Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T18:20:05.231Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Collective Dynamics of Genocidal Violence in Cambodia, 1975–1979

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2015

Peter B. Owens
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While previous research conceptualizes genocide as an outcome of complex interactions between multiple social factors, the specific ways in which these factors interact and combine with each other, and how their individual effects may be mediated through such interaction, remain to be empirically specified. Using historical accounts given by survivors of the Cambodian genocide, and drawing from insights in the collective action literature, this study presents a configurational and comparative analysis of the collective dynamics of genocidal violence. The analysis focuses on how changing local patterns of relational and cognitive collective mechanisms created distinctly local patterns of violence, affecting both levels of victimization and the targeting of different groups over time. While the expansion and consolidation of central state power accounts for a generalized increase in violence, official framing practices mediated how groups became targeted. These findings confirm and extend the insights of other meso-level studies of genocide, and demonstrate the utility of comparative configurational methods for further inquiry.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 38 , Issue 3-4 , Fall/Winter 2014 , pp. 411 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, P. (1988) “Notes on the difficulty of studying the state.” Journal of Historical Sociology 1 (1): 58–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmed, A., and Kassinis, E. V. (1998) “The humanitarian early warning system: From concept to practice,” in Davies, J. L. and Gurr, T. R. (eds.) Preventive Measures: Building Risk Assessment and Crisis Early Warning Systems. Lanham, MD: Rowmanand Littlefield: 203–11.Google Scholar
Bartov, O. (2003) “Seeking the roots of modern genocide: On the macro- and microhistory of mass murder,” in Gellately, R. and Kiernan, B. (eds.) The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press: 75–96.Google Scholar
Becker, E. (1998) When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution. New York: PublicAffairs.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1994) “Rethinking the state: Genesis and structure of the bureaucratic field.” Sociological Theory 12 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, Y., and Wallace, M. (1991) “Informing generality and explaining uniqueness: The place of case studies in comparative research,” in Ragin, C. C. (ed.) Issues and Alternatives in Comparative Social Research. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill: 154–71.Google Scholar
Buechler, S. M. (2004) “The strange career of strain and breakdown theories of collective action,” in Snow, D. A., Soule, S. A., and Kriesi, H. (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Malden, MA: Blackwell: 47–66.Google Scholar
Cambodian Genocide Program (2001) “Provincial Genocide Sites (1975–1979),” http://www.yale.edu/cgp/maps/maps7579/country.jpg (accessed February 10, 2010).Google Scholar
Cambodian Genocide Program (2010) “DK Zones (English),” http://www.yale.edu/cgp/maps/bigmap02.gif (accessed January 15, 2010).Google Scholar
Chalk, F., and Jonassohn, K. (1990) The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chanda, N. (1986) Brother Enemy: The War after the War. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Chandler, D. P. (1991) The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Charmaz, K. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Conquest, R. (1986) The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cress, D. M., and Snow, D. A. (2000) “The outcomes of homeless mobilization: The influence of organization, disruption, political mediation, and framing.” American Journal of Sociology 105 (4): 1063–104.Google Scholar
De Walque, D. (2005) “Selective mortality during the Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia.” Population and Development Review 31 (2): 351–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunaway, D. K., and Baum, W. K., eds. (repr. 1996 [1984]) Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press.Google Scholar
Etcheson, C. (1984) The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Etcheson, C. (2005) After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Fein, H. (1979) Accounting for Genocide: National Response and Jewish Victimization during the Holocaust. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Fein, H. (1993a) “Accounting for genocide after 1945: Theories and some findings.” International Journal of Group Rights 1 (2): 79–106.Google Scholar
Fein, H. (1993b) Genocide: A Sociological Perspective. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Fujii, L. A. (2004) “Transforming the moral landscape: The diffusion of a genocidal norm in Rwanda.” Journal of Genocide Studies 6 (1): 99–114.Google Scholar
Fujii, L. A. (2008) “The power of local ties: Popular participation in the Rwandan genocide.” Security Studies 17 (3): 568–97.Google Scholar
Fujii, L. A. (2009) Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gagnon, V. P. (2004) The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gamson, W. A. (1995) “Hiroshima, the Holocaust, and the politics of exclusion: 1994 presidential address.” American Sociological Review 60 (1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GBVKR (2013) “Rape during the Khmer Rouge,” http://gbvkr.org/rape-during-the-khmer-rouge/ (accessed February 6, 2010).Google Scholar
Hagan, J., and Rymond-Richmond, W. (2008) “The collective dynamics of racial dehumanization and genocidal victimization in Darfur.” American Sociological Review 73 (6): 875–902.Google Scholar
Harff, B. (1998) “Early warning of humanitarian crises: Sequential models and the role of accelerators,” in Davies, J. L. and Gurr, T. R. (eds.) Preventive Measures: Building Risk Assessment and Crisis Early Warning Systems. Lanham, MD: Rowmanand Littlefield: 70–78.Google Scholar
Harff, B. (2001) “Could humanitarian crises have been anticipated in Burundi, Rwanda, and Zaire? A comparative study of anticipatory indicators,” in Alker, H. R., Gurr, T. R., and Rupesinghe, K. (eds.) Journeys through Conflict: Narratives and Lessons. Lanham, MD: Rowmanand Littlefield: 81–102.Google Scholar
Harff, B. (2003) “No lessons learned from the Holocaust? Assessing risks of genocide and political mass murder since 1955.” American Political Science Review 97 (1): 57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harff, B., and Gurr, T. R. (1988) “Toward empirical theory of genocides and politicides: Identification and measurement of cases since 1945.” International Studies Quarterly 32 (3): 359–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heder, S. (2001) “Class, nationality, and race in communist crimes against humanity: Theoretical and historical reflections on Marxist racism and violence,” in Kimenyi, A. and Scott, O. L. (eds.) Anatomy of Genocide: State-Sponsored Mass Killings in the Twentieth Century. Lewistown, NY: Edward Mellen: 129–85.Google Scholar
