinking. Equity & Excellence in Education, 46(2), 252-269. doi:10.1080/10665684.2013.779160 Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity Press. Gillies, V. (2006). Working class mothers and school life: Exploring the role of emotional capital. Gender and Education, 18(3), 281-293. doi:10.1080/09540250600667876 Global Witness. (2007). Cambodia's family trees: Illegal logging and the stripping of public assets by Cambodia's elite. Retrieved from https://www.globalwitness.org/reports/cambodias-family-trees/ Go, J. (2013). Decolonizing Bourdieu: Colonial and postcolonial theory in Pierre Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s early work. Sociological Theory, 31(1), 49-74. doi:10.1177/0735275113477082 Goldthorpe, J. H. (1980). Social mobility and class structure in modern Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Goldthorpe, J. H., & Hope, K. (1972). Occupational grading and occupational prestige. In K. Hope (Ed.), The analysis of social mobility: Methods and approaches (pp. 17-73). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. 297 Goldthorpe, J. H., & Jackson, M. (2007). Intergenerational class mobility in contemporary Britain: Political concerns and empirical findings. The British Journal of Sociology, 58(4), 525-546. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00165.x Goldthorpe, J. H., & Jackson, M. (2008). Education-based meritocracy: The barriers to its realization. In A. Lareau & D. Conley (Eds.), Social class: How does it work? (pp. 93-117). New York, NY: Russell Sage. Goodson, I. (2001). The story of life history: Origins of the life history method in sociology. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 1(2), 129-142. doi:10.1207/S1532706XID0102_02 Gottesman, E. (2003). Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge: Inside the politics of nation building. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Granovetter, M. S. (1995). Getting a job: A study of contacts and careers (2nd ed.). London: University of Chicago Press. Green, W. N., & Estes, J. (2019). Precarious debt: Microfinance subjects and intergenerational dependency in Cambodia. Antipode, 51(1), 129-147. doi:10.1111/anti.12413 Grosfoguel, R. (2002). Colonial difference, geopolitics of knowledge, and global coloniality in the modern/colonial capitalist world-system. Review, 25(3), 203-224. Grosfoguel, R. (2007). The epistemic decolonial turn. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 211-223. doi:10.1080/09502380601162514 Grusky, D. B., & Weeden, K. A. (2006). Does the sociological approach to studying social mobility have a future? In S. L. Morgan, D. B. Grusky, & G. S. Fields (Eds.), Mobility and inequality: Frontiers of research in sociology and economics (pp. 85-108). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59-82. doi:10.1177/1525822X05279903 Guha, R. (1997). Dominance without hegemony: History and power in colonial India. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 298 Gyamera, G. O., & Burke, P. J. (2018). Neoliberalism and curriculum in higher education: A post-colonial analyses. Teaching in Higher Education, 23(4), 450-467. doi:10.1080/13562517.2017.1414782 Hainsworth, G. B., Jacobson, H. E., McGee, T. G., & Placzek, J. (Eds.). (1981). Southeast Asia: Women, changing social structure and cultural continuity. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Hansen, A. R. (2007). How to behave: Buddhism and modernity in colonial Cambodia, 1860-1930. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. Hansen, A. R. (2008). Modernism and morality in colonial Cambodia. In A. Kent & D. Chandler (Eds.), People of virtue: Reconfiguring religion, power and morality in Cambodia today (pp. 35-61). Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. Hardy, C. (2008). Hysteresis. In M. Grenfell (Ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key concepts (pp. 131-148). Durham, UK: Acumen. Harman, G. (1994). Student selection and admission to higher education: Policies and practices in the Asian region. Higher Education, 27, 313-339. Harris, K., & Kalb, Z. (2019). Pen to the tiller: Land reform and social mobility across the 1979 Iranian revolution. Journal of Agrarian Change, 19(3), 465-486. doi:10.1111/joac.12321 Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hashemi, M. (2012). Social mobility among poor youth in Iran. (Unpublished PhD dissertation). University of California, Berkeley, California, USA. Hashim, A., Leong, Y. C., & Pich, P. T. (2014). English in higher education in Cambodia. World Englishes, 33(4), 498-511. Heath, A., Mills, C., & Roberts, J. (1992). Towards meritocracy? Recent evidence on an old problem. In C. Crouch & A. Heath (Eds.), Social research and social reform: Essays in honour of A. H. Halsey (pp. 217-244). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Heng, S. (2008). The scope and limitations of political participation by Buddhist monks. In A. Kent & D. Chandler (Eds.), People of virtue: Reconfiguring religion, power and morality in Cambodia today (pp. 241-256). Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. 299 Hertel, F. R. (2017). Social mobility in the 20th century: Class mobility and occupational change in the United States and Germany. Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer. Higginbotham, E., & Weber, L. (1992). Moving up with kin and community: Upward social mobility for black and white women. Gender & Society, 6(3), 416-440. Hilsdon, A.-M. (2007). Introduction: Reconsidering agency \u00E2\u0080\u0094 Feminist anthropologies in Asia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 18(2), 127-137. Hinton, A. (2002). Purity and contamination in the Cambodian genocide. In J. Ledgerwood (Ed.), Cambodia emerges from the past: Eight essays (pp. 60-90). DeKalb, IL: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University. Hinton, A. (2011). \"Beyond suffering\"--genocidal terror under the Khmer Rouge: a view from the work of May Ebihara. In J. Marston (Ed.), Anthropology and community in Cambodia: Reflections on the work of May Ebihara (pp. 59-78). Victoria, Australia: Monash University Press. Hollister, F. J. (1958). Education in Cambodia. The Clearing House, 33(4), 209-212. Horvat, E. M. (2003). The interactive effects of race and class in educational research: Theoretical insights from the work of Pierre Bourdieu. Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 2(1), 1-25. Horvat, E. M., & Davis, J. E. (2011). Schools as sites for transformation: Exploring the contribution of habitus. Youth & Society, 43(1), 142-170. doi:10.1177/0044118X09358846 Howson, C. K., & Lall, M. (2020). Higher education reform in Myanmar: Neoliberalism versus an inclusive developmental agenda. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18(2), 109-124. doi:10.1080/14767724.2019.1689488 HRINC. (2010). Higher education and skills for the labor market in Cambodia. Retrieved from Phnom Penh: Hughes, C. (2006a). The politics of gifts: Tradition and regimentation in contemporary Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 37(3), 469-489. Hughes, C. (2006b). The Politics of gifts: Tradition and regimentation in contemporary Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 37(03), 469. doi:10.1017/s0022463406000749 300 Hughes, C. (2009). Dependent communities: Aid and politics in Cambodia and East Timor. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. Hughes, C., & Un, K. (2011). Cambodia's economic transformation: Historical and theoretical frameworks. In C. Hughes & K. Un (Eds.), Cambodia's economic transformation (pp. 1-26). Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS). Huppatz, K. (2009). Reworking Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009Ccapital\u00E2\u0080\u009D: Feminine and female capitals in the field of paid caring work. Sociology, 43(1), 45-66. doi:10.1177/0038038508099097 Iannelli, C., & Paterson, L. (2005). Education and social mobility in Scotland. Working paper 5. ERSC Research Project: Education and Social Mobility in Scotland in the Twentieth Century. IMF. (2017). The Cambodian economy: Outlook, risks and reforms (Speech of IMF Deputy Managing Director). Retrieved from http://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2017/06/06/sp060717-the-cambodian-economy-outlook-risks-and-reforms Ingram, N. (2011). Within school and beyond the gate: The complexities of being educationally successful and working class. Sociology, 45(2), 287-302. doi:10.1177/0038038510394017 Inui, A., & Kojima, Y. (2012). Identity and the transition from school to work in late modern Japan: Strong agency or supportive communality? Research in Comparative and International Education, 7(4), 409-418. Jackson, M. (2006). Personality traits and occupational attainment. European Sociological Review, 22(2), 187-199. Jacobsen, T. (2008). Lost goddesses: The denial of female power in Cambodian history. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. Jasper, M. A. (2005). Using reflective writing within research. Journal of Research in Nursing, 10(3), 247-260. Jayakumar, U. M., Vue, R., & Allen, W. R. (2013). Pathways to college for young Black scholars: A community cultural wealth perspective. Harvard Edcational Review, 83(4), 551-579. 301 Jenkins, R. (1982). Pierre Bourdieu and the reproduction of determinism. Sociology, 16(2), 270-281. Jenkins, R. (2002). Pierre Bourdieu. New York, NY: Routledge. Jin, J., & Ball, S. (2019). Precarious success and the conspiracy of reflexivity: Questioning the \u00E2\u0080\u0098habitus transformation\u00E2\u0080\u0099 of working-class students at elite universities. Critical Studies in Education. doi:10.1080/17508487.2019.1593869 Jonsson, J. O. (1992). Towards the merit-selective society? Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research. Kalab, M. (1976). Monastic education, social mobility, and village structure in Cambodia. In D. J. Banks (Ed.), Changing identities in modern Southeast Asia (pp. 155-169). London: Mouton & Co. Karbaum, M. (2015). The dynamics of social change in Cambodia: Moving away from traditionalism? Internationales Asienforum, 46(3-4), 229-259. Karner, C. (2005). National doxa, crises and ideological contestation in contemporary Austria. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 11(2), 221-263. doi:10.1080/13537110591005739 Kent, A. (2007). Purchasing power and pagodas: The S\u00C4\u00ABma monastic boundary and consumer politics in Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 38(02), 335. doi:10.1017/s0022463407000070 Kent, A. (2008). Peace, power and pagodas in present-day Cambodia. Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(1), 77-97. doi:10.1080/14639940802312717 Kent, A. (2011). Sheltered by dhamma: Reflecting on gender, security and religion in Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 42(02), 193-209. doi:10.1017/s0022463411000014 Kerckhoff, A. C. (1995). Institutional arrangements and stratification processes in industrial societies. Annual Review of Sociology, 21, 323-347. Kerckhoff, A. C. (2001). Education and social stratification processes in comparative perspective. Sociology of Education, 3-18. Khan, S. R. (1991). Financing higher education in Pakistan. Higher Education, 21, 207-222. Khieng, S. (2014). Funding mobilization strategies of nongovernmental organizations in Cambodia. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 25(6), 1441-1464. doi:10.1007/s11266-013-9400-7 302 Kijewski, L., & Touch, S. (2017, April 3). Cost of 'oknha' title rises five-fold. The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved from http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cost-oknha-title-rises-five-fold King, M., Forsey, M., & Pegrum, M. (2019). Southern agency and digital education: An ethnography of open online learning in Dili, Timor-Leste. Learning, Media and Technology, 44(3), 283-298. doi:10.1080/17439884.2019.1639191 Kirk, D. (1974). Cambodia 1973: Year of the \"bomb halt\". Asian Survey, 14(1), 89-100. Kohli, M. (1981). Biography: Account, text, method. In D. Bertaux (Ed.), Biography and society: The life history approach in the social sciences (pp. 61-75). Beverly Hills, California: Sage. Kopty, A. (2018). Power dynamics in online communities: The Palestinian case. In C. Richter, A. Antonakis, & C. Harders (Eds.), Digital media and the politics of transformation in the Arab world and Asia (pp. 61-84). Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer. Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., Mendoza-Denton, R., Rheinschmidt, M. L., & Keltner, D. (2012). Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: How the rich are different from the poor. Psychological Review, 119(3), 546-572. doi:10.1037/a0028756 Kuha, J., & Goldthorpe, J. H. (2010). Path analysis for discrete variables: The role of education in social mobility. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 173(2), 351-369. Labaree, R. V. (2006). Encounters with the library: Understanding experience using the life history method. Library Trends, 55(1), 121-139. doi:10.1353/lib.2006.0048 Laberge, S. (1995). Toward an integration of gender into Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of cultural capital. Sociology of Sport Journal, 12(2), 132-146. Lahire, B. (2011). The plural actor (D. Fernbach, Trans.). Malden, MA: Polity Press. Lamb, D. (2013). Promoting the case for using a research journal to document and reflect on the research experience. The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 11(2), 84-91. Lampard, R. (2007). Is social mobility an echo of educational mobility? Parents' educations and occupations and their children's occupational attainment. Sociological Research Online, 12(5). Langellier, K. M. (2003). Personal narrative, performance, performativity: Two or three things I know for sure. In Y. S. Lincoln & N. K. Denzin (Eds.), Turning points in qualitative 303 research: Tying knots in a handkerchief (pp. 441-468). Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Laughland-Boo\u00C3\u00BF, J., Mayall, M., & Skrbi\u00C5\u00A1, Z. (2015). Whose choice? Young people, career choices and reflexivity re-examined. Current Sociology, 63(4), 586-603. doi:10.1177/0011392114540671 Lawler, S. (1999). \u00E2\u0080\u009CGetting out and getting away\u00E2\u0080\u009D: Women\u00E2\u0080\u0099s narratives of class mobility. Feminist Review, 63(1), 3-24. Lawrence, S. (2008). Cultures of class stratification. Culture Society and Praxis, 7(2), 3-7. Lebeau, Y. (2008). Universities and social transformation in sub-Saharan Africa: Global rhetoric and local contradictions. Compare, 38(2), 139-153. doi:10.1080/03057920701676905 Ledgerwood, J. (1994). Gender symbolism and culture change: Viewing the virtuous woman in the Khmer story \"Mea Yoeng\". In M. Ebihara, C. A. Mortland, & J. Ledgerwood (Eds.), Cambodian culture since 1975: Homeland and exile (pp. 119-128). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Ledgerwood, J. (1995). Khmer kinship: The matriliny/matriarchy myth. Journal of Anthropological Research, 51(3), 247-261. Ledgerwood, J. (n.d.). Understanding Cambodia: Social hierarchy, patron-client relationships and power. Course notes. Retrieved from http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/ledgerwood/patrons.htm Ledgerwood, J., Ebihara, M., & Mortland, C. A. (1994). Introduction. In M. Ebihara, C. A. Mortland, & J. Ledgerwood (Eds.), Cambodian culture since 1975: Homeland and exile (pp. 1-26). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Lee, E. M., & Kramer, R. (2013). Out with the old, in with the new? Habitus and social mobility at selective colleges. Sociology of Education, 86(1), 18-35. doi:10.1177/0038040712445519 Lee, S. (2019). Two adult women managing career and family after mature higher education: Alternative notions of agency? British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(1), 83-97. doi:10.1080/01425692.2018.1497477 Lehmann, W. (2009). Becoming middle class: How working-class university students draw and transgress moral class boundaries. Sociology, 43(4), 631-647. 