Laos (Lao PDR)

The policy phrase Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is rapidly gaining ground across Southeast Asia (and beyond). Despite numerous policy reports, little is known about how vocational training and education work as sites of practice. This is especially true for informal household-based apprenticeships and privately organized, commercial classroom-based training. Yet, these latter arrangements are numerous, an integral part of the widespread informal economy, and reflecting the fact that homes have retained their productive character in much of the Global South. Combining a village-based perspective (Laos) with an urban-based perspective (Cambodia), we analyse how these informal and privately organized training spaces are situated in rural youth’s gendered lives and shaped by, but also generative of, aspirations of ‘becoming someone’. In addition, comparing informal apprenticeships with classroom-based training leads us to raise some important questions about the implications of the (global) policy emphasis on the standardization and formalization of TVET.

As an incredibly diverse religious system, Buddhism is constantly changing. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism offers a comprehensive collection of work by leading scholars in the field that tracks these changes up to the present day. Taken together, the book provides a blueprint to understanding Buddhism's past and uses it to explore the ways in which Buddhism has transformed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The volume contains 41 essays, divided into two sections. The essays in the first section examine the historical development of Buddhist traditions throughout the world. These chapters cover familiar settings like India, Japan, and Tibet as well as the less well-known countries of Vietnam, Bhutan, and the regions of Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. Focusing on changes within countries and transnationally, this section also contains chapters that focus explicitly on globalization, such as Buddhist international organizations and diasporic communities. The second section tracks the relationship between Buddhist traditions and particular themes. These chapters review Buddhist interactions with contemporary topics such as violence and peacebuilding, and ecology, as well as Buddhist influences in areas such as medicine and science.

Offering coverage that is both expansive and detailed, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism delves into some of the most debated and contested areas within Buddhist Studies today.

Researchers have paid little attention to non-adult child supervision and the prevalence and factors influencing this practice in low-income countries. A better understanding of this phenomenon is needed to inform the development and implementation of policies and interventions to enhance child supervision in those settings. This study explores the prevalence and factors associated with young children being home alone or under the care of another young child in Lao People's Democratic Republic. Using the 2011-2012 Lao Social Indicator Survey (N = 10,740 for the subsample of 'child was home alone' and N = 10,539 for the subsample of 'child cared by another child < 10 years of age'), multi-level Poisson regressions were performed to determine the number of days children under five years of age were home alone or under the care of another child younger than 10 years of age. Large discrepancies across provinces and between urban and rural populations within each province were found. Children living in rural areas were more than five times more likely to be unsupervised than children living in urban settings (incidence rate ratio, IRR 5.2; 95% CI: 1.8-15.2), and children living in rural areas were nearly twice more likely to be under the care of another child than children living in urban settings (IRR 1.9; 95% CI: 1.3-2.8). Age was also a common factor in explaining variation in both dependent variables. Policies aimed at facilitating adequate child care and supervision should consider rurality to increase children's protection.

Since around 2010, contract farming for bananas in northern Laos based on investment by Chinese companies has seen rapid expansion in northern Laos. Much of this has been implemented using the “1+4” model, where the farmers provide land and the companies take on the responsibility for labour, capital, technique and market access, but local governments have become concerned about environmental impacts and contract problems. In this paper, environmental and social impacts resulting from the introduction of banana contract farming, especially the changes brought about in the land use and working patterns of local residents have been studied through field work carried out in Oudomxay Province, northern Laos.

“วัดพู” เป็��ศาสนสถานที่แสดงถึงความรุ่งเรืองของอายธรรมบนที่ราบลุ่มริมน้ำโขงในเขตจำปาสัก และถือเป็นรากฐานสำคัญที่แสดงให้เห็นการก่อร่างสร้างตัวมีพัฒนาการทางสังคมวัฒนธรรม และรูปแบบศิลปกรรมที่เป็นเอกลักษณ์แห่งภูมิภาคเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ จากสังคมบุพกาลที่ดำเนินชีวิตอย่างเรียบง่ายสู่สังคมแห่งอารยธรรมที่มีโครงสร้างสลับซับซ้อนในระหว่างพุทธศตวรรษที่ ๕-๑๘

