Road development, and changes in livelihood and mobility in Savannakhet, Lao PDR

Abstract

The development of roads is a major focus of development projects in the Mekong Sub-Region. This empirical study was conducted in Savannakhet, Lao PDR, to examine the benefits of road development, its impact on livelihoods, and the link between livelihoods and mobility through the concept of sense of place. The results showed that road development affected people's livelihoods, which, in turn, affected their sense of place and mobility. Analysing sense of place allows us to understand how road development can change gender norms and why more women migrate than men.

Le développement des routes constitue un important axe des projets de développement dans la sous-région du Mékong. Cette étude empirique a été menée à Savannakhet, en RDP lao, pour examiner les avantages du développement des routes, son impact sur les moyens de subsistance et le lien entre les moyens de subsistance et la mobilité grâce au concept du sentiment d'appartenance. Les résultats ont montré que le développement des routes a eu une incidence sur les moyens de subsistance des personnes, ce qui a eu un effet sur leur sentiment d'appartenance et leur mobilité. En analysant le sentiment d'appartenance, il nous est possible de comprendre comment le développement des routes peut modifier les normes de genre et pourquoi les femmes sont plus nombreuses à migrer que les hommes.

En los proyectos de desarrollo realizados en la subregión del Mekong, la construcción de carreteras constituye una importante área de atención. El presente estudio empírico, destinado a examinar los beneficios ligados a la construcción de carreteras, su impacto en los medios de vida y el vínculo entre medios de vida y movilidad, empleando para ello el concepto de “sentido de lugar”, se llevó a cabo en Savannakhet, rdp Lao. Los resultados dan cuenta de que la construcción de carreteras afectó los medios de vida de las personas, los cuales, a su vez, afectaron su sentido de lugar y su movilidad. El análisis del sentido de lugar permite comprender cómo la construcción de carreteras puede cambiar las normas vinculadas al género y las razones por las cuales las mujeres migran más que los hombres.

Keywords:

• Gender and diversity
• Labour and livelihoods – Migration
• Aid – Development policies

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Veena N. for her help in editing the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Royal Thai Government scholarship via the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).

Notes on contributors

Tanaradee Khumya is a PhD candidate in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Pathumthani, Thailand. She has an MA in Social Development from University of East Anglia, UK, an MA in Demography from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and a BA in Sociology & Anthropology from Kasetsart University, Thailand. Her research interests include gender and mobility, aging, and rural development.

Kyoko Kusakabe is an Associate Professor in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Pathumthani, Thailand. She teaches postgraduate courses, and carries out research and outreach activities in the area of economic empowerment of women, focusing on various countries in Asia. Her recent research is on gender issues in labour migration, mobility and border studies. She also works on gender in fisheries, especially in relation to small-scale border trade. Her publications include: Thailand's Hidden Workforce: Burmese Women Factory Workers (2012), Transformations of Indigenous People's Lives and Livelihoods: Mobilities in China, Laos, and India (2013), and Gender, Road and Mobility in Asia (2012).

Notes

1. The sample size was determined from the total number of households in the three selected villages (236) using the formula of Arkin and Colton (1950, 22–23). In this study, the expected rate of occurrence is assumed to be not less than 85% (p) at 95% confidence level with a precision level of ± 4%. The sample size was 102 households and for each village it was calculated using a proportion of households from the total number of households in the three villages.

2. Lao PDR consists of an official 68 ethnicities that fall under four broad language families: the Lao-Tai, the Mon-Khmer, the Hmong-Mien, and the Chinese-Tibetan. The main three ethnic categories are: Lao Loum, lowland Laotians constituting the majority of the Lao population in the Lao-Tai language family; Lao Theung, highland Laotians of the Austro-Asiatic linguistic family; and Lao Soung, Laotians living in the tops or upper slopes of the mountains in north Laos. Loa Soung are Hmong-Mien people of the Austro-Thai language family and Sino-Tibetan language family (International Fund for Agricultural Development 2012). The Katangs in this study are classified as Lao Theung.

3. Charcoal production has increased rapidly as knowledge of production has spread from house to house. Lao and Thai tourists who pass by the village buy charcoal and other forest products to take back to Thailand using pick-up trucks. Vietnamese clients also come to the on-road village just to buy charcoal and other forestry products.