Jennifer Estes
Biographic Data
| ID | 912704 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer Estes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer |
| FAMILY NAME | Estes |
| SIGNATURE | ESTES J |
| AFFILIATIONS | National University of Singapore |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6670-7282 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 69 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Remittances as translocal collateral
In this paper, we explore how commercialised microfinance institutions and banks leverage remittance-related information to assess and provide microfinance loans to households in Cambodia. We argue that (microfinance) debt regimes profitably sustain precarity in the Cambodian translocal context. Building from five studies undertaken between 2014 and 2022, we illustrate our argument through a two-pronged approach. First, we critically unpack the e…
Social and Spatial Mobility via Education
This special issue examines the way that education relates to young people's aspirations for social and spatial mobility, which we understand as fundamentally intertwined. We propose the concept of “terrains” to capture the contours of inequality, hierarchies of value, and navigational responsiveness shaping their experiences. This framework advances a multidimensional approach to aspiration, highlights the unevenness shaping educational opportun…
Tracking Aspirations
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Cambodia, this article focuses on secondary students who aspire to social and spatial mobility. It examines how a subject‐based tracking system intersects with other facets of the educational landscape to stratify students along class lines. In doing so, it highlights how educational practices rooted in neoliberal logics can bolster some youths' aspirations more than others, but that these inequalities c…
Learning the party line
This article examines the paradoxical relationship between state schools and political parties in Cambodia. To gain electoral support, the ruling Cambodian People's Party controls donations to schools, teachers' behavior, and extracurricular activities. Yet schools simultaneously provide spaces for youth to develop a generational identity that encourages skepticism of the party. I suggest that focusing on political parties provides an important m…
A High Price to Pay
Young people across the globe are increasingly likely to experience waithood—a prolonged period between adolescence and adulthood. Simultaneously, marriage expenses are on the rise. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia, this article examines the relationship between the commercialisation of weddings and waithood. I argue that the high cost of weddings puts intense strain on many rural Cambodian families. Under economic conditions in which …
The Underside of Microfinance
Microfinance is a dominant strategy used to promote rural development around the world. Rather than directly track its impact on borrowers, however, microfinance institutions rely on indicators of financial performance adopted from commercial banking as proxies for positive social impact. Yet, as critical research has shown, the industry depends on coercive peer pressure, social shaming and various forms of gendered exploitation to achieve its hi…
Translocal Precarity
Many people in the Global South have left behind rural homes in search of employment in urban and transnational labor markets often defined by precarious work. Employment is insecure, uncertain, and temporary, and for transnational migrants, there is the constant risk of deportation. Although geographers have studied such migrant precarity, there is an increasing interest in its translocal dimensions, particularly related to how precarious work t…
Precarious Debt
This paper tells a story of debt within a rural Cambodian family in order to understand how microfinance produces more‐than‐individual financial subjects that are entangled in changing social relations of dependency. We draw upon 20 months of joint ethnographic research in Cambodia, where the microfinance industry is one of the largest per capita in the world. Informed by Judith Butler's notions of precariousness and precarity, we argue that even…
Precarious Debt
This paper tells a story of debt within a rural Cambodian family in order to understand how microfinance produces more‐than‐individual financial subjects that are entangled in changing social relations of dependency. We draw upon 20 months of joint ethnographic research in Cambodia, where the microfinance industry is one of the largest per capita in the world. Informed by Judith Butler's notions of precariousness and precarity, we argue that even…
Translocal Precarity
Many people in the Global South have left behind rural homes in search of employment in urban and transnational labor markets often defined by precarious work. Employment is insecure, uncertain, and temporary, and for transnational migrants, there is the constant risk of deportation. Although geographers have studied such migrant precarity, there is an increasing interest in its translocal dimensions, particularly related to how precarious work t…
The Underside of Microfinance
Microfinance is a dominant strategy used to promote rural development around the world. Rather than directly track its impact on borrowers, however, microfinance institutions rely on indicators of financial performance adopted from commercial banking as proxies for positive social impact. Yet, as critical research has shown, the industry depends on coercive peer pressure, social shaming and various forms of gendered exploitation to achieve its hi…
Tracking Aspirations
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Cambodia, this article focuses on secondary students who aspire to social and spatial mobility. It examines how a subject‐based tracking system intersects with other facets of the educational landscape to stratify students along class lines. In doing so, it highlights how educational practices rooted in neoliberal logics can bolster some youths' aspirations more than others, but that these inequalities c…
Precarious Debt
This paper tells a story of debt within a rural Cambodian family in order to understand how microfinance produces more‐than‐individual financial subjects that are entangled in changing social relations of dependency. We draw upon 20 months of joint ethnographic research in Cambodia, where the microfinance industry is one of the largest per capita in the world. Informed by Judith Butler's notions of precariousness and precarity, we argue that even…
Translocal Precarity
Many people in the Global South have left behind rural homes in search of employment in urban and transnational labor markets often defined by precarious work. Employment is insecure, uncertain, and temporary, and for transnational migrants, there is the constant risk of deportation. Although geographers have studied such migrant precarity, there is an increasing interest in its translocal dimensions, particularly related to how precarious work t…
A High Price to Pay
Young people across the globe are increasingly likely to experience waithood—a prolonged period between adolescence and adulthood. Simultaneously, marriage expenses are on the rise. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia, this article examines the relationship between the commercialisation of weddings and waithood. I argue that the high cost of weddings puts intense strain on many rural Cambodian families. Under economic conditions in which …
The Underside of Microfinance
Microfinance is a dominant strategy used to promote rural development around the world. Rather than directly track its impact on borrowers, however, microfinance institutions rely on indicators of financial performance adopted from commercial banking as proxies for positive social impact. Yet, as critical research has shown, the industry depends on coercive peer pressure, social shaming and various forms of gendered exploitation to achieve its hi…
Learning the party line
This article examines the paradoxical relationship between state schools and political parties in Cambodia. To gain electoral support, the ruling Cambodian People's Party controls donations to schools, teachers' behavior, and extracurricular activities. Yet schools simultaneously provide spaces for youth to develop a generational identity that encourages skepticism of the party. I suggest that focusing on political parties provides an important m…
Remittances as translocal collateral
In this paper, we explore how commercialised microfinance institutions and banks leverage remittance-related information to assess and provide microfinance loans to households in Cambodia. We argue that (microfinance) debt regimes profitably sustain precarity in the Cambodian translocal context. Building from five studies undertaken between 2014 and 2022, we illustrate our argument through a two-pronged approach. First, we critically unpack the e…
Social and Spatial Mobility via Education
This special issue examines the way that education relates to young people's aspirations for social and spatial mobility, which we understand as fundamentally intertwined. We propose the concept of “terrains” to capture the contours of inequality, hierarchies of value, and navigational responsiveness shaping their experiences. This framework advances a multidimensional approach to aspiration, highlights the unevenness shaping educational opportun…
Tracking Aspirations
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Cambodia, this article focuses on secondary students who aspire to social and spatial mobility. It examines how a subject‐based tracking system intersects with other facets of the educational landscape to stratify students along class lines. In doing so, it highlights how educational practices rooted in neoliberal logics can bolster some youths' aspirations more than others, but that these inequalities c…
Cambodian History and Society (5 works) · Political science (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (4 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Geography (3 works) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (3 works) · Precarity (3 works) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography (2 works)