Heuveline, P. (1998) “‘Between one and three million’: Towards the demographic reconstruction of a decade of Cambodian history (1970–1979).” Population Studies 52 (1): 49–65.Google Scholar
Heuveline, P. (2001) “The demographic analysis of mortality crises: The case of Cambodia, 1970–1979,” in Reed, H. E. and Keeley, C. B. (eds.) Forced Migration and Mortality. Washington, DC: National Academy Press: 102–29.Google Scholar
Hinton, A. L. (2005) Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, I. L. (1997) Taking Lives: Genocide and State Power, 4th ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Hunt, S. A., Benford, R. D., and Snow, D. A. (1994) “Identity fields: Framing processes and the social construction of movement identities,” in Larana, E., Johnson, H., and Gusfield, J. R. (eds.) New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press: 185–208.Google Scholar
Kelman, H. C., and Hamilton, V. L. (1989) Crimes of Obedience: Towards a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kiernan, B. (1985) “Kampuchea and Stalinism,” in MacKerras, C. and Knight, N. (eds.) Marxism in Asia. London: Croom Helm: 232–50.Google Scholar
Kiernan, B. (2002) The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975–79. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kiernan, B. (2004) How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kiernan, B., and Boua, C. (1982) Peasants and Politics in Kampuchea, 1942–1981. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
King, C. (2004) “The micropolitics of social violence.” World Politics 56 (3): 431–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopstein, J. S., and Wittenberg, J. (2011) “Deadly communities: Local political milieus and the persecution of Jews in occupied Poland.” Comparative Political Studies 44 (3): 259–83.Google Scholar
Krain, M. (1997) “State-sponsored mass murder: The onset and severity of genocides and politicides.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41 (3): 331–60.Google Scholar
Kuper, L. (1981) Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Lamont, M., and Molnar, V. (2002) “The study of boundaries in the social sciences.” Annual Review of Sociology 28: 167–95.Google Scholar
Longest, K. C., and Vaisey, S. (2008) “Fuzzy: A program for performing qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in Stata.” The Stata Journal 8 (1): 79–104.Google Scholar
Mann, M. (2000) “Were the perpetrators of genocide ‘ordinary men’ or ‘real Nazis’? Results from fifteen hundred biographies.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 14 (3): 331–66.Google Scholar
Mann, M. (2005) The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Melson, R. (1992) Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Midlarsky, M. I. (2005) The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Migozzi, J. (1973) Cambodge: Faits et Problemes de Population. Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.Google Scholar
Oberschall, A. (2000) “The manipulation of ethnicity: From ethnic cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 23 (6): 982–1001.Google Scholar
Owens, P. B., Su, Y., and Snow, D. A. (2013) “Social scientific inquiry into genocide and mass killing: From unitary outcome to complex processes.” Annual Review of Sociology 39: 69–84.Google Scholar
Ragin, C. C. (1987) The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ragin, C. C. (1994) Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Ragin, C. C. (2000) Fuzzy-Set Social Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ragin, C. C. (2008) Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy-Sets and Beyond. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shibutani, T. (1973) “On the personification of adversaries,” in Shibutani, T. (ed.) Human Nature and Collective Behavior: Papers in Honor of Herbert Blumer. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction: 223–33.Google Scholar
Snow, D. A., and Benford, R. D. (1988) “Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization.” International Social Movement Research 1 (1): 197–217.Google Scholar
Snow, D. A., Cress, D. M., Downey, L., and Jones, A. W. (1998) “Disrupting the ‘quotidian’: Reconceptualizing the relationship between breakdown and the emergence of collective action.” Mobilization 3 (1): 1–22.Google Scholar
Snow, D. A., Rocheford, E. B. Jr., Worden, S. K., and Benford, R. D. (1986) “Frame alignment processes, micromobilization, and movement participation.” American Sociological Review 51 (4): 464–81.Google Scholar
Straus, S. (2001) “Organic purity and the role of anthropology in Cambodia and Rwanda.” Patterns of Prejudice 35 (2): 47–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Straus, S. (2006) The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Straus, S. (2007) “What is the relationship between hate radio and violence? Rethinking Rwanda's ‘Radio Machete.’” Politics and Society 35 (4): 609–37.Google Scholar
Su, Y. (2011) Collective Killings in Rural China during the Cultural Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (1979) “Analysis prepared on behalf of the sub-commission by its chairman of materials submitted to it and the commission on human rights under decision 9 (XXXIV) of the Commission on Human Rights.” Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.Google Scholar
Thompson, P. (2000) The Voice of the Past: Oral History. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (2003) The Politics of Collective Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
United Nations (1948) “Convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide,” http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html (accessed January 27, 1997).Google Scholar
Valentino, B. A. (2004) Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Verwimp, P. (2003) “Testing the double-genocide thesis for central and southern Rwanda.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 47 (4): 423–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verwimp, P. (2004) “Death and survival during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.” Population Studies 58 (2): 233–45.Google Scholar
Verwimp, P. (2005) “An economic profile of peasant perpetrators of genocide: Micro-level evidence from Rwanda.” Journal of Development Economics 77 (2): 297–323.Google Scholar
Vickery, M. (1984) Cambodia, 1975–1982. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Waller, J. (2007) Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Walton, J. (1992) “Making the theoretical case,” in Ragin, C. C. and Becker, H. S. (eds.) What Is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. New York: Cambridge University Press: 121–38.Google Scholar