This study analyses the characteristics of community participation in Cambodian rural schools. It looks at the spaces for participation created by the decentralisation reforms that the government of Cambodia has undertaken in the education sector through two main policies: school clustering and Priority Action Programme. While institutionalised spaces of participation created by these policies are relatively new, Cambodian communities, despite twenty five years of political turmoil, have traditionally provided support to schools through school associations. The study refers to bonding, bridging, and institutional social capital to explore, respectively, the characteristics of the horizontal links between community members as well as different forms of collective action, and the vertical links between community, schools and local government institutions. Research activities have been conducted at two levels. The first, ‘policy level analysis’, concerned the review of relevant literature on social capital theory, the principles of democratic decentralisation, Cambodian modern history, national decentralisation reforms, and the human development profile of Cambodia. The second level, ‘local level analysis’, focused on the province of Kampong Thom to investigate traditions, norms and values that characterise community participation in schools and local social development. Qualitative as well as quantitative empirical data have been obtained through participant observations, questionnaires and checklists, project monitoring data, and semi structured interviews with community members, local government authorities, development workers, and project staff.

The analysis from Kampong Thom demonstrates that traditional associations, particularly under the umbrella of the local pagoda (Buddhist temple), represent forms of community actions that were among the first institutions to re-activate after the end of the civil war and Khmer Rouge period in 1979. The linkages between members of these traditional associations are strong and based on trust. This shows that bonding social capital is the driving force behind community mobilization and community support to schools. At the same time, bridging social capital between school association and other types of community based groups is still weak. Likewise, institutional social capital between school associations and schools is hampered by mistrust towards school officials and parents’ reluctance to become more involved in educational matters.

The conclusion of the study is that, while traditional associations provide material contributions and support to schools, their participation in internal decision making process as well as educational matters is still limited. The trauma caused by years of conflicts and the Cambodian socio cultural norms are factors that explain the difficulty in establishing more democratic spaces for participation. In addition, decentralisation policies in education have so far promoted community participation in schools through the creation of ad hoc committees and councils that have failed to gain the same legitimacy enjoyed by traditional associations at village and community level.