304 Leyva, R. (2019). Towards a cognitive-sociological theory of subjectivity and habitus formation in neoliberal societies. European Journal of Social Theory, 22(2), 250-271. doi:10.1177/1368431017752909 Li, M., & Bray, M. (2007). Cross-border flows of students for higher education: Push-pull factors and motivations of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. Higher Education, 53, 791-818. Lie, M. (2000). Two generations: Life stories and social change in Malaysia. Journal of Gender Studies, 9(1), 27-43. doi:10.1080/095892300102434 Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading analysis and interpretation. London: Sage. Lilja, M. (2016). (Re)figurations and situated bodies: Gendered shades, resistance, and politics in Cambodia. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 41(3), 677-699. Lin, N. (1999). Social networks and status attainment. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 467-487. Lin, N. (2001). Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lindroth, J. T. (2014). Reflective journals: A review of the literature. National Association for Music Education, 34(1), 66-72. doi:10.1177/8755123314548046 Liou, D. D., Antrop-Gonz\u00C3\u00A1lez, R., & Cooper, R. (2009). Unveiling the promise of community cultural wealth to sustaining Latina/o students\u00E2\u0080\u0099 college-going information networks. Educational Studies, 45(6), 534-555. doi:10.1080/00131940903311347 Liu, D., & Morgan, W. J. (2020). Why do students enrol for postgraduate education in China? The influence of gender and of family habitus. Gender and Education, 32(2), 177-193. doi:10.1080/09540253.2018.1447092 Liu, J. (2012). Examining massification policies and their consequences for equality in Chinese higher education: A cultural perspective. Higher Education, 64, 647-660. Lovell, T. (2000). Thinking feminism with and against Bourdieu. Feminist Theory, 1(1), 11-32. Lovell, T. (2003). Resisting with authority: Historical specificity, agency and the performative self. Theory, Culture and Society, 20(1), 1-17. 305 Lu, W.-T. (2013). Confucius or Mozart? Community cultural wealth and upward mobility among children of Chinese immigrants. Qualitative Sociology, 36(3), 303-321. doi:10.1007/s11133-013-9251-y Lyon, S., Mutersbaugh, T., & Worthen, H. (2017). The triple burden: The impact of time poverty on women's participation in coffee producer organizational governance in Mexico. Agriculture and Human Values, 34(2), 317-331. doi:10.1007/s10460-016-9716-1 Mabbett, I. W. (1977). Varnas in Angkor and the Indian caste system. The Journal of Asian Studies, 36(3), 429-442. Mabbett, I. W. (1978). Kingship in Angkor. Journal of the Siam Society, 66, 1-58. Maclean, M., Harvey, C., & Chia, R. (2012). Reflexive practice and the making of elite business careers. Management Learning, 1-20. doi:10.1177/1350507612449680 MacLeod, J. (1987). Ain\u00E2\u0080\u0099t no makin\u00E2\u0080\u0099 it: Leveled aspirations in a low-income neighbourhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Mak, N., Sok, S., Un, L., Bunry, R., Chheng, S., & Kao, S. (2019). Finance in public higher education in Cambodia. CDRI Working Paper Series No. 115. Phnom Penh: Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). Maldonado-Torres, N. (2016). Outline of ten theses on coloniality and decoloniality. Retrieved from https://fondation-frantzfanon.com/outline-of-ten-theses-on-coloniality-and-decoloniality/ Mallman, M. (2015). Not entirely at home: Upward social mobility and early family life. Journal of Sociology, 1-14. doi:10.1177/1440783315601294 Marginson, S. (2011). Higher education in East Asia and Singapore: Rise of the Confucian model. Higher Education, 61, 587-611. doi:10.1007/s10734-010-9384-9 Maritz, J., & Prinsloo, P. (2019). The (d)(t)oxic lifeworld of early career postgraduate supervisors. Teachng in Higher Education, 24(4), 563-577. doi:10.1080/13562517.2018.1498075 Marston, J. (2002a). Democratic Kampuchea and the idea of modernity. In J. Ledgerwood (Ed.), Cambodia emerges from the past: Eight essays (pp. 38-59). DeKalb, IL: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University. 306 Marston, J. (2002b). Khmer Rouge songs. Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 16(1), 100-127. Martin, M. A. (1994). Cambodia: A shattered society (M. W. McLeod, Trans.). Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. Marzi, S. (2018). \u00E2\u0080\u0098We are labeled as gang members, even though we are not\u00E2\u0080\u0099: Belonging, aspirations and social mobility in Cartagena. Development Studies Research, 5(1), 15-25. doi:10.1080/21665095.2018.1466720 Matthys, M. (2013). Cultural capital, identity, and social mobility: The life course of working-class university graduates (N. Perlzweig, Trans.). New York, NY: Routledge. Maxwell, T., Nget, S., Am, K., Peou, L., & You, S. (2015). Becoming and being academic women in Cambodia: Cultural and other understandings. Cogent Education, 2(1), 1-12. doi:10.1080/2331186X.2015.1042215 Mayer, K. U. (2004). Whose lives? How history, societies, and institutions define and shape life courses. Research in Human Development, 1(3), 161-187. doi:10.1207/s15427617rhd0103_3 McCall, L. (1992). Does gender fit? Bourdieu, feminism, and conceptions of social order. Theory and Society, 21(6), 837-867. McCargo, D. (2014). Cambodia in 2013. Asian Survey, 54(1), 71-77. doi:10.1525/as.2014.54.1.71 McCormick, A. (2012). Whose education policies in aid-receiving countries? A critical discourse analysis of quality and normative transfer through Cambodia and Laos. Comparative Education Review, 56(1), 18-47. McDermott, E., & Graham, H. (2005). Resilient young mothering: Social inequalities, late modernity and the \"problem\" of \"teenage\" motherhood. Journal of Youth Studies, 8(1), 59-79. doi:10.1080/13676260500063702 McIntyre, K. (1996). Geography as destiny: Cities, villages and Khmer Rouge orientalism. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38(4), 730-758. McLeod, J. (2005). Feminists re-reading Bourdieu: Old debates and new questions about gender habitus and gender change. Theory and Research in Education, 3(1), 11-30. doi:10.1177/1477878505049832 307 McNay, L. (1999). Gender, habitus and the field: Pierre Bourdieu and the limits of reflexivity. Theory, Culture and Society, 16(1), 95-117. Mehmet, O. (1997). Development in a wartorn society: What next in Cambodia? Third World Quarterly, 18(4), 673-686. Meinert, L. (2004). Resources for health in Uganda: Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts of capital and habitus. Anthropology & Medicine, 11(1), 11-26. doi:10.1080/1364847042000204942 Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Mignolo, W. (2011). The darker idea of Western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options. Durham: Duke University Press. Miles, A., Savage, M., & Buhlmann, F. (2011). Telling a modest story: Accounts of men's upward mobility from the National Child Development Study. British Journal of Sociology, 62(3), 418-441. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2011.01372.x/abstract Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Miller, D. L. (2014). Symbolic capital and gender: Evidence from two cultural fields. Cultural Sociology, 8(4), 462-482. doi:10.1177/1749975514539800 Miller, R. (2001). Researching social mobility: New directions. Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Miller, W. (1958). Lower class culture as a generating millieu of gang delinquency. Journal of Social Issues, 14(2), 5-20. Mills, C. (2008a). Opportunity and resignation within marginalized students: Towards a theorization of the reproductive and transformative habitus. Critical Studies in Education, 49(2), 99-111. doi:10.1080/17508480802040191 Mills, C. (2008b). Reproduction and transformation of inequalities in schooling: The transformative potential of the theoretical constructs of Bourdieu. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(1), 79-89. doi:10.1080/01425690701737481 Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 308 Ministry of Education Youth and Sport. (2017). Cambodia higher education roadmap 2030 and beyond. Phnom Penh: The Author. Mizrachi, B. (2013). Paths to middle-class mobility among second-generation Moroccan immigrant women in Israel. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. Mobley, C., & Brawner, C. E. (2019). \u00E2\u0080\u009CLife prepared me well for succeeding\u00E2\u0080\u009D: The enactment of community cultural wealth, experiential capital, and transfer student capital by first-generation engineering transfer students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 43(5), 353-369. doi:10.1080/10668926.2018.1484823 MoEYS. (2017). Education congress: The education, youth and sport performance in the academic year 2015-2016 and goals for the academic year 2016-2017. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: MoEYS. MoEYS. (2019). Education strategic plan 2019-2023. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: MoEYS. Montgomery, J. D. (1991). Social networks and labour-market outcomes - Towards an economic analysis. American Economic Review, 81(5), 1408-1418. Moore, S. H., & Bounchan, S. (2010). English in Cambodia: Changes and challenges. World Englishes, 29(1), 114-126. doi:10.1111/j.1467-971X.2009.01628.x Mouw, T. (2003). Social capital and finding a job: Do contacts matter? American Sociological Review, 68(6), 868-898. Munson, F. P., Birnberg, C. S., Chaffee, F. H., Han, C. C., Peck, M., & Stodter, J. H. (1963). Area handbook for Cambodia. Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office. Nash, J. C. (2001). Mayan visions: The quest for autonomy in an age of globalization. New York, NY: Routledge. Nash, R. (1990). Bourdieu on education and social and cultural reproduction. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(4), 431-447. National Institute of Statistics. (2013). Cambodia inter-censal population survey 2013, final report. Phnom Penh: National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning. Naudet, J. (2008). \"Paying back to society\": Upward social mobility among Dalits. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 42(3), 413-441. doi:10.1177/006996670804200304 309 Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (2013). Coloniality of power in postcolonial Africa: Myths of decolonization. Dakar, Senegal: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. Neau, V. (2003). The teaching of foreign languages in Cambodia: A historical perspective. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 16(3), 253-268. doi:10.1080/07908310308666673 Nguyen, P.-M., Elliott, J. G., Terlouw, C., & Pilot, A. (2009). Neocolonialism in education: Cooperative learning in an Asian context. Comparative Education, 45(1), 109-130. doi:10.1080/03050060802661428 Nimer, M. (2020). Beyond social mobility: Biographies, habitus and responses to changing \u00E2\u0080\u0098conditions of existence\u00E2\u0080\u0099 among university scholarship students. Sociological Research Online, 1-16. doi:10.1177/1360780420911380 Nissen, C. J. (2008). Buddhism and corruption. In A. Kent & D. Chandler (Eds.), People of virtue: Reconfiguring religion, power and morality in Cambodia today (pp. 272-292). Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Brien, M. (2008). Gendered capital: Emotional capital and mothers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 care work in education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(2), 137-148. doi:10.1080/01425690701837505 O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Neil, M. H. (2012). \u00E2\u0080\u009CYou who have been to school, what have you become?\u00E2\u0080\u009D: An ethnographic study of unversity life in Benin. (Unpublished PhD dissertation). Michigan State University, Michigan, USA. O\u00E2\u0080\u0099Shea, S. (2016). Avoiding the manufacture of \u00E2\u0080\u0098sameness\u00E2\u0080\u0099: First-in-family students, cultural capital and the higher education environment. Higher Education, 72(1), 59-78. doi:10.1007/s10734-015-9938-y Olssen, M., & Peters, M. A. (2005). Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: From the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 20(3), 313-345. doi:10.1080/02680930500108718 Ortlipp, M. (2008). Keeping and using reflective journals in the qualitative research process. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 695-705. Osborne, M. E. (1969). The French presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and response (1859-1905). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 310 Osborne, M. E. (1973). Politics and power in Cambodia: The Sihanouk years. Victoria, Australia: Longman. Ovesen, J., Trankell, I.-B., & \u00C3\u0096jendal, J. (1996). When every household is an island: Social organization and power structures in rural Cambodia. Uppsala, Sweden: Department of Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University. Pak, T. (2011). Statement by the Director General of Higher Education, MoEYS. Paper presented at the 2011 Cambodia Outlook Conference: Driving High Growth and Sustainable Development for Cambodia -- Opportunities and Challenges, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Paling, W. (2012). Mobility, modernity and status: The world in Phnom Penh and Phnom Penh in the world. (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Western Sydney, Australia. Papoutsaki, E., & Rooney, D. (2006). Colonial legacies and neo-colonial practices in Papua New Guinean higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 25(4), 421-433. doi:10.1080/07294360600947434 Parsons, T. (1940). An analytical approach to the theory of social stratification. American Journal of Sociology, 45(6), 841-862. Patrick, F. (2013). Neoliberalism, the knowledge economy, and the learner: Challenging the inevitability of the commodified self as an outcome of education. ISRN Education, 2013, 1-8. doi:10.1155/2013/108705 Payne, G. (2007). Social divisions, social mobilities and social research: Methodological issues after 40 years. Sociology, 41(5), 901-915. doi:10.1 177/0038038507080444 Peang-Meth, A. (1991). Understanding the Khmer: Sociological-cultural observations. Asian Survey, 31(5), 442-455. Peang-Meth, A. (1997). Understanding Cambodia's political developments. Contemporary Southeast Asia, 19(3), 286-308. Peou, C. (2016). Negotiating rural-urban transformation and life course fluidity: Rural young people and urban sojourn in contemporary Cambodia. Journal of Rural Studies, 44, 177-186. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2016.02.002 Peou, C., & Zinn, J. (2014). Cambodian youth managing expectations and uncertainties of the life course - a typology of biographical management. Journal of Youth Studies, 1-17. doi:10.1080/13676261.2014.992328 311 Peters, M. A. (2007). Foucault, biopolitics and the birth of neoliberalism. Critical Studies in Education, 48(2), 165-178. doi:10.1080/17508480701494218 Petzke, M. (2016). Taken in by the numbers game: The globalization of a religious \u00E2\u0080\u009Cillusio\u00E2\u0080\u009D and \u00E2\u0080\u009Cdoxa\u00E2\u0080\u009D in nineteenth-century evangelical missions in India. The Sociological Review Monograph, 64(2), 124-145. doi:10.1111/2059-7932.12005 Pfeffer, F. T. (2014). Multigenerational approaches to social mobility. A multifaceted research agenda. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 35, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4175437/pdf/nihms558076.pdf Pham, Q. N. (2013). Enduring bonds: Politics and life outside freedom as autonomy. Alternatives: Global, Local, Politcal, 38(1), 29-48. doi:10.1177/0304375412465676 Phan, L. H., & Barnawi, O. Z. (2015). Where English, neoliberalism, desire and internationalization are alive and kicking: Higher education in Saudi Arabia today. Language and Education, 29(6), 545-565. doi:10.1080/09500782.2015.1059436 Pidgeon, M. (2008). It takes more than good intentions: Institutional accountability and responsibility to Indigenous higher education. (Unpublished PhD dissertation). