Nickel and dimed in the Lao PDR: a political ecology of ‘Best Practice’ hydropower resettlement
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Crawford Research Seminar
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Rural Lao PDR is being rapidly transformed through a variety of large infrastructure projects. Arguably, it is hydropower that is producing the most intensive changes due to the profound socio-political processes they precipitate, both intentionally and otherwise. The nationally-iconic Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project provides for an illustrative case study of hydropower’s complex and cumulative social-ecological outcomes. Drawing upon detailed empirical field research in the Hinboun Valley, this presentation examines project-linked processes of socio-ecological transformation, focusing on the experience of a specific downstream community. Dr Barney points to the importance of medium to long-term, place-based research for understanding how the cumulative impacts of hydropower development produces social marginalisation through everyday, mundane, but persistent losses of community resources, property and livelihood. An expansion and deepening of the commodity form of nature in rural Laos creates social and ecological ruptures that are not easily addressed - raising fundamental questions about the prospects for the majority of other hydropower projects in the region with weaker standards and oversight.
Dr Keith Barney has been engaged in researching the political ecology of resource development in rural Laos since 2003. Amongst other engagements, he is currently a collaborating researcher on an ACIAR-funded research project entitled ‘Improving Policies for Forest Plantations to Balance Smallholder, Industry and Environmental needs in Lao PDR and Vietnam.’
The Crawford School Research Seminar (CSRS) is a forum for scholars from across Crawford School of Public Policy to share their research and receive input from faculty and doctoral candidates on works-in-progress.
Updated: 30 March 2024/Responsible Officer: Crawford Engagement/Page Contact: CAP Web Team