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More than 20 years of civil war (1970 – 1993) have left a significant mark on the history of contemporary Cambodia. No part of Cambodian society has remained untouched and, although we can see several significant signs of the country’s reconstruction, sustainable development is still confronted by many serious obstacles.
Human resources training in Cambodia still give very much cause for concern. The war and the Khmer rouge regime are
still felt in so far as the country lacks well-trained executives capable of
meeting the challenges of present day: the reform of education, agriculture, and
the judicial system, the eradication of illiteracy, etc.
Amongst Asian countries, Contemporary Cambodia remains a country on which we are
very poorly provided with information. As an example, the key documents about
Cambodian peasantry (more than 70% of the working population) date from the
sixties. Studies and surveys of ethnic minorities in
Cambodia (The Chams, Chinese, Vietnamese, highlands minorities) are still in their
infancy or nonexistent: for instance the two serious studies of Chinese
Cambodians (the economic role played by this group cannot be neglected) go back
to 1967 and 1968. Intra- and intercommunity institutions have never been the
object of scientific and systematic studies. The contemporary Khmer language has
not been properly described or the object of study by modern linguistic methods;
the most recent unilingual dictionary goes back to the sixties and, since then,
has been republished without any noticeable changes. Researchers, investors,
teachers, and students, have only incomplete, imprecise and often outdated
material available to them.
Far
from being a luxury, better knowledge of the Cambodian social space is a sine
qua non for Cambodians and foreigners who, for personal or professional reasons,
are involved in Cambodian affairs. The IDSSC was created with these
considerations in mind.
IDSSC
is a Cambodian non profit organization. Created in 2004, it focuses on the
following double objective: to contribute to a better knowledge of the Cambodian
social space by developing research and research training activities in social
sciences. "Social Sciences" is to b e understood in the broad sense here: to the
various fields which are traditionally part of this category (linguistics,
sociology, economy, cultural anthropology, history) we have added other research
fields such as law, art history, etc. Aimed at increasing our knowledge of
Cambodia and training researchers, our activities will have considerable
offshoots: first, from an immediate point of view, the creation of a new data
base (books, articles, films), the training of highly qualified Cambodian
researchers, and the establishment of links between Cambodian and foreign
institutions as well as researchers; more indirectly, help in promoting existing
Cambodian university training and the development of the Cambodian cultural
heritage will generate employment.
In
order to select research fields and projects, IDSSC collaborates with several
prestigious Cambodian and foreign institutions such as Royal University of Phnom
Penh, Royal Academy of Cambodia, Royal University of Fine Arts, National
Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO, Paris), University of
Franche Comté, University of Tsukuba (Japan) and Bard College (USA).
Through its activities, IDSSC
intends to play a part in promoting a sustainable development and an open
Cambodian society.
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