Capitalizing on Compensation: Hydropower Resettlement and the Commodification and Decommodification of Nature–Society Relations in Southern Laos

Abstract

Compensation programs for hydropower dam resettlement have far-reaching effects, including restructuring nature–society relations in support of capital accumulation. Although critical scholarship has shown the structural limitations of compensation programs for reducing poverty after resettlement, here we draw on the specific case of the Xepian-Xenamnoy hydroelectric dam project in the Xekong River Basin in southern Laos to explore the transformation of nature–society relations among the Heuny people. We argue that the compensation processes of valuation, abstraction, and privatization of property relations have contributed to the variegated commodification of land and other natural resources used by the Heuny. In contrast to arguments that capitalist expansion leads to ever increasing commodification, however, we demonstrate that compensation variously decommodifies other natural resources, such as certain nontimber forest products and wild fisheries, keeping other things, such as swidden fields and forest land, noncommodified. Moreover, these processes of variegated commodification are spatially variable, largely dependent on Heuny conceptions of space, thus affecting the commodification of land and other natural resources. Ultimately, by linking compensation to processes of (de)-commodification in its various forms, we suggest new ways in which capitalist social relations are being transformed and expanded through hydropower-induced resettlement. Furthermore, we call into question the ability of material compensation to restore previous livelihood and environmental conditions, as changes brought on by the compensation process itself have much deeper and profound implications when it comes to nature–society relations.

水电站大坝再安置的赔偿计画, 有着深远的影响, 包括再结构自然社会关係以支持资本积累。尽管批判学术研究已揭露赔偿计画对于降低再安置后的贫穷问题之结构性侷限, 我们仍于此运用老挝南方湄公河谷的 Xepian-Xenamnoy 水电站大坝计画之特定案例, 探讨少数民族 Heuny 的自然社会关係变迁。我们主张, 对于财产关係进行估价、抽象化和私有化之补偿计画, 已导致少数民族 Heuny 所使用的土地及其它自然资源的多样商品化。但与资本主义扩张导致不断的商品化之主张不同的是, 我们证明补偿计画对诸如若干非木材的森林产物与野生渔业等其他自然资源各别进行去商品化, 并让诸如游耕地和林地等其他事物保持非商品化。此外, 这些多样的商品化过程, 在空间上具有变异, 并大幅取决于少数民族 Heuny 对于空间的概念, 因而影响土地与其他自然资源的商品化。最终, 我们透过将补偿连结至具有多样形式的 (去) 商品化过程, 提出资本主义社会关係透过水力发电所引发的再安置进而改变与扩张的新方式。再者, 我们质疑物质补偿对于恢復过往生计和环境条件的能力, 因为补偿过程本身所带来的改变, 对自然—社会关係有着深刻且深厚的意涵。

Los programas de compensación por concepto de reasentamiento inducido por embalses para hidroenergía tienen efectos de largo alcance, incluso la reestructuración de las relaciones naturaleza-sociedad en soporte de la acumulación de capital. Aunque la erudición crítica ha mostrado las limitaciones estructurales de los programas de compensación para reducir la pobreza después del reasentamiento, aquí nos basamos en el caso específico del proyecto de la presa hidroeléctrica de Xepian-Xenamnoy en la cuenca del Río Xekong, en el sur de Laos, para explorar la transformación de las relaciones naturaleza-sociedad entre el pueblo Heuny. Sostenemos que los procesos de compensación de tasación, abstracción y privatización de las relaciones de propiedad han contribuido a la abigarrada comodificación de la tierra y de otros recursos naturales usados por los Heuny. En contraste con argumentos que sostienen que la expansión capitalista conduce a un permanente incremento de la comodificación, sin embargo, demostramos que la compensación de diversas maneras decomodifica otros recursos naturales, tales como ciertos productos forestales no maderables y la pesca silvestre, conservando otras cosas sin comodificación, tales como los campos de agricultura de roza y las tierras de bosques. Más aun, estos procesos de comodificación variada son espacialmente variables, en gran parte dependientes de las concepciones del espacio de los Heuny, afectando así la comodificación de la tierra y de otros recursos naturales. Por último, al ligar la compensación con procesos de (de)comodificación en sus varias formas, sugerimos nuevas maneras como las relaciones sociales capitalistas están siendo transformadas y expandidas por medio del reasentamiento inducido por la hidroenergía. Además, cuestionamos la capacidad de la compensación material para restablecer la subsistencia previa y las condiciones ambientales, en cuanto los cambios que llegan con el proceso de compensación en sí mismo tienen implicaciones más graves y profundas cuando se trata de las relaciones naturaleza-sociedad.

Key Words:

• commodification and decommodification
• compensation
• hydropower dams
• Laos
• resettlement

关键词：:

• 商品化与去商品化, 补偿, 水电站大坝, 老挝, 再安置。

Palabras clave:

• comodificación y decomodificación, compensación, represas de hidroenergía, Laos, reasentamiento

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank director Darren Daley and his colleagues at the Global Association for People and the Environment (GAPE) for their support. Tanya Lee from International Rivers also provided helpful information. Katie Hardwick (Figure 1) from the Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin–Madison and Tanya Lee and Daniel F. Jager (Figure 2) from International Rivers prepared the maps. The first author's Master's committee members Katherine Bowie and Matthew D. Turner provided essential time and feedback in the early stages. The article benefited from comments from our fellow 2015 AAG Annual Meeting panel participants Noah Quastel, Dinesh Paudel, Nick Zeller, and Kanokwan Manorom, as well as five anonymous reviewers for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Derek Hall also helped inspire our engagement with the concept of decommodification. Any remaining deficiencies are our own. The research was supported through the “Fish and Fisheries Impacts on Hydropower Dams on Tributary Rivers in the Mekong Basin of Laos Project,” which was funded by the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation.

Notes

1 The Heuny are known as the Nya Heun in the Lao language.

2 The Jrou are known as the Laven in the Lao language.

3 Focal site projects were a key land reform measure introduced in the mid-1990s that the GoL used to relocate ethnic minorities into more concentrated villages to more easily deliver infrastructure and welfare services (Ducourtieux, Laffort, and Sacklokham 2005; Baird and Shoemaker 2007).

4 The company is composed of Korea's SK Engineering and Construction (26 percent of shares), Korea Western Power (25 percent of shares), Thailand's Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, PCL (25 percent of shares), and the Lao Holding State Enterprise (24 percent of shares; PNPC 2014).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

W. Nathan Green

W. NATHAN GREEN is a Doctoral Student in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the political ecology of hydropower development in the Lower Mekong Basin, as well as the effects of microfinance on land relations in Cambodia.

Ian G. Baird

IAN G. BAIRD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706. E-mail: [email protected]. His interests include hydropower dam development in the Mekong River Basin and large-scale plantation land concessions, political conflict and insurgency, and indigeneity in Southeast Asia.