however, to
make a contribution to the wider discussion concerning
the interplay of farm and non-farm activities, and how
this links to the sustainable livelihoods debate. Finally,
the paper is concerned to pick out the divergent livelihood
trajectories of both villages and households in a
country where rural economy and society are often
presented in simplistic and uniform terms. To this end,
the paper offers a series of sometimes divergent vignettes
of rural life, some drawn at the village level, and some at
the level of the household and individual. This complexity
of experience is reflected in the narrative approach
that we have taken in the central portion of the
paper. We have tried to avoid excessively categorising
and pigeon-holing the lessons from the field sites because
a key point is that to do so would be to gloss over
one of the main outcomes of the research: namely, that
the trajectories and transitions are creating a mosaic of
divergent responses from rural households. It is only in
the final section of the paper that we take a step back
from the minutiae of the local and reflect upon the wider
lessons for Laos and beyond.