More farmers, less farming? Understanding the truncated agrarian transition in Thailand

Rigg, Jonathan; Salamanca, Albert; Phongsiri, Monchai; Sripun, Mattara

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.03.008

Cited by 107 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This is probably wise, because across Asia, including Laos, non‐farm work enables subsistence farming to persist even when broader livelihoods are thoroughly commercial (Rigg et al. ). Definitions with thresholds do not adequately capture the reality of the continual transformations that underpin rural livelihoods, in which farming is often just one among several household endeavours.…”

Section: Delineating the Peasantrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Failure to understand the co‐production of subsistence and commercially oriented ‘logics’ among smallholders can also create contradictions between policy and everyday practices, when farmers do not embrace promoted technologies, are resistant to maximising production and continue to cultivate holdings that are too small to sustain a living (see Rigg et al. ). As we explore below, and as Evans was sufficiently prescient to anticipate, subsistence orientation in some aspects of rural livelihoods is not antithetical to thoroughly commercial orientation in others.…”

Section: Delineating the Peasantrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Quasi‐‘peasant’ households in Thailand that combine own‐account farming with thoroughly commoditised lifestyles and livelihoods in other respects are observed to have surprising resilience (Rigg et al. ). Our focus in the remainder of this paper is on how Lao peasants navigate new flows that result from the integration of the Lao countryside within the wider Southeast Asian region and beyond.…”

Section: The Lao Peasantry In a World Of Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lao peasants on the move: Pathways of agrarian change in Laos

Cole

Rigg

2019

Australian J of Anthropology

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Grant Evans’ body of work on Laos consistently sought to understand how peasant society responded to political, social and economic change. As the Lao peasantry became ever more integrated both nationally and within the wider Southeast Asian region, and relations of market exchange came to dominate rural life, Evans maintained the need to reflect on Laos’ peasant roots to understand resulting pathways of agrarian change. This paper reconnects with this discussion in the contemporary Lao context, focusing on three dimensions of mobility: the widening spatial and sectoral ‘footprints’ of rural livelihoods; physical movement within and beyond rural settings in Laos; and reflections on issues of differentiation. We first track the political and policy changes that have most strongly influenced rural life since Evans’ early research on collectivisation, before exploring ways in which spatial integration, subsistence‐to‐commercial transition and migration have situated the remnants of Lao peasant society in a world of flows.

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Section: Delineating the Peasantrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Delineating the Peasantrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Lao Peasantry In a World Of Flowsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Lao peasants on the move: Pathways of agrarian change in Laos

Cole

Rigg

2019

Australian J of Anthropology

Self Cite

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“…BRIEF Rural young people are attracted towards urban places for greater (often assumed) opportunities in work and education, but also for 'modern' or new experiences compared to village life (Punch and Sugden 2013; Farrugia 2016). However, much of the work accessed through migration is low return and precarious in countries with weak social safety nets, perpetuating poverty and self-exploitation (Razavi 2009;Rigg et al 2018). Still, off-farm work and remittances are playing greater roles in supporting many rural household economies (Bryceson 1996;Rigg 2006).…”

Section: May 2019 Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

At the intersection of gender and generation: Engaging with 'youth' in the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Clendenning¹,

Elias²,

Basnett³

2019

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“…Despite these efforts, knowledge gaps remain about geographical areas hitherto nearly inaccessible to academic research, and where new fields of enquiry arise from global and regional change processes; e.g., addressed in the literature that explores how remittances and increasingly complex rural-urban links affect livelihood-land relations in rural Asia [9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

et al. 2018

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Livelihoods and agrarian change processes across upland South-East Asia have been explored for decades. Yet, knowledge gaps remain about contemporary livelihood strategies and land dependence in areas previously inaccessible to academic research, such as in upland Myanmar. Moreover, new strands of inquiry arise with continued globalisation, e.g., into the effects of remittances and labour migration on household incomes and livelihoods in distant upland areas. This study applied clustering techniques to income accounts of 94 households from northern Chin State, Myanmar to: (i) Identify households’ livelihood strategies; (ii) assess their dependence on access to land and natural resources; and (iii) compare absolute and relative incomes across strategies. We show that households engaged in six relatively distinct livelihood strategies: Relying primarily on own farming activities; making a living off the land with mixed income from agriculture and forest resources; engaging in wage employment; living from remittances; practicing non-forest tree husbandry; or engaging in self-employed business activities. We found significant income inequalities across clusters, with households engaging in remittance and wage-oriented livelihood strategies realizing higher incomes than those primarily involved in land-based activities. Our findings point to differentiated vulnerabilities associated with the identified livelihood strategies—to climate risks, shifting land-governance regimes and labour market forces.

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More farmers, less farming? Understanding the truncated agrarian transition in Thailand

Cited by 107 publications

References 17 publications

Lao peasants on the move: Pathways of agrarian change in Laos

Lao peasants on the move: Pathways of agrarian change in Laos

At the intersection of gender and generation: Engaging with 'youth' in the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Upland Livelihoods between Local Land and Global Labour Market Dependencies: Evidence from Northern Chin State, Myanmar

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