นักวางผังในสมัยโบราณได้ปรับใช้ลักษณะทางกายภาพของพื้นที่ ให้ตอบสนองต่อแนวความคิดทางศาสนาโดยเปรียบให้ยอดภูเก้าที่เรียกว่า ลึงคปรวต (Lingaparvata) อันเป็นที่สถิตแห่งองค์ศิวะเทพหรือสัญลักษณ์แห่งบุรุษเพศ แม่น้ำโขงก็เปรียบได้กับแม่น้ำคงคา (Ganges River) ส่วนศาสนสถานทางฝั่งซ้ายตรงตำแหน่งปลายอีกด้านของแกน เป็นศาสนสถานแห่งพระรุทรานีอันเป็นศักติของพระอิศวรก็เปรียบเป็นศาสนสถานแห่งอิตถีเพศ ที่ราบลุ่มระหว่างภูเก้าและน้ำโขงอันเป็นที่ตั้งของเมืองโบราณจึงเปรียบได้กับทุ่งกุรุเกษตรา (Kurukshestra) ลักษณะของภูมิทัศน์วัฒนธรรมแห่งนี้ จึงเป็นการแสดงออกให้เห็นอัจฉริยะภาพของการวางผังเมืองที่ตอบสนองต่อจักรวาลทัศน์ และตำนานความเชื่อในลัทธิไศวนิกายแห่งศาสนาฮินดู รวมไปถึงการประยุกต์เอาแนวคิดดั้งเดิมของภูมิภาคที่เคารพ ต่อภูเขาและแม่น้ำด้วย นอกจากการวางผังเมืองแล้ว การวางผังกลุ่มอาคารศาสนสถานวัดพูก็ยังมีความสำคัญ

เนื่องจากเป็นการวางผังศาสนสถานในลักษณะศาสนบรรพตที่เป็นแม่แบบให้แก่ศาสนสถานแห่งอื่นๆคุณค่าของภูมิทัศน์วัฒนธรรมอีกประการหนึ่ง คือ ร่องรอยของมรดกทางวัฒนธรรมประเภทต่างๆที่มีความสัมพันธ์ซึ่งกันและกัน ทั้งศาสนสถาน, ร่องรอยการตั้งถิ่นฐานชุมชน, พื้นที่เกษตรกรรม, เหมืองตัดหิน, เตาเผา, คันดิน, เส้นทางคมนาคม, แหล่งน้ำ และการชลประทาน สิ่งต่างๆเหล่านี้ล้วนประกอบขึ้นเป็นภูมิทัศน์วัฒนธรรมที่ยังปรากฏอยู่ในพื้นที่มานับพันปี แสดงถึงอัจฉระยภาพในการสร้างสรรค์ของมนุษยชาติ และแสดงให้เห็นถึงองค์ประกอบของโครงสร้างสังคม, วัฒนธรรม, วิถีชีวิต, เศรษฐกิจ การปกครอง และการศาสนาของบรรพบุรุษและต้นธารวัฒนธรรมแห่งเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ ศูนย์มรดกโลก องค์การยูเนสโกจึงได้ประกาศรับรองว่าพื้นที่มรดกทางภูมิทัศน์วัฒนธรรมจำปาสักเป็นมรดกทางภูมิทัศนวัฒนธรรม (World Heritage Cultural Landscape) เมื่อปี พ.ศ. ๒๕๔๔ โดยเข้าเกณฑ์ข้อที่ ๓, ๔ และ ๕ ตามบรรทัดฐาน ๖ ข้อว่าด้วยการพิจารณาการขึ้นบัญชีมรดกทางวัฒนธรรมโลก (Criteria for the Inclusion of Cultural Properties in World Heritage List)

คุณค่าดังที่กล่าวมาข้างต้นทำให้เกิดแนวความคิดในการจัดการ และการอนุรักษ์มรดกทางภูมิทัศน์วัฒนธรรมของพื้นที่ โดยหัวใจหลักของการจัดการต้องคำนึงถึงความยั่งยืนของภูมิทัศน์และการดำเนินต่อไปของประโยชน์ใช้สอยในปัจจุบันของชุมชนเจ้าของพื้นที่ โดยมีอิสระในการดำเนินชีวิตเพื่อการพัฒนายกระดับคุณค่า และความมั่นคงแห่งชีวิต ด้วยการอยู่ร่วมกับสภาพแวดล้อมทางธรรมชาติและวัฒนธรรมของตนอย่างยั่งยืน การจัดการและการพัฒนาที่ปราศจากการมีส่วนร่วมของชุมชนมิอาจเป็นการพัฒนาที่ยั่งยืนได้ รวมไปถึงการท่องเที่ยวที่ปราศจากการจัดการที่ดีและละเอียดลึกซึ้งเพียงพอจะกลายเป็นสิ่งที่ก่อให้เกิดผลกระทบต่อภูมิทัศน์วัฒนธรรมและมรดกทางวัฒนธรรมรวมไปถึงการสร้างความอ่อนแอให้กับชุมชนในระยะยาวด้วย