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Pidgeon, M. (2009). Pushing against the margins: Indigenous theorizing of \u00E2\u0080\u009Csuccess\u00E2\u0080\u009D and retention in higher education. Journal of College Student Retention, 10(3), 339-360. Piff, P. K., Kraus, M. W., C\u00C3\u00B4t\u00C3\u00A9, S., Cheng, B. H., & Keltner, D. (2010). Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(5), 771-784. doi:10.1037/a0020092 Piquemal, N. (2017). Educational experiences and opportunities in rural Cambodia: Families and youth\u00E2\u0080\u0099s voices. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 12(4), 317-327. doi:10.1080/17450128.2017.1300720 Plowright, W. (2009). 'When it is my turn, there will be no one to bury me.': Ideology, social mobility, and individual agency in the Cambodian genocide. Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences, 8. Retrieved from http://www.kon.org/urc/v8/plowright.html 312 Prigent, S. (2019). \u00E2\u0080\u0098Education for All\u00E2\u0080\u0099 in Cambodia: Democratic educational and children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s empowerment global values facing state patronage. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 20(1), 1-21. doi:10.1080/14442213.2018.1548643 Puwar, N. (2009). Sensing a post-colonial Bourdieu: An introduction. The Sociological Review, 57(3), 371-384. Qadir, A. (2015). When heterodoxy becomes heresy: Using Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concept of doxa to describe state-sanctioned exclusion in Pakistan. Sociology of Religion, 76(2), 155-176. doi:10.1093/socrel/srv015 Quijano, A. (2007). Coloniality and modernity/rationality. Cultural Studies, 21(2-3), 168-178. doi:10.1080/09502380601164353 Rapini, A. (2016). Can peasants make a revolution? Colonialism, labour, and power relations in Pierre Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Algerian inquiries. International Review of Social History, 61(3), 389-421. doi:10.1017/S0020859016000547 Reay, D. (1998). \u00E2\u0080\u0098Always knowing\u00E2\u0080\u0099 and \u00E2\u0080\u0098never being sure\u00E2\u0080\u0099: Familial and institutional habituses and higher education choice. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), 519-529. doi:10.1080/0268093980130405 Reay, D. (2000). A useful extension of Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s conceptual framework?: Emotional capital as a way of understanding mothers\u00E2\u0080\u0099 involvement in their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s education. The Sociological Review, 48(4), 568-585. doi:10.1111/1467-954X.00233 Reay, D. (2004). Gendering Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s concepts of capitals? Emotional capital, women and social class. The Sociological Review, 52(2), 57-74. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2005.00524.x Riach, G. K. (2017). An analysis of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's Can the Subaltern Speak? London: Macat International. Rogers, T. L., & Anderson, V. R. (2019). Exploring Cambodian schoolgirls\u00E2\u0080\u0099 educational persistence: A community cultural wealth perspective. Gender, Place & Culture, 26, 533-558. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2018.1555517 Rowlands, J., & Rawolle, S. (2013). Neoliberalism is not a theory of everything: A Bourdieuian analysis of illusio in educational research. Critical Studies in Education, 54(3), 260-272. doi:10.1080/17508487.2013.830631 313 Ruitenberg, C. W., Knowlton, A., & Li, G. (2016). The productive difficulty of untranslatables in qualitative research. Language and Intercultural Communication, 16(4), 610-626. doi:10.1080/14708477.2016.1189559 Rusack, E. M., Dortch, J., Hayward, K., Renton, M., Boer, M., & Grierson, P. (2011). The role of habitus in the maintenance of traditional Noongar plant knowledge in Southwest Western Australia. Human Ecology, 39(5), 673-682. doi:10.1007/s10745-011-9420-0 Sadala, M. L. A., & Adorno, R. C. F. (2002). Phenomenology as a method to investigate the experience lived: A perspective from Husserl and Merleau Ponty's thought. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 37(3), 282-293. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2002.02071.x/abstract Said, E. (1989). Representing the colonized: Anthropology\u00E2\u0080\u0099s interloctors. Critical Inquiry, 15, 205-225. Sakhiyya, Z., & Rata, E. (2019). From \u00E2\u0080\u0098priceless\u00E2\u0080\u0099 to \u00E2\u0080\u0098priced\u00E2\u0080\u0099: The value of knowledge in higher education. Globalization, Societies and Education, 17(3), 285-295. doi:10.1080/14767724.2019.1583089 Samuelson, C. C., & Litzler, E. (2016). Community cultural wealth: An assets-based approach to persistence of engineering students of color. Journal of Engineering Education, 105(1), 93-117. doi:10.1002/jee.20110 Sandy, L. (2007). Just choices: Representations of choice and coercion in sex work in Cambodia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 18(2), 194-206. Santoro, N. (2010). \u00E2\u0080\u009CIf it weren\u00E2\u0080\u0099t for my mum\u00E2\u0080\u00A6\u00E2\u0080\u009D: The influence of Australian Indigenous mothers on their children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s aspirations to teach. Gender and Education, 22(4), 419-429. doi:10.1080/09540250903289915 Santos, B. d. S. (2016). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. New York, NY: Routledge. Santos, B. d. S. (2018a). The end of the cognitive empire: The coming of age of epistemologies of the South. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Santos, B. d. S. (2018b). Introduction: Why the epistemologies of the South? Artisanal paths for artisanal futures. In The end of the cognitive empire: The coming of age of epistemologies of the South (pp. 1-16). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 314 Santos, B. d. S., & Meneses, M. P. (2020a). Introduction: Epistemologies of the South\u00E2\u0080\u0094 Giving voice to the diversity of the South. In B. d. S. Santos & M. P. Meneses (Eds.), Knowledges born in the struggle: Constructing the epistemologies of the Global South (pp. xvii-xliii). New York, NY: Routledge. Santos, B. d. S., & Meneses, M. P. (Eds.). (2020b). Knowledges born in the struggle: Constructing the epistemologies of the Global South. New York, NY: Routledge. Savage, M. (1997). Social mobility and the survey method: A critical analysis. In D. Bertaux & P. Thompson (Eds.), Pathways to social class: A qualitative approach to social mobility (pp. 299-325). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Savage, M., Bagnall, G., & Longhurst, B. (2001). Ordinary, ambivalent and defensive: Class identities in the Northwest of England. Sociology, 35(4), 875-892. Savage, M., & Egerton, M. (1997). Social mobility, individual ability and the inheritance of class inequality. Sociology, 31(4), 645-672. Schaie, K. W., & Elder, G. (Eds.). (2005). Historical influences on lives & aging. New York, NY: Springer. Scopis, S. D. R. (2011). Cambodia's string economy. (Unpublished PhD Dissertation). The University of Melbourne, Australia, Seeberg, V. (1993). Access to higher education: Targeted recruitment reform under economic development plans in the People's Republic of China. Higher Education, 25, 169-188. Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Selvaratnam, V., & Gopinathan, S. (1984). Higher education in Asean towards the year 2000. Higher Education, 13(1), 67-83. Sen, V. (2013). Cambodia's higher education structure and the implications of the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community. CDRI Annual Development Review 2012-13, 24-32. Sen, V. (2019). Hybrid governmentality: Higher education policymaking in post-conflict Cambodia. Studies in Higher Education, 44(3), 513-525. doi:10.1080/03075079.2017.1379985 Sen, V., & Ros, S. (2013). Anatomy of higher education governance in Cambodia. Working paper #86. Phnom Penh: Cambodia Development Resource Institute. 