Not only is there a degree of intra-household negotiation,
friction and, sometimes, conflict but there are
also sometimes very different views of situations and
events. Take the pump irrigation schemes in Sang
Thong district that have re-vivified the local agricultural
economy. We were interested in exploring how far these
agricultural investments might alter the general progress
of livelihoods by re-focusing attention on farming. In
the group discussion held in Ban Sawai there was little
doubt in the minds of those assembled that if young
people were given the choice between working in Thailand
and working on the fields of Ban Sawai they would
choose the latter. On the basis of this response it might
be assumed that agricultural investments are re-aligning
activities on the village and reducing the need for young
people to cross the Mekong and work in Thailand.
However this group discussion was a gathering of the
great and the good in village terms and did not include
the young. The views of younger villagers were less clear
cut and there was evidence of a divergence of views in
generational terms. Older men and women saw irrigation
as a means of innovating in situ, modernising traditional
livelihood streams through investment in new
technologies. The younger generation were less inclined
to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the
expansion of irrigation and were instead looking ex situ
to meet their livelihood needs. The pressures of modernity
and associated cultural changes were changing the
basis on which the young were making their decisions.