Misunderstandings are not only the foundation of social and cultural anthropology but also a necessity in human communication. This article stresses the productive and creative aspects of misunderstanding. In particular, and in complementation to hermeneutic approaches, it stresses the expansive social nature of misunderstandings. Misunderstandings involve more than two speakers, and it should be the aim of an anthropological theory of misunderstandings to follow them through the lines of communication that they produce. In particular, cultural misunderstandings can be seen as the results of contacts between social systems, as theorized by Niklas Luhmann. One important difference is that between structured and unstructured misunderstandings. Structured misunderstandings employ terms and concepts that the partners in communication seemingly share. They communicate mostly successfully although the concepts they use are only superficially similar. This contrasts with unstructured misunderstandings in which concepts are not shared. Both types are exemplified with data from fieldwork in upland Laos. The examples serve to demonstrate that any solution of a misunderstanding is by necessity partial and full understanding would in fact terminate communication instead of reproducing it. Résumé : Le malentendu n'est pas seulement au fondement de l'anthropologie sociale et culturelle : c'est aussi une nécessité pour la communication humaine. Cet article souligne sa dimension productive et créatrice, ainsi que sa nature sociale expansive, au-delà de – et complémentairement à – une approche herméneutique. Les malentendus engagent plus que deux interlocuteurs ; toute théorie anthropologique du malentendu devrait les suivre à travers les lignes de communication qu'ils produisent. Suivant le modèle théorique de Niklas Luhmann, les malentendus culturels peuvent être interprétés comme résultant des contacts entre systèmes sociaux. On peut distinguer malentendus « structurés » et « non structurés ». Les premiers font usage de termes et concepts que les deux parties communicantes partagent apparemment. Ces parties communiquent pour l'essentiel avec succès, même si les concepts qu'elles utilisent ne sont que superficiellement similaires. A l'inverse, lorsque les concepts utilisés ne sont pas partagés par les parties, on est face à un malentendu non structuré. Les deux cas de figure sont exemplifiés au départ de données issues de recherches de terrain dans les hautes terres du Laos. On verra dans les deux cas que toute résolution d'un malentendu ne peut être que partielle et qu'une compréhension parfaite clôturerait la communication au lieu de la prolonger.

This article is a study of Colin Cotterill’s postcolonial crime series (2004-2016), employing the concepts of time, historical narrative and spectrality. Comprising eleven novels, it features Siri Paiboun, the national coroner of the newly-established Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the novels, not only does supernaturalism constitute a sign of repressed guilt, it also plays a crucial role in offering clues to Siri’s unsolicited investigative enterprise. Nevertheless, supernaturalism transcends the fulfilment of personal needs. It helps reconfigure a shared consciousness among the Lao people, or Lao-ness, via history and time. Its haunting property discloses a possible coexistence of multiple temporalities, and, therefore, poses a considerable challenge to official historical narratives by allowing voices of the oppressed to be heard in counter-narratives.

Throughout history, many different cultures have associated lunar cycles with changes in a variety of human and animal behaviors. In the southern-most part of Laos, in the area known
as "Siphandone" or the 4,000 islands, rural fishers living on islands in the middle of the mainstream Mekong River are especially conscious of the influence of lunar cycles on aquatic life. They associate upriver migrations of large quantities of small cyprinid fishes from Cambodia to Laos at the beginning of each year with lunar phases. This article examines the fishery for small cyprinids in the Khone Falls area, Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Lao PDR, and a five-year time series of catch-effort fisheries data for a single fence-filter trap are presented. These data are then compared with catch data from the bag-net fishery in the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia. It is shown that the migrations of small cyprinids, particularly Henicorhynchus lobatus and Paralaubuca typus, are highly correlated with new moon periods at the Khone Falls. Many small cyprinids migrate hundreds of km up the Mekong River to Khone Falls from the Tonle Sap River and probably the Great Lake in Cambodia. The evolutionary conditions that have led to the behavior of these fish are discussed, and management implications are considered.

