Living with Transition in Laos Market Intergration in Southeast Asia (Routledgecurzon Contemporary Southeast Asia Series)

241 Pages·2005·2.53 MB·English

by  Jonathan Rigg

Living with Transition in Laos
Laos-the Lao People’s Democratic Republic—is one of the least understood and studied
countries of Asia. It’s development trajectory is also one of the most interesting as it
negotiates the transition from subsistence to dependence, from command to market and,
in the longer term the government hopes, from poverty to prosperity. A node of poverty
lying at the geographical core of the world’s most dynamic region, Laos is being
progressively drawn into the wider Greater Mekong sub-region. The spatial, market and
mental integration of the population of Laos is advancing as boundaries become more
permeable, mobility rises and, more generally, as people are drawn into the mainstream.
Drawing on original field work and unpublished reports, and taking an individual and
household viewpoint, the book examines and assesses the effects of these transitions on
poverty, inequalityp and livelihoods.
Jonathan Rigg is a geographer based at the University of Durham and, formerly, at
the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He has been working on issues of
development in Southeast Asia since the early 1980s, with a focus on agrarian and rural
transitions in Thailand and Laos.
Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia
Series
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Peter Eaton
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Edited by Maribeth Erb, Priyambudi Sulistiyanto and Carole Faucher
Living with Transition in Laos
Market integration in Southeast Asia
Jonathan Rigg
Living with Transition in Laos
Market integration in Southeast Asia
Jonathan Rigg

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York,
NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
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© 2005 Jonathan Rigg
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been
requested
ISBN 0-203-00203-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-35564-8 (Print Edition)
Contents

List of illustrations vii
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvi
List of abbreviations and terms xviii

1 Managing and coping with transitions 1

17
PART I Setting the context

2 New poverty and old poverty: livelihoods and transition in Laos 18

3 Subsistence affluence or subsistence struggle? Unpicking tradition and 40

illuminating the past
4 Poverty, inequality and exclusion 67

95
PART II Constructing the case

5 The best of intentions: policy-induced poverty 96

6 Not in our hands: market-induced poverty and social differentiation 118

7 Making livelihoods work 140

168
PART III Putting it together

8 Muddled spaces, juggled lives 169

Appendices

1 Summary information on published and unpublished field studies mentioned 184

in text
2 Table relating to Chapter 2 187

3 Table and figures relating to Chapter 3 188

4 Tables and figures relating to Chapter 4 191

5 Table and figure relating to Chapter 7 196

Bibliography 198
Index 212
Illustrations
Plates

1.1 Household interview, Sang Thong district (2001) 6
1.2 Participatory mapping exercise, Tulakhom district (2002) 6
1.3 Drawing a timeline, Tulakhom district (2002) 7
1.4 Preparing for a group discussion, Tulakhom district (2002) 7
2.1 The market comes to Sang Thong (2001) 27
3.1 Elephant tusks being carried to market, depicted in the late 46
nineteenth century murals of Wat Phumin in the northern Thai
town of Nan
3.2 Transport in Sang Thong district (2001) 48
3.3 Lowland wet rice fields and upland dry fields, Pak Ou district, 52

Luang Prabang (2002)
3.4 Lowland rice fields, Ban Nam Ang, Tulakhom district, 57

Vientiane (2002)
3.5 Shifting cultivation and cleared hillsides, Pak Ou district, 61

Luang Prabang (2002)
3.6 NTFPs in Vientiane’s morning market (talaat sao) (2003) 64
B3.1 The Lao rural idyll? Ban Pak Chek, Pak Ou district, Luang 45

Prabang (2002)
4.1 A classroom and pupils, Ban Ang Noi, Sang Thong (2001) 88
B4.1 Ban Mae Nam Mai, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand (2000) 84
5.1 Development project, in the form of clean water, comes to Ban 99

Huay Luang, Pak Ou district (2002)
5.2 Buat paa in northern Thailand—the ‘ordination’ of trees as a 105

form of counter-territorialisation (2000)
5.3 Ban Nong Hai Kham, a resettlement village in Tulakhom 109
district where women and men juggle activities to meet their
needs (2002)
5.4 The lowland rice fields of Ban Nam Ang (2002) 115
B5.1 Monastery at Ban Lathahair (2001) 101
B5.2 Territorialisation—a map of village lands, Ban Kop Pherng, 103

Sang Thong (2001)
6.1 The road to Sang Thong (2001) 122
6.2 A rotavator in Ban Kop Pherng (2001) 129
6.3 The Friendship Bridge 134
6.4 Crossing the Mekong to Thailand is becoming increasingly 135

important for villagers in Sang Thong district (2001)
6.5 Having a young family stymies attempts at widening livelihood 137
footprints beyond the local area, Ban Nong Hai Kham,
Tulakhom district (2002)
7.1 New off-farm opportunities for young women in villages like 149
Ban Phon Hai have become important contributors to
household livelihoods (2002)
Figures

1.1 Map of Laos 4
1.2 Map of primary research sites 5
1.3 Map of research sites drawn from secondary sources noted in 10-

text 12
2.1 Economic Performance, Lao PDR (1992–2004) 23
B2.1 The peoples of Laos represented on the 1,000-kip note 29
3.1a Percentage of surveyed villagers who have or are working in 49

Thailand, Saravan and Xayabouri provinces (2001)
3.1b Number and sex of surveyed villagers who have or are 50
working in Thailand, Saravan and Xayabouri provinces
(2001)
3.2 The regional human resource economy: migration routes in 51

the Greater Mekong Subregion
3.3a Sources of income by income class, Hune district, Oudomxai 54

(1997)
3.3b Sources of income by income class, Khanthabouri district, 55

Savannakhet (1997)
3.4 Rice sufficiency on the Nakai Plateau, by ethnic group 60

(1997)
4.1 Estimates of poverty in Laos using the LECS II data set 72

(1997–1998)
4.2 Incidence of poverty, by region (1997–1998) 73