Anni Beukes
Research Project
Becoming Urban: Understanding the Urban Transformation of Migrants to Phnom Penh
Project Team:
2020 – 2025
Key Question
What economic, environmental, and social factors compel Cambodians to migrate from rural villages to urban centers?
Project Summary
| Through traditional and distributed ethnographic methods, the research team is exploring the lived experiences of Cambodian migrants from rural villages to urban centers; the factors that drove the decision to migrate; and the changes that result from becoming urban. |
This research project seeks to understand the process of becoming urban at a critical time in Cambodian history. Combining traditional and distributed ethnographic methods, the research team will explore and analyze the lived experiences of migrants from rural villages to urban centers; the economic, environmental, and social factors that drove the decision to migrate; and the changing connections to place, space, and people that result from becoming urban. Ultimately, the project aims to produce a deeper understanding of the lived experience of migrants and a better account of their transformation from villagers to urbanites.
Topics
Research Team
Marco Garrido
Alan Kolata
Alan Kolata
Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College
University of Chicago
Monin Nong
Monin Nong
Research Fellow
Centre for Natural Resources and Environment of Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI)
Julio Postigo
Sabina Shaikh
Sabina Shaikh
Senior Instructional Professor and Director of Academic Programs, CEGU
University of Chicago
Try Thuon
Project Narrative
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
From the Countryside to the City: Environmental Transformations and the Impact of Urbanization, Land Use Changes, and Migration on Cambodian Life
Workshop
From the Countryside to the City: Environmental Transformations and the Impact of Urbanization, Land Use Changes, and Migration on Cambodian Life
This invite-only workshop set a research agenda to study how changes in physical and social landscapes are affecting Cambodian households.
The Drivers and Perceptions of Migration in the Lower Mekong River Basin
The Drivers and Perceptions of Migration in the Lower Mekong River Basin
A new paper by members of the Becoming Urban research team reveals a "complex web" of interacting socio-environmental factors driving migration to Cambodian cities.
Riverine Food Environments and Food Security
Riverine Food Environments and Food Security
Using the Mekong River in Cambodia as a case study, this paper discusses how to understand rivers as food environments, how rivers underpin food security, and their unique features and threats.
Livelihood Strategies in Cambodia
Livelihood Strategies in Cambodia
A new paper published in the journal World Development considers "the interrelated impacts of credit access, market access and forest proximity on livelihood strategies in Cambodia."
Becoming Urban: Complexities in Contemporary Developing Cities
Discussion
Becoming Urban: Complexities in Contemporary Developing Cities
Much of the Chicago School’s scholarship has focused on the process of “becoming urban”: the process of becoming entangled in a set of urban networks, coming to identify with certain urban places, ...
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
From the Countryside to the City: Environmental Transformations and the Impact of Urbanization, Land Use Changes, and Migration on Cambodian Life
Workshop
From the Countryside to the City: Environmental Transformations and the Impact of Urbanization, Land Use Changes, and Migration on Cambodian Life
This invite-only workshop set a research agenda to study how changes in physical and social landscapes are affecting Cambodian households.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
The Drivers and Perceptions of Migration in the Lower Mekong River Basin
The Drivers and Perceptions of Migration in the Lower Mekong River Basin
A new paper by members of the Becoming Urban research team reveals a "complex web" of interacting socio-environmental factors driving migration to Cambodian cities.
Riverine Food Environments and Food Security
Riverine Food Environments and Food Security
Using the Mekong River in Cambodia as a case study, this paper discusses how to understand rivers as food environments, how rivers underpin food security, and their unique features and threats.
Livelihood Strategies in Cambodia
Livelihood Strategies in Cambodia
A new paper published in the journal World Development considers "the interrelated impacts of credit access, market access and forest proximity on livelihood strategies in Cambodia."
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Becoming Urban: Complexities in Contemporary Developing Cities
Discussion
Becoming Urban: Complexities in Contemporary Developing Cities
Much of the Chicago School’s scholarship has focused on the process of “becoming urban”: the process of becoming entangled in a set of urban networks, coming to identify with certain urban places, ...
Reading List
Bairoch, P.
Cities and Economic Development: From the Dawn of History to the Present Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988 ReadBylander, M.
“Depending on the Sky: Environmental Distress, Migration, and Coping in Rural Cambodia” International Migration 53, no. 5 (2015): 135–147 ReadDemont, F. and P. Heuveline
Diversity and Change in Cambodian Households, 1998-2006 Journal of Population Research (Canberra) 25, no. 3 (2008): 287–313 ReadDerks, A.
Khmer Women on the Move: Exploring Work and Life in Urban Cambodia Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2008 ReadEvans, A.
“How Cities Erode Gender Inequality: A New Theory and Evidence from Cambodia” Gender & Society 33, no. 6 (2019): 961–984 ReadGarrido, M. Z.
The Patchwork City: Class, Space and Politics in Metro Manila Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2019 ReadHaraway, D. J.
Staying with the Trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016 ReadHeinonen, U.
“Environmental Impact on Migration in Cambodia: Water-related Migration from the Tonle Sap Region” International Journal of Water Resources Development 22, no. 3 (2006): 449–462 ReadJellinek, L.
The Wheel of Fortune: The History of a Poor Community in Jakarta Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1991 ReadLefebvre, H.
Marxist Thought and the City Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 2016 ReadPeou, C.
“Negotiating Rural-Urban Transformation and Life Course Fluidity: Rural Young People and Urban Sojourn in Contemporary Cambodia" Journal of Rural Studies 44 (2016): 177–186 ReadSassen, S.
Expulsion: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014 ReadSaunders, D.
Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World New York: Vintage Books, 2012 ReadSpringer, S.
Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of Public Space London: Routledge, 2010 ReadExplore