The objective of this study was to provide an overview on the use and significance of social media in Laos, and recommendations on how development partners can make better use of this media.  The study involved three interrelated activities:  a desk study, a user survey and face-to-face interviews.

On 23 July 2018, up to five million cubic meters of water plummeted from the reservoir of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam, causing the biggest catastrophic event ever to occur in Laos related to a hydropower dam. But even before the dam broke it was already causing considerable social and environmental impacts, ones that constitute slow violence. Catastrophic and slow violence are, however, not simply separate entities. Rather, catastrophic violence can variously shift into becoming slow violence. This indicates the importance of temporality, and the need to be increasingly vigilant in addressing problems associated with certain types of projects.

Urbanization is driving Southeast Asia’s economies, moving vast numbers of people to urban centers at a pace unheard of in the West. As impressive as these cities are, they bring with them massive problems in terms of sanitation, pollution, income disparity and infrastructure challenges. If the region is to enjoy the benefits of urbanization it will have to balance the old and new, taking advantage of both traditional knowledge and modern technology, writes Bharat Dahiya.

This paper sets out to explore the interrelations between safeguarding migration flows between Laos and Thailand and dual models of migrant brokers’ subjectivity. Within the anti-trafficking community in the Mekong region there is a tacit dual imagery of “insider” and “outsider” categories, where external brokers are associated with “risk,” whereas friends and personal networks within village communities constitute possible avenues for “safe migration.” The Thai and Lao governments have over the past years attempted to legalize migration flows. An important rationale for this—which is advocated by international organizations in the Mekong region and elsewhere—is the claim that legalization will “dry out” a market for dubious brokers, making labour migration safer. This paper suggests that what sustains this “legalization model” is an implicit utilitarian view of migration which projects ideal- type depictions of traffickers and brokers. In light of ethnographic data from the commercial sex industry along the Thai-Lao border, this paper suggests that migration networks do not replace brokers, as brokering services are embedded within these very same networks where legality is appropriated as a resource with mixed results. Yet, although legality is being manufactured through the migration process, both consensual and deceptive recruitment (i.e., “trafficking”) of young Lao women, is taking place within a context where sex workers themselves play a central role as dilettante-brokers within wider informal social networks. In other words, legality does not alter brokering services, but rather the reverse holds true. “Trafficking,” then, is taking place in the very same contexts that are deemed “safe” by anti-trafficking programs.

Unesco’s policies related to World Heritage Sites do not only impinge on buildings, urban structures or natural and urban spaces but on the entire ‘ecology of relations’ between humans, places, objects and materials. It has in particular an effect on economic activities associated with heritage management and tourism.
Based on an ethnographical approach, this chapter examines the case of textile industry in the city of Luang Prabang (Lao PDR) listed in 1995 by virtue of its status as former royal capital renowned for its Buddhist culture and its vernacular architecture interwoven with French colonial influences. Taking examples from villages, market places, night bazaars and art galleries, it focuses on the reconfigurations that textile production, distribution and consumption have experienced over the last fifteen years in relation to the inscription of Luang Prabang as a Unesco world heritage site. It emphasizes notably the reallocation of textiles and spaces through various devices whether commercial, legal or even artistic that had been promoted and funded by international agencies in relation with local technical office linked to Unesco. In this context of renew opportunities that emerge not only at a local or regional scale but also at the national and international, it explores processes of cooperation and negotiation, and also rivalries and tensions that arise among individuals and commercial spaces dedicated to textiles, sometimes in relation to institutions.

Lao artist Bounpaul Phothyzan (b.1979) draws most of his inspiration from his environment and addresses issues relative to land through a multi-media socially-engaged practice that encompasses ecological, social and historical perspectives.

When journalists and political analysts talk about the opium issue in South-East Asia, they usually emphasize the responsibility of the “opium farmers” in the international market of heroin, in particular the responsibility of the Hill-Tribe peoples in too famous “Golden Triangle” . The devastation caused by opium addiction among Hill-Tribes is often exaggerated with the intention of showing the weakness of their “morality” as far narcotic uses are concerned. In this article, the author reveals the diversity of opium uses in Hmong culture (medicine, pleasure, way of committing suicide). Special attention is paid to the social status and the motivations of the users and also to the linguistic expression and perception of the Hmong. Direct and tacit social pressures are also analysed to show the strength of social control in this small and segmentary society. At the end the analysis shows an increase in drug-addiction in some villages, where the family structure is strongly weakened, but it also indicates the awakening of a new sterner morality in some recent messianic movements.

