Changes in the character of the political regime in Laos after 2000, a massive influx of foreign investment, and disruptions to rural life arising from improved communications and new forms of mobility within and across the borders have produced a major transformation across the country. Witnessing these changes, a group of scholars carried out studies that document the rise of a new social, cultural and economic order. The contributions to this volume draw on original fieldwork materials and unpublished sources, and provide fresh analyses of topics ranging from the structures of power to the politics of territoriality and new forms of sociability in emerging urban spaces.
“In Changing Lives in Laos, Vanina Bouté and Vatthana Pholsena have assembled an invaluable collection of papers on Laos by key established and emerging scholars of the country. While Laos remains under-studied compared to most of the region, these chapters show an increasingly thorough engagement with people and places and a better understanding of the texture of transition and transformation.”
Jonathan Rigg, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore
“This new book on Laos, edited by two leading specialists on this country, features articles by a new generation of historians, anthropologists, geographers and political scientists. Studying state formation, new economic trends, and issues such as the cultural integration of ethnic minorities and rural migration, this interesting book brilliantly demonstrates how in less than fifty years Lao society has been deeply transformed.”
Yves Goudineau, Director of the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO), Chair in Comparative Anthropology of Southeast Asia (Paris)
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
Vanina Bouté and Vatthana Pholsena
PART I: STATE FORMATION AND POLITICAL LEGITIMATION
2. The History and Evolution of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party
Martin Rathie
3. Shaping the National Topography: The Party-State, National Imageries, and Questions of Political Authority in Lao PDR
Oliver Tappe
4. ‘Special Operation Pagoda’: Buddhism, Covert Operations, and the Politics of Religious Subversion in Cold-War Laos (1957-60)
Patrice Ladwig
5. War Generation: Youth Mobilization and Socialization in Revolutionary Laos
Vatthana Pholsena
6. Socialist Pathways of Education: The Lao in East Germany
Nicole Reichert
PART II: NATURAL RESOURCE GOVERNANCE AND AGRARIAN CHANGE
7. The Poltical Ecology of Upland/Lowland Relationships in Laos since 1975
Olivier Évrard and Ian G. Baird
8. The New ‘New Battlefield’: Capitalizing Security in Laos’ Agribusiness Landscape
Michael B. Dwyer
9. Reaching the Cities: New Forms of Network and Social Differentiation in Northern Laos
Vanina Bouté
PART III: ETHNIC MINORITIES ENGAGING WITH MODERNITY
10. Ethnic Belonging in Laos: A Politico-Historical Perspective
Grégoire Schlemmer
11. Piglets Are Buffaloes: Buddhification and the Reduction of Sacrifices on the Boloven Plateau
Guido Sprenger
12. Rubber’s Affective Economies: Seeding a Social Landscape in Northwest Laos
Chris Lyttleton and Yunxia Li
PART IV: IN SEARCH OF OPPORTUNITIES: MOVING ACROSS AND OUTSIDE THE COUNTRY
13. Migration and Mobility in Laos
Sverre Molland
14. Patterns and Consequences of Undocumented Migration from Lao PDR to Thailand
Kabmanivanh Phouxay
15. Textiles Economy in Laos: From the Household to the World
Annabel Vallard
Bibliography
Contributors
Index