Mobile Networks and Socio-Economic Change in Cambodia

CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by The Australian National University Mobile Networks and Socio-Economic Change in Cambodia An Ethnography of Marketing and Consumption By Daniel McFarlane A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE CORAL BELL SCHOOL OF ASIA PACIFIC STUDIES COLLEGE OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CANBERRA, OCTOBER 2015 ii Abstract This thesis ethnographically explores socio-economic change in Cambodia through the prism of the consumption and marketing of mobile networks. Just as Cambodia was embarking on a new era of political and economic change it etched its name in the history books as the first country where mobile network connections surpassed fixed line phones. Since then, mobile network infrastructure has emerged as a symbol of change and progress. When this research began the country was experiencing network subscription growth of nearly fifty percent per annum. Cambodia was thus an excellent location to explore the relationship between network connectivity and socio-economic change. By ethnographically exploring how Cambodians engage with mobile networks this thesis contributes to a new but rich collection of ethnographies on mobile communication from around the world. However, it also differs from these user-centred ethnographies by closely examining the marketing of mobile networks. In the new economy, responsibility for the provision of infrastructure has shifted to the private sector and mobile network providers have been promoted as symbols of how corporations can work in the interest of the world's poor. Therefore, this thesis turns the ethnographic gaze onto these corporations in Cambodia and explores the inner workings of corporate marketing in order to examine the relationship between corporations and the Cambodian population. To examine the relationship between mobile networks and socio-economic change in Cambodia two questions are asked. The first question concerns how consumers transform mobile networks into infrastructures of social and economic life and the second focuses on how marketers iii imagine and define the market for mobile networks. The first question leads to an ethnography of how mobile networks are incorporated into everyday life and how Cambodians pursue a range of socio-cultural and livelihood projects through them. The second question leads to an ethnographic exploration of how the consumers of mobile networks are imagined and constructed through consumer research and marketing practice. The answer to the first question demonstrates how Cambodians have transformed mobile networks into infrastructures for configuring their own social and economic networks, and reimagining what they can do and where they can go. Mobile networks have become infrastructures of mobility through which Cambodians transverse geographical terrain to engage in courtship, manage kinship and social relations, and participate in markets at a distance. Through mobile networks Cambodians bridge urban-rural divides and alleviate the difficulties of social and economic remoteness. In contrast, the answer to the second question reveals how corporate market definitions are structured by class subjectivities and classificatory schemes that reinforce social divisions, particularly between rural and urban Cambodians, and accentuate social and economic exclusions. However, this thesis also demonstrates that markets are social and cultural creations as much as they are political and economic creations. As such, markets and consumer value can be redefined in more inclusionary forms that are supportive of everyday Cambodian aspirations. iv Table of Contents Declaration i Abstract iii Table of Contents v Acknowledgements vii Author’s Note ix Introduction: Networks of Change 1 Chapter 2: Politics and Mobile Networks 50 Chapter 3: Infrastructures of Mobility 74 Chapter 4: Networks & Market Infrastructure 105 Chapter 5: Defining Network Consumers 139 Chapter 6: Marketing Network Value 173 Chapter 7: The Viettel Approach 210 Conclusion: Imagining Futures in Cambodia 237 Bibliography 266 v vi Acknowledgements While writing and researching this thesis I have been fortunate to have the support of two very loving parents, Lyn and Brian. I can't begin to mention the different ways they have been there for me and encouraged me while writing this thesis and through life. Without them I would never even been able to contemplate this undertaking. This thesis is dedicated to them for the love they give their children and grandchildren. I am also very privileged to come from a prosperous nation with a government that supports education and research opportunities for its citizens. I was awarded the Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship from the Australian Government and without its financial support this thesis would not have been possible. I am particularly grateful for the support of my supervisor, Professor Andrew Walker. His professional, insightful and down-to-earth mentoring has been enormously valuable through the course of research and writing this thesis. I am also thankful to all the staff and students in the Department of Political and Social Change in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Critical feedback I received during several seminars I presented in the department made a valuable contribution to the development and completion of this thesis. I would also like to acknowledge the support I received from the University of Queensland, where I began this research and did my Honours Degree. In particular, I would like to express my thanks to Dr Helen Johnson, who provided supervision when I began research for this thesis. I've been lucky to have many great teachers who have encouraged, guided and inspired me to this point. I have a strong sense that this thesis is the culmination of their support over many years. vii I am also indebted to the many Cambodian informants and friends I met before and during conducting research. I couldn't have achieved this thesis without their generosity in opening their lives to me, introducing people that I could interview, guiding me around the countryside, helping me improve my Khmer and critiquing my questions. I view them as my research partners and without their support and inspiration this thesis would not be what it is. viii Author’s Note There is no standardized system for writing the Khmer language using Roman script, which leads to differences in how Khmer is transliterated. Therefore, I minimise the use of transliterations. In reference to markets and social class categories, I follow transliterations used by Annuksa Derks (2008). In other cases, I use accessible transliterations from David Smyth and Tran Kien’s Practical Cambodian Dictionary. Transliterations appear in italics, except in the case of places and names. In regard to place and area names, I use the most common available spelling. Pseudonyms are used to refer to informants to protect their identity. Only for public figures do I refer to their actual names. I also use a pseudonym to refer to the consumer research firm that I conducted ethnographic research within. The companies that market mobile networks are prominent figures in this research. There are a variety of terms to refer to them that are in common use such as mobile carrier, mobile operator and mobile service provider. I use the term mobile network provider as it best encapsulates their business and their position in the economy. Concerning references to currency, I mainly refer to US dollars since mobile phones and tariff rates are priced in US dollars instead of the local currency of riel. ix x Introduction: Networks of Change In 1993 elections were held in Cambodia for the first time since the tumultuous years of the 1970s. It was also the year the country etched its name into the history books as the first country where mobile phone subscription rates surpassed fixed line phones (ITU 2002; UNDP Cambodia 2009). It’s a peculiar record that reflected the country’s poor state of telecommunications infrastructure when it was embarking on new era of social, economic and political change. After the tragic years under the Khmer Rouge and its relative isolation under Vietnamese occupation, Cambodia was finally reconnecting with the world. Refugees were returning and international aid was pouring in. The United Nations Transitional Authority for Cambodia (UNTAC) had already arrived and elections were held under its supervision (Chandler 2008). The telecommunications record was symbolic of these rapid changes and the new connections that were being formed with the outside world and internally, but it also symbolized the long road of development and modernization that was still in front of the country. This thesis fast-forwards 16 years and ethnographically explores social and economic change as mobile network infrastructures and connectivity spread beyond the elite and the urban middle class to the broader population. When I commenced this study in 2009 telecommunications infrastructure had made significant strides forward, but there had been only modest development in fixed line infrastructure. Connections had only reached an estimated 43,000, which was a mere 0.28 per 100 inhabitants, the lowest in Southeast Asia (UNDP Cambodia 2009: 48). This rate paled in comparison to the growth in mobile network connections. By 2009 there were an estimated 3.7 million mobile

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