Key words : Hmong, South-East Asia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, opium, opium uses, opium addiction, social pressures, marriage, suicide, history, opium trade.

Until very recently when rivers and streams were essential communication routes in Southeast Asia, the Mekong was the main one. Due to their nature, the Khone Falls (also called Li Phi, ຫຼີຜີ in Lao) form a natural obstacle to navigation and due to its location and topography, Khone Island has always formed the link between the lower and middle Mekong basins. Sometimes located in the middle of a political entity, but more often acting as a natural border between two political entities, the control of Khone Island has always been of strategic and commercial importance for them.
The purpose of this research is to determine what were the peoples, political and social entities of the region through the ages, their interrelationships and what represented the Khone Falls for them (strategic, commercial, religious, asset or obstacle, etc...) to trace the history of Khone Island and the region surrounding it through the ages.
Eventually, I plan to publish the results of this research, to produce a book in Lao for the inhabitants of Khône as well as information panels for tourists and fact sheets for tourist guides.

Khone (pronounced "Kawn") Falls is the site of one of the most important wildcapture riverine fisheries in tropical Asia. Khone villagers have been fishing the area for generations, and have inherited or developed an out standing array of artisanal fishing devices based on intimate knowledge of migratory, feeding and other behavior of numerous fish species. Their traditional fisheries management system is also highly developed. Khone fishing people are confronted by the decline of many species, especially of strongly migratory ones which are the main basis for the fisheries. The small cyprinid fish Cirrhinus lobatus is an ecological keystone species. It is the most abundant fish species in the Khone Falls area, and is usually the first species to migrate upstream in the December-February non-reproductive migratory period. Data on migratory C. lobatus during the June-July reproductive migratory period indicate that the species is a progynous hermaphrodite. Another important cyprinid is the large species Probarbus jullieni, caught mainly in November-January when it is migrating to spawning sites or is actually engaged in spawning activity. The history of the Probarbus fisheries in southern Laos indicates that a long term decline started around 1970, with the introduction of nylon gillnets, and that it increased rapidly after 1991 when markets opened up and fisheries became increasingly capitalized and modernized. Important catfishes include Pangasius macronema and P. krempfi Pangasius macronema is the object of an unusual communal fisheries practiced by the village of Ban Hang Sadam. Pangasius krempfi is a diadromous species, spending much of its life in coastal waters of the South China Sea, but returning to the Mekong River to spawn.

Plans are underway to construct twelve large hydropower projects on the un-dammed lower and middle mainstream Mekong River in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. One of the planned projects is a 30–32 meter–high hydroelectric dam with an expected 240 MW installed generating capacity to be built on the Hou Sahong Channel, less than one kilometer north of the Laos–Cambodia border, in the Khone Falls area of Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos. The project’s objective is to generate revenue by exporting electricity to Thailand or Cambodia. Concerns have been raised about the Don SahongDam(DSD), however. The main ones relate to potential repercussions on aquatic resources, and especially wild-capture fisheries dependent on migratory fish. This article examines the regional implications of the DSD, including possible impacts on food security, nutrition, and poverty alleviation. Fisheries losses in the Mekong Region from the DSD would negatively affect the nutrition of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people, especially in parts of Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand where nutritional standards are already low. Mekong fisheries are integral to food security in the region, and the DSD would make it difficult for governments, especially in Laos and Cambodia, to reach their health-related United Nations Millennium Development Goals and their objectives for reducing poverty.

This was the beginning of the "Laoization" of education in Laos under the Royal Lao Government.  USAID provided direct assistance to the Ministry of Education for improving school buildings, supplying instructional materials, revising and re-translating textbooks from French into Lao (referred to as "Laoization"), and training of teachers and school inspectors in the United States.  In this document the American influence can also be seen in a more practical and less academic curriculum and instruction to teachers, breaking with the elitist French education tradition.

Catalog Description: The main purpose of ASAM151W is to introduce students to the conventions of academic writing and critical thinking. Students will learn Anthropological and Sociological techniques of academic writing through the lens of Asian American foodways that explore the political, economic, religious, social, and cultural context of food in Asia and Asian American Studies. Course Description: This course offers an introduction to writing at the upper-division level on the topic of Asian Foodways and considers how globalization shapes Asian Foodways. The main purpose of ASAM151W is to introduce students to the conventions of academic writing and critical thinking. Students will learn writing techniques from the field of Anthropology and Sociology. We will explore various facets of writing, using the subject of Asian and Asian American Foodways, farmers/producers, consumers, and innovators. Additionally, we will go over the pivotal roles of Asian global foodways seen in tea, noodles, siracha, soy sauce, and other food items.

