The production of space through waiting: the Funan Techo Canal and the political economy of infrastructure in Cambodia

The Funan Techo Canal (FTC), is a 150-kilometre megaproject currently underway in Cambodia, partially funded through China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Designed to connect the Mekong and Tonlé Bassac rivers to the Gulf of Thailand, the canal is expected to profoundly reshape regional landscapes in the coming years. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with residents directly affected and facing displacement along the canal’s future route, this article shows how the FTC operates, well before construction begins, as a socio-spatial dispositif that produces space through waiting, uncertainty and anticipation. The article introduces the concept of a political economy of waiting to capture the differentiated temporalities through which infrastructural futures are distributed, experienced and governed. While state actors, developers and elites project expectations of modernization, territorial integration and land-value appreciation, affected communities experience suspended rights, delayed compensation and prolonged uncertainty. By foregrounding the temporal thickness of infrastructure prior to materialization, this article contributes to critical infrastructure and development studies in the Global South. It further advances debates on the temporal politics of infrastructure in South-East Asia by demonstrating how megaprojects govern populations, reshape livelihoods and transform territorial relations long before construction begins.