Hydropower Hegemony: Examining Civil Society Opposition to Dams in Cambodia

Abstract

As the urgency of addressing the climate crisis gathers pace, the role of hydropower is likely to attract increased interest for its claimed sustainability, despite fragmenting fragile river systems and evidence of significant emissions when constructed in tropical contexts. Building upon existing post-development, political ecology and civil society literature, this paper examines civil society opposition to hydropower projects in Cambodia. The paper introduces the term ‘hydropower hegemony,’ as an analytical tool for examining not just the tactical dimensions of civil society opposition to hydropower, but also the importance of ideological contestation. This analysis is applied to two case studies, Lower Sesan 2 and the Areng Valley in Cambodia, but with relevance for populations in peripheral areas and countries facing the expansion of hydropower projects. The case studies illustrate a spectrum of approaches to contestation, from reform to confrontation, and their intersections with the rapacious Cambodian state. The analysis also challenges reductionist characterizations of civil society in Cambodia. Despite the presence and success of confrontation with the state, we suggest that civil society’s increasingly reformist approaches are ultimately reinforcing hegemony, hydropower and otherwise, rather than challenging it, by inadvertently taming and domesticating burgeoning opposition to dispossession.