This article analyzes the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policy process, through the lens of state territorialization in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos). It explores the motivations, mechanisms and strategies that drive REDD+ policy design and its implementation in the country. The provinces selected for REDD+ activities within the Emission Reduction (ER) Program, as well as the various REDD+ pilot projects are located in the north, where shifting cultivation is widespread, but where the potential for REDD+ to address deforestation and carbon sequestration is not optimal. The provinces with high carbon sequestration potential and high rates of deforestation are not part of the ER Program due to development investment projects and political sensitivity in those areas. REDD+ acts as a tool for state territorialization in a number of ways, including: (i) by targeting the areas where shifting cultivation is widely practiced, aiming to regulate village forest uses and users, (ii) by protecting state political, economic and development goals and strategies, (iii) by leaving the profitable large-scale drivers of deforestation unaddressed, including large-scale land investments, hydropower, infrastructure and mining development, and finally (iv) by providing additional motives, tools and discourses for state territorialization, including funding, technologies and the narratives that support it. I highlight, however, that REDD+ is not the sole reason for state territorial politics and practices. Rather, the instrument is layered over previous histories of colonial and post-colonial territorialization processes, continuing a similar logic, rhetoric and management practices. The REDD+ design and its technical orientation, however, appear to provide additional motives, as well as a new pool of resources, technical assistance and technologies that intensify the practice and politics of state territoriality in Laos.

Cet article analyse le processus politique REDD + (réduction des émissions résultant de la déforestation et de la dégradation des forêts) à travers le prisme de la territorialisation de l'État en République démocratique populaire lao (Laos). Il explore les motivations, les mécanismes et les stratégies qui guident la conception de la politique REDD + et sa mise en oeuvre dans le pays. Les provinces sélectionnées pour les activités REDD + dans le cadre du programme de réduction des émissions, ainsi que les divers projets pilotes REDD +, sont situés dans le nord, où la culture itinérante est répandue, mais où le potentiel de REDD + pour lutter contre la déforestation et la séquestration du carbone n'est pas optimal. Les provinces à fort potentiel de séquestration de carbone et à taux de déforestation élevés ne font pas partie du programme de réduction des émissions, en raison de projets d'investissement dans le développement et de la sensibilité politique dans ces domaines. La REDD + agit comme un outil de territorialisation de l'État de plusieurs manières, notamment: (i) en ciblant les zones où la culture itinérante est largement pratiquée, dans le but de réglementer les utilisations et les utilisateurs de forêts locales, (ii) en protégeant les objectifs politiques, économiques et de développement et stratégies de l'État, en laissant de côté les facteurs de déforestation rentables à grande échelle, notamment les investissements fonciers à grande échelle, l'hydroélectricité, le développement des infrastructures et de l'exploitation minière, et enfin (iii) en fournissant des motivations, des outils et des discours supplémentaires en faveur de la territorialisation de l'État, notamment: financement, les technologies et les récits qui le soutiennent. Je souligne toutefois que la REDD + n'est pas la seule raison des politiques et des pratiques territoriales de l'État. Au contraire, l'instrument se superpose aux histoires antérieures de processus de territorialisation coloniale et postcoloniale, poursuivant ainsi une logique, une rhétorique et des pratiques de gestion similaires. La conception de la REDD + et son orientation technique semblent toutefois fournir des motifs supplémentaires, ainsi qu'un nouveau pool de ressources, une assistance technique et des technologies modernes qui intensifient la pratique et les politiques de la territorialité des État au Laos.

