Unwritten Rule: A GETSEA Community Book Read by Alice Beban

A community book read with Alice Beban, author of Unwritten Rule: State-Making through Land Reform in Cambodia_ and winner of the 2023 Benda Prize. This conversation is hosted by the_ GETSEA Consortium.

This event is open to current graduate students at any university, but participants must read the book first to facilitate an active conversation!

Date and Time: Wednesday, November 15, 2023, 2:00 PM HST
Zoom Registration: Via Zoom: Click here to register.

Alice Beban’s Unwritten Rule: State-Making through Land Reform in Cambodia is a first-rate study of the politics of land redistribution. Challenging the idea that land reform strengthens land tenure, Unwritten Rule shows that instead it entangles citizens in patron-client relations, creates anxiety, and actually undermines title to land. Citizens in Cambodia must contend with a state that, Beban argues, is not so much lacking in state capacity but actively making things illegible through obfuscation, secrecy, and unwritten rules. Through multiple methods, including in-depth ethnography, survey research, as well as comparative analysis within Cambodia, Unwritten Rule provides a sharp, unique, and counterintuitive perspective on land reforms in an autocratic regime. This is a superb book from which political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians can all gain deep and grounded insights.