Work from other poorer countries, as noted above,
reveals that apparently stagnant rural contexts are, in
fact, being profoundly reworked when they are viewed
in livelihood terms. In other words, there is a disjuncture
between the nature of the rural economy (agricultural,
traditional, limited use of modern inputs) and the
character of rural livelihoods (increasingly diversified, ex
situ, and linked to the market). The following discussion
will explore an emerging gap between the usual characterisation
of Laos as a country of subsistence cultivators,
and the suggestion proposed here that for many
rural households commodity production and new forms
of non-farm work are becoming instrumental in sustaining
livelihoods and delineating the poor and the
vulnerable.