Este artículo analiza el proceso de política del mecanismo de Reducción de Emisiones por Deforestación y Degradación de Bosques (REDD+), a través de los lentes de la territorialización del estado en la República Democrática Popular Lao (Laos). El artículo explora las motivaciones, mecanismos y estrategias que impulsan el diseño de política e implementación de REDD+ en el país. Las provincias seleccionadas para las actividades de REDD+ dentro del programa de Reducción de Emisiones (RE), así como los diferentes proyectos piloto se encuentran ubicadas en el norte del país, región en donde se encuentran extendidas actividades de cultivos itinerantes, pero donde el potencial de REDD+ en deforestación y secuestro de carbono no es óptimo. Las provincias con alto potencial de secuestro de carbono y altas tasas de deforestación no son parte del programa de RE debido al desarrollo de proyectos de inversión y asuntos de sensibilidad política en dichas áreas. REDD+ actúa como herramienta para la territorialización del estado en múltiples maneras, incluyendo (i) apuntando a las áreas dónde los cultivos itinerantes son extensamente practicados, aspirando a regular tanto usos de los bosques aldeanos como de sus usuarios, (ii) protegiendo los objetivos y estrategias del estado en el de desarrollo político y económico, dejando sin atender a los grandes motores de la deforestación lucrativa, incluyendo desarrollos a gran escala de inversiones sobre la tierra, proyectos hidroeléctricos y de desarrollo de infraestructura y minería; y, finalmente (iii) en proveer motivos, herramientas y discursos adicionales para la territorialización estatal incluyendo financiamiento, tecnologías y narrativas para respaldarla. Sin embargo, en este artículo resalto que REDD+ no es la única razón para motivar las políticas y prácticas del estado territorial. Más bien, este instrumento se encuentra revestido de capas de historias previas de procesos coloniales y postcoloniales de territorialización, continuando una lógica similar y prácticas de manejo. El diseño de REDD+ y su orientación técnica, sin embargo, parecen proveer motivos adicionales, así como un nuevo conjunto de recursos, asistencia técnica y tecnologías modernas que intensifican las prácticas y políticas de la territorialización estatal en Laos.

Phu Thai, a PH language belonging to the Southwestern branch of the Tai family, is now well documented, and the areas where its varieties are spoken are identified. Described as a “displaced language” in the language hierarchy of Thailand proposed by William A. Smalley (1994), it however enjoys a high sociolinguistic status both in Northeastern Thailand and Central Laos. The places where Phu Thai speakers of Thailand claim to hail from (the toponyms of some of them being sometimes a part of present-day surnames) belong to a specific area of Central Laos (Vilabouly district and its surroundings in both Savannakhet and Khammouane provinces). The fact that quite a few distinct varieties of Phu Thai are still spoken in that area may suggest an “area of greatest diversity” for Phu Thai, and a natural move by some Phu Thai individuals as well as scholars doing research on Phu Thai has been to search for the Phu Thai and their language there.

Among the particularities of Phu Thai in Northeastern Thailand, one can find lexical items claimed by Phu Thai speakers as belonging specifically to their language. Most of these terms actually have cognates in other PH languages (in Lao, not in Thai) and in P languages of the Southwestern Tai group. This presentation will refer to a few cognates and other features shared by Phu Thai and Tai languages labeled as Tai Daeng or Tai Moei by their speakers (who occasionally call themselves Phu Tai), keeping in mind Michel Ferlus’ linguistic argument (the coalescence in the DL column) pointing to an origin of Phu Thai in “Tai Muong and Tai Yo regions of Nghệ An” (Ferlus 2008), if not from a broader area of language contacts (between PH languages and P languages as well as between Southwestern Tai languages and languages showing a Northern Tai substratum such as Tai Yo and Saek) in upper Central Vietnam.

In the case of present-day Phu Thai, contacts with other languages (prima facie Lao in its varieties spoken in Central Laos as well as Isan and Central Thai in Northeastern Thailand) remain a relevant feature. Whether in the Phu Thai “original” area of Central Laos or in its more recent locations of Northeastern Thailand, one can find, along with Phu Thai, a few Northern Katuic dialects known locally as Bru, So or Katang. Some aspects of the nonreciprocal linguistic relationship between Phu Thai and these Katuic languages, such as the absence of Austroasiatic substratum words in Phu Thai, will be introduced. Even though mainland Southeast Asia as a “linguistic area” has witnessed a good deal of syntactic convergence, a possible case of syntactic convergence between Phu Thai and Northern Katuic dialects will be discussed.

References
- Ferlus, Michel. 2008. The Tai Dialects of Nghê An, Vietnam (Tay Daeng, Tay Yo, Tay Muong). The Tai-Kadai Languages, edited by Anthony V.N. Diller, Jerold A. Edmondson and Yongxian Luo, 298-316. London and New York, Routledge. (in French)
- Smalley, William A. 1994. Language Diversity and National Unity : Language Ecology in Thailand. Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press.