ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with introductory briefs on the two main opposing schools of academic writing on Khmer socio-cultural legacies and the ‘export’ of the Western concept of civil society through UN intervention. It explores the post-conflict assumptions of social fatigue and fragmentation, viewing local socio-religious mobilization around the temples as a form of civil society engagement with implications for rural development. In light of Kent’s position, the chapter looks at the socio-cultural sphere of religion and the temple as a socio-religious space as expressions of agency in rural Cambodia, an important consideration with regard to civil society development. According to C. J. Nissen, trust and moral integrity are automatically associated with local pagodas which are seen as bastions of social and moral order.