315 Ser, T. E. (2004). Does class matter? Social stratification and orientations in Singapore. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. Shakow, M. (2014). Along the Bolivian highway: Social mobility and political culture in a new middle class. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. Shanahan, M. J., & Macmillan, R. (2008). Biography and the sociological imagination: Contexts and contingencies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. Shaw, C. R. (1966). The jack-roller: A delinquent boy's own story. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Shrivastava, M., & Shrivastava, S. (2014). Political economy of higher education: Comparing South Africa to trends in the world. Higher Education, 67(6), 809-822. doi:10.1007/s10734-013-9709-6 Sicherman, N. (1990). Education and occupational mobility. Economics of Education Review, 9(2), 163-179. Sisowath, C. (2006). Globalization and generational change: The evolution of Cambodia's social structure. In J. Dator, D. Pratt, & Y. Seo (Eds.), Fairness, globalization, and public institutions: East Asia and beyond (pp. 300-307). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. Slocomb, M. (2006). The nature and role of ideology in the modern Cambodian state. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 37(03), 375. doi:10.1017/s0022463406000695 Slocomb, M. (2010). An economic history of Cambodia in the twentieth century. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press. Smith, R. M. (1970). Cambodia: Social and historical background. In M. Gettleman, S. Gettleman, L. Kaplan, & C. Kaplan (Eds.), Conflict in Indo-China: A reader on the widening war in Laos and Cambodia (pp. 39-56). New York: Random House. Smith-Hefner, N. J. (1993). Education, gender, and generational conflict among Khmer refugees. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 24(2), 135-158. Smolentseva, A. (2003). Challenges to the Russian academic profession. Higher Education, 45, 391-424. Snee, H., & Devine, F. (2015). Young people's transitions to employment: Making choices, negotiating constraints. In J. Wyn & H. Cahill (Eds.), Handbook of children and youth studies (pp. 543-555). Singapore: Springer. 316 Snibbe, A. C., & Markus, H. R. (2005). You can\u00E2\u0080\u0099t always get what you want: Educational attainment, agency, and choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(4), 703-720. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.88.4.703 Sorokin, P. A. (1927). Social and cultural mobility. New York, YN: Harper & Brothers. Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271-313). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Stahl, G. (2015). Identity, neoliberalism and aspiration: Educating white working-class boys. New York, NY: Routledge. Steinberg, D. J. (1959). Cambodia: Its people, its society, its culture. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press. Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2014). Cross-national policy borrowing: Understanding reception and translation. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 34(2), 153-167. doi:10.1080/02188791.2013.875649 Stephens, N. M., Markus, H. R., & Phillips, L. T. (2014). Social class culture cycles: How three gateway contexts shape selves and fuel inequality. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 611-634. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115143 Streib, J. (2013). Class origin and college graduates\u00E2\u0080\u0099 parenting beliefs. The Sociological Quarterly, 54(4), 670-693. doi:10.1111/tsq.12037 Streib, J. (2016). The unbalanced theoretical toolkit: Problems and partial solutions to studying culture and reproduction but not culture and mobility. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 5(1-2), 127-153. Stuart, M. (2012). Social mobility and higher education: The life experiences of first generation entrants in higher education. London: Institute of Education Press. Sturken, M. (1997). Tangled memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic and the politics of remembering. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Tach, L. (2015). Social mobility in an era of family instability and complexity. The Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, 657(1), 83-96. doi:10.1177/0002716214547854 Tan, C. (2010). Educational policy trajectories in an era of globalization: Singapore and Cambodia. Prospects, 40(4), 465-480. doi:10.1007/s11125-010-9170-6 317 Thion, S. (1990). The pattern of Cambodian politics. In D. A. Ablin & M. Hood (Eds.), The Cambodian agony (pp. 149-164). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Tholen, G., Brown, P., Power, S., & Allouch, A. (2013). The role of networks and connections in educational elites' labour market entrance. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 34, 142-154. doi:10.1016/j.rssm.2013.10.003 Thomas, W. I., & Znaniecki, F. (1927). The Polish peasant in Europe and America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Thompson, P. (1981). Life histories and the analysis of social change. In D. Bertaux (Ed.), Biography and society: The life history approach in the social sciences (pp. 289-306). Beverly Hills, California: Sage. Thomson, R., Holland, J., McGrellis, S., Bell, R., Henderson, S., & Sharpe, S. (2004). Inventing adulthoods: A biographical approach to understanding youth citizenship. The Sociological Review, 218-239. Thomson, R. S. (1945). The establishment of the French Protectorate over Cambodia. The Far Eastern Quarterly, 4(4), 313-340. Thorpe, H. (2009). Bourdieu, feminism and female physical culture: Gender reflexivity and the habitus-field complex. Sociology of Sport Journal, 26(4), 491-516. Threadgold, S. (2019). Bourdieu is not a determinist: Illusio, aspiration, reflexivity. In G. Stahl, D. Wallace, C. Burke, & S. Threadgold (Eds.), International perspectives on theorizing aspirations: Applying Bourdieu\u00E2\u0080\u0099s tools (pp. 36-50). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic. Tierney, W. G. (1998). Life history's history: Subjects foretold. Qualitative Inquiry, 4(1), 49-70. Tilak, J. B. G. (2008). Higher education: A public good or a commodity for trade?: Commitment to higher education or commitment of higher education to trade. Prospects, 38(4), 449-466. doi:10.1007/s11125-009-9093-2 Tomanovi\u00C4\u0087, S. (2004). Family habitus as the cultural context for childhood. Childhood, 11(3), 339-360. doi:10.1177/0907568204044887 Tomasi, L. (2000). The history of sociology in Cambodia: Why sociology was introduced in Pol Pot\u00E2\u0080\u0099s former country. Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, 28(1), 153-169. 318 Trigos-Carrillo, L. (2020). Community cultural wealth and literacy capital in Latin American communities. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 19(1), 3-19. doi:10.1108/ETPC-05-2019-0071 Trowler, V. (2014). May the subaltern speak? Researching the invisible 'other' in higher education. European Journal of Higher Education, 4(1), 42-54. doi:10.1080/21568235.2013.851614 Tully, J. (2005). A short history of Cambodia: From empire to survival. New South Wales, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Tuy, S. (2019). Discrimination against women in accessing higher education in Cambodia. Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights, 3(1), 101-123. doi:10.19184/jseahr.v3i1.8402 Um, K. (2014). Technology of dominance, technology of liberation: Education in colonial and postcolonial Cambodia. In C. Joseph & J. Matthews (Eds.), Equity, opportunity and education in postcolonial Southeast Asia (pp. 77-92). New York, NY: Routledge. Un, K. (2006). State, society and democratic consolidation: The case of Cambodia. Pacific Affairs, 79(2), 225-245. United Nations Development Program. (2011). Human capital implications of future economic growth in Cambodia: Elements of a suggested roadmap. Phnom Penh: The Author. van de Werfhorst, H. G. (2007). Scarcity and abundance: Reconciling trends in the effects of education on social class and earnings in Great Britain 1972-2003. European Sociological Review, 23(2), 239-261. van den Berg, M. (2011). Subjective social mobility: Definitions and expectations of \"moving up\" of poor Moroccan women in the Netherlands. International Sociology, 26(4), 503-523. doi:10.1177/0268580910393042 van Dijk, R., de Bruijn, M., & Gewald, J.-B. (2007). Social and historical trajectories of agency in Africa: An introduction. In M. de Bruijn, R. van Dijk, & J.-B. Gewald (Eds.), Strength beyond structure: Social and historical trajectories of agency in Africa (pp. 1-15). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Verver, M. (2012). Templates of \"Chineseness\" and trajectories of Cambodian Chinese entrepreneurship in Phnom Penh. Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, 1(2), 291-322. doi:10.1353/ach.2012.0017 319 Verver, M., & Dahles, H. (2015). The institutionalization of Oknha: Cambodian entrepreneurship at the interface of business and politics. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 45(1), 48-70. doi:10.1080/00472336.2014.891147 Vickery, M. (1985). The reign of Su\u00CC\u0084ryavarman I and royal factionalism at Angkor. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 16(2), 226-244. Voun, D. (2019, February 14). Government: Education is priority. The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved from https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/government-education-priority Vubo, E. Y. (2011). European and Cameroonian scholarship on ethnicity and the making of identities in Cameroon: Colonial and post-colonial trails. AFRIKA FOCUS, 24(2), 33-52. Wacquant, L. J. D. (2006). Pierre Bourdieu. In R. Stones (Ed.), Key sociological thinkers (pp. 261-278). Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Ward, K., & Mouyly, V. (2013). The importance of being connected: urban poor women's experience of self-help discourse in Cambodia. Gender & Development, 21(2), 313-326. doi:10.1080/13552074.2013.802482 Webb, C. (2018). Asinamali: Aspiration, debt and citizenship in South Africa\u00E2\u0080\u0099s #FeesMustFall protests. Area, 51(4), 627-634. doi:10.1111/area.12489 Whelan, C. T., & Layte, R. (2002). Late industrialization and the increased merit selection hypothesis - Ireland as a test case. European Sociological Review, 18(1), 35-50. Whitehead, M. A. (2019). \u00E2\u0080\u009CWhere are my people at?\u00E2\u0080\u009D: A community cultural wealth analysis of how lesbian, gay, and bisexual community college students of color access community and support. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 43(10-11), 730-742. doi:10.1080/10668926.2019.1600611 Widlok, T. (2007). From individual act to social agency in San trance rituals. In M. de Bruijn, R. van Dijk, & J.-B. Gewald (Eds.), Strength beyond structure: Social and historical trajectories of agency in Africa (pp. 163-188). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. Wilkie, A. (2015). Improve your research technique -- Reflexive thinking, 5 practical tips. Retrieved from https://www.cxpartners.co.uk/our-thinking/improve-your-research-technique-reflexive-thinking-5-practical-tips/. Retrieved July 27, 2016 https://www.cxpartners.co.uk/our-thinking/improve-your-research-technique-reflexive-thinking-5-practical-tips/ 320 Williams, G. (2000). Subalternity and the neoliberal habitus: Thinking insurrection on the El Salvador/South Central interface. Nepantla: Views from South, 1(1), 139-170. Williams, H. M. A. (2019). A neocolonial warp of outmoded hierarchies, curricula and disciplinary technologies in Trinidad\u00E2\u0080\u0099s educational system. Critical Studies in Education, 60(1), 93-112. doi:10.1080/17508487.2016.1237982 Willis, P. (1981). Learning to labour: How working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press Morningside Edition. Winter, T., & Ollier, L. C.-P. (2006). Introduction: Cambodia and the politics of tradition, identity, and change. In L. C.-P. Ollier & T. Winter (Eds.), Expressions of Cambodia: The politics of tradition, identity, and change (pp. 1-19). London: Routledge. Wong, Y.-L. (2011). Overlooked insights from mobility instances? Reconsider our understanding of mobility processes. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 29, 181-192. doi:10.1016/j.rssm.2010.11.002 World Bank. (2010). Providing skills for equity and growth: Preparing Cambodia's youth for the labour market. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. World Bank. (2012). Matching aspirations: Skills for implementing Cambodia's growth strategy. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: World Bank. World Bank. (2014). Cambodia economic update, April 2014: Coping with domestic pressures and gaining from a strengthened global economy. Retrieved from Phnom Penh: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17784 World Bank. (2017a). Cambodia: Sustaining strong growth for the benefit of all. Systematic Country Diagnostic. Retrieved from Washington, D.C.: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27149 World Bank. (2017b). Urban development in Phnom Penh. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/286991511862455372/Urban-development-in-Phnom-Penh Yadav, P. (2016). Social transformation in post-conflict Nepal: A gender perspective. New York, NY: Routledge. 321 Yang, R. (2010). International organizations, changing governance and China's policy making in higher education: An analysis of the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 30(4), 419-431. doi:10.1080/02188791.2010.519692 Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Yosso, T. J. (2017). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. In A. D. Dixson, C. K. R. Anderson, & J. K. Donnor (Eds.), Critical race theory in education: All God\u00E2\u0080\u0099s children got a song (pp. 113-136). New York, NY: Routledge. 322 Appendices Appendix A Consent Form Topic: Social Mobility in Contemporary Cambodia: Life Histories of University Graduates from Poor Family Origins Principal Investigator Dr. Pierre Walter Professor, Educational Studies Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Email: _______________________ Co-Investigator Vicheth Sen Doctoral candidate Educational Studies Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Email: ________________________ Funder The fieldwork for this study is partially funded through a fellowship provided by the Center for Khmer Studies based in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. There are no actual or potential conflicts of interest with respect to remuneration received from the funding agency for conducting or being involved with any part of the study. 