Joint Research (Type III）
State Formation and Local Communities: A Comprehensive Study Based on the
Cambodian Official Gazette
Project Leader: SASAGAWA, Hideo, College of Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan
Asia Pacific University
（Term：2010 - 2011）
- Joint Seminars in 2010-2011 Fiscal Year
- Outline of Joint Research
- The Cambodian official gazette, which has periodically compiled various
decrees and personnel changes, is quite an important document for historical
studies on modern and contemporary Cambodia. The Center for Southeast Asian
Studies, Kyoto University possesses its Khmer version issued from 1985.
This research project purchased the French version (1904-1915 and 1945-1973)
microfilmed by the National Archives of Cambodia, and integrates the achievements
based on the analysis of the gazette and the results of fieldwork in order
to elucidate the process of state formation and the transformation of local
communities in Cambodia.
- Purpose of Joint Research
-
Combining the findings deduced from historical documents such as the official gazette and those of social scientists who have carried out fieldwork, this research project will scrutinize from a long-term perspective, how the modern state of Cambodia has been constructed and how state formation has influenced ordinary people’s ways of living in local societies.
The significance of this project is twofold: The preparation of documents
and the development of methodology in the academic field of area studies.
On one hand, now that the Center for Southeast Asian Studies owns the Khmer
version of the Cambodian official gazette from 1985, it will be of vital
importance for researchers that the Center stores its French version, an
indispensable document for comparative studies on the state formation in
other Southeast Asian countries than Cambodia and those on French colonialism
and its rule. On the other hand, we also have a plan to tackle the issues
of uniting studies on written documents and social research and of adopting
the recent progress of area informatics, while discussing and publishing
the results of our research.
Previous studies on Cambodia have not fully explored the contents of the
official gazette, so it is hoped that the project members will publish
highly original articles. Furthermore this project will revisit the process
of forming modern societies and rejuvenate area studies on Southeast Asia,
because Cambodia has a unique experience of the state formation and the
transformation of local communities twice owing to breaking off under the
Pol Pot regime.
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