Paper short abstract:

My paper explores how processes of what I describe as ' NGO legitimacy-making' in forest protection relies upon diverse audience relationships in the local setting which are conflicted and complex in the context of uneven power relations in Cambodia's social and political space.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I explore IENGO legitimacy through representation, by claims of closeness to other actors/audiences. Beetham explains that a democratic based source of NGO legitimacy relies on their capacity to act as representatives of different social groups such as their members and supporters, and marginalised groups and voices (Beetham 2013:276). While INGOs can be said to primarily represent non-human habitants of forests, they often appeal to human concerns as a source of legitimacy, such as Indigenous rights, community participation, and local livelihoods. Criticisms of NGOs include those which accuse them of being too close to more powerful audiences to properly represent the interests of human and non-human inhabitants of forests.

Through a poststructuralist lens, and using empirical research, I explore how INGO-audience relationships are described in formal and informal settings, by INGO workers and their audiences in Cambodia's forest protection. These audiences include the government, bilateral donors, local communities and Indigenous Peoples organisations, media, environmental activist groups. I explore how this aspect of legitimacy-making involves differential normative expectations within INGOs themselves and other audiences and how claims of closeness rely on contradictions, and are contested by INGOs themselves, and their audiences. Thus, I explore how INGO legitimacy through closeness relies on managing conflicts and contradictions in what can be thought of as a juggling act in which some balls are inevitably dropped..