323 Purpose The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the factors and the social and cultural processes that underpin upward social mobility of Cambodian professionals in contemporary Cambodia, that is, Cambodia since 1993. By examining the life histories of university graduates from poor family origins who have navigated the social space and attained professional positions in present-day Cambodia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s higher social classes, the study seeks to understand the meaning of their upward social mobility, what it takes for them to undergo these processes, and what social and cultural dynamics undergird and shape their life histories in the contemporary space of Cambodia. You are being invited to participate in this study because you meet the inclusion criteria as a university graduate from poor family origin who has attained a high professional position in present-day Cambodia. Your participation in this study will help us to gain a better understanding of the dynamics and processes that enable individuals from humble family origins to move to a higher social category in contemporary Cambodian society. Study procedures By volunteering to participate in this study, you will be interviewed once by the co-investigator for a period of 90-120 minutes. The interview will take place at a location convenient for you, at your home, your office, a caf\u00C3\u00A9 or a restaurant. The interview focuses on your life history, particularly how you have transitioned from a humble family origin outside of the capital city to a high professional position in the capital of Cambodia. You will receive a list of provisional interview questions for you to review prior to the interview date. With your consent, the interview will be audio-recorded for the primary purpose of making an accurate transcription for analysis. We will send you a copy of the interview transcripts, so you could make any corrections and clarifications, or exclude any part of the interview with which you are not comfortable. 324 Study results The results of this study will be reported in the co-investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s graduate dissertation and may also be published in journal articles and books and presented at conferences. A report of the research findings will also be shared with the participants who provide an email address for this purpose. Potential risks of the study We do not think there is anything in this study that could harm you. Some of the questions asked require you to recall past life experiences that might upset you. However, you do not have to answer any question if you do not feel comfortable to. Potential benefits of the study Participating in this study is rewarding in various ways. It provides an opportunity for your hard work and perseverance in your life to be acknowledged and appreciated. Although you remain anonymous, your life stories will inspire many others who are of similar socio-economic backgrounds as you are and who are struggling to attain a better living condition for themselves and their families. In addition, your participation in this study will enable us to shed some light on the broader socio-cultural dynamics that play out in contemporary Cambodian society. Confidentiality All the raw data\u00E2\u0080\u0094the interview audios and transcripts\u00E2\u0080\u0094will be encrypted and stored in the co-investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s password-secured personal computer. The backup files will be encrypted and stored in a password-protected external hard drive stored in a locked cabinet of the co-investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s office. Only the co-investigator and the principal investigator and two other members of the co-investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s supervisory committee, if necessary, have access to the raw data. Each interview will be anonymized. Only pseudonyms will be used in coding, analysis, and writing my research report and other publications. All interview recordings and transcripts will be destroyed permanently five years after the completion of the study. During the five-year period, the raw data will be encrypted and stored in a locked cabinet of the Principal 325 Investigator\u00E2\u0080\u0099s secure office located at the Department of Educational Studies of the University of British Columbia. Contact for information about the study If you have any questions or concerns about the study, please contact the study team with their names and contact details listed at the top of the first page of this form. Contact for concerns about the rights of research subject If you have any concerns or complaints about your rights as a research participant and/or your experiences while participating in this study, contact the Research Participant Complaint Line in the UBC Office of Research Ethics at 604-822-8598 or if long distance e-mail RSIL@ors.ubc.ca or call toll free 1-877-822-8598. Consent Taking part in this study is entirely voluntary. You have the right to refuse to participate in this study. If you decide to take part, you may withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason. You will be asked to sign this form if you decide to participate in this study. Your signature below indicates that you have received a copy of this consent form for your own records. Your signature indicates that you consent to participate in this study. Participant signature: _______________________________ Date: _________________ Participant name: _____________________________________________________________ Please initial if you consent to have your interview audio recorded: ______________________ 326 Please write down your email address if you would like to receive a report of the research findings upon the completion of the study: _______________________________________ 327 Appendix B Provisional Interview Questions 1. First of all, I would like you to explain the timeline you have drawn of the years and/or events that have had special significance or meaning in your life and that have had impacts on how you have reached where you are today in terms of your professional position and social status. (Interview participants are requested to draw the timeline prior to face-to-face interviews) 2. In what ways have your family, relatives, friends and other social networks played in how you have attained your present professional and social status? 3. What other factors have played a role in how you have attained your present professional and social status? 4. To what extent do you attribute your achievement on your professional and social status to your own efforts and capacities? Why? Please elaborate. 5. How have your transitions from one stage of your life to another been like (i.e., from school to your first job, from one job to another)? Who or what, if any, has played a significant role in these transitions? 6. In what ways have different levels of education you have attained enabled you to achieve your present professional and social status? 7. Does being a male (or female) play any important part in your attainment of your present professional and social status? Please explain. 8. Does your ethnicity (i.e., Khmer, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.) play any role in constraining and/or fostering how you have reached where you are today in your professional and social status? Please explain. 9. Does your belief system (i.e., Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc.) have any constraining and/or facilitating impact on your transitioning to where you are today? Please explain. 10. What does your life experience of transitioning from a poor family origin to your present social and professional status mean to you? (Probe: in terms of financial security, social status, prestige, power, etc. 328 11. What is your opinion about the contemporary Cambodian society in relation to the availabilities of opportunities for people with similar social origins as yourself to improve their lives and their professional and social statuses? Any constraints and/or facilitators? 12. Are there any other things you might add that would help me to better understand your life story and how you have been able to attain your current professional and social status? Thank you very much for your time! "@en . "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "2021-05"@en . "10.14288/1.0395141"@en . "eng"@en . "Educational Studies"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International"@* . "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"@* . "Graduate"@en . "\u00E2\u0080\u009CCaptive\u00E2\u0080\u009D subjects? : higher education and social mobility in \u00E2\u0080\u009Cpostcolonial\u00E2\u0080\u009D Cambodia"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76656"@en .