The Akha and Social Suffering: The Unintended Consequences of International and National Policies in Northern Laos
Keywords:
Social suffering, development policies, health, social well-beingAbstract
This article is based on the premise that the study of health should not be confined to physical disease, but should also encompass mental and social well-being. This broad, holistic perspective is exemplified in the theory of ‘social suffering’, a theory that explores the harmful impact that sociopolitical and economic forces (including seemingly benevolent development policies) have on collective and individual experience. The article focuses on the Akha people in two districts of northern Laos, and will investigate the deleterious effects of, and social suffering caused by international and national policies, such as the elimination of shifting cultivation, the resettlement of highland minorities to the lowlands, and opium demand and supply reduction.
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Societies’ in Southeast Asia, Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 215-229.
Alton, Charles and Houmphanh Rattanavong 2004 Service Delivery and
Resettlement Options for Development Planning, UNDP/ECHO, Final
Report Livelihhoods Study, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 30 April.
Alton, Charles, David Blum and Somsouk Sananikone 2005 Para Rubber
Cultivation in Northern Laos: Constraints and Chances, Study prepared
for Lao-German Program Rural Development in Mountainous Areas of
Northern Lao PDR, GTZ.
Baird, Ian G. and Bruce Shoemaker 2005 Aiding or Abetting? Internal
Resettlement and International Aid Agencies in the Lao PDR, Probe
International, Toronto, Canada.
Baird, Ian G. and Bruce Shoemaker 2007 “Unsettling Experiences: Internal
Resettlement and International Aid Agencies in Laos”, Development
and Change 38(5): 865-888.
Bewley-Taylor, David R. 2005 “Emerging Contradictions between the United
Nations Drug Control System and the Core Values of the United Nations”, International Journal of Drug Policy 16: 423-431.
Cohen, Paul T. 2000 “Resettlement, Opium and Labour Dependence: AkhaTai Relations in Northern Laos”, Development and Change 31(1): 179-
200.
Cohen, Paul T. and Chris Lyttleton 2002 “Opium-Reduction Programmes,
Discourses of Addiction and Gender in Northern Laos”Sojourn 17(1): 1-23.
Cohen Paul T. 2006 “Help as a Threat: Alternative Development and the
“War on Drugs” in Bolivia and Laos” Development Bulletin (Development Studies Network), No.69, February.
Cohen, Paul T. and Chris Lyttleton 2008 “The Akha of Northwest Laos:
Modernity and Social Suffering’. In Prasit Leepreecha, Don McCaskill and Kwanchewan Buadaeng (eds) Challenging the Limits: Indigenous Peoples of the Mekong Region”, Mekong Press, Chiang Mai, pp.117-142.
The Economist 2004 Vol.371, Issue 8373.
Evrard, Olivier and Yves Goudineau 2004 “Planned Resettlement, Unexpected Migrations and Cultural Trauma in Laos”, Development and Change 35(5): 937-962.
Gebert, Rita 1995 Report of the Muang Sing Socio-Economic Baseline Survey (April-May, 1995), GTZ, Muang Sing Integrated Food Security
programme.
Gebert, Rita 1998 Opium demand reduction in the Lao PDR: an assessment
of the current situation, strategies and activities, Vientiane, Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision/UNDCP.
GoL (Government of Lao PDR) 2003 The Lao PDR’s National Poverty
Eradication Programme; A Comprehensive Approach to growth and
Equity, Government of Lao PDR, Vientiane.
Ireson, Carol J. and W.Randal Ireson 1991 “Ethnicity and Development in
Laos” Asian Survey 31(10): 920-937.
Kleinman, Arthur, Veena Das and Margaret Lock 1996 “Introduction”. Special Issue: Social Suffering. Daedalus 125 (1):1.
Kleinman, Arthur 1996 “The Violences of Everyday Life: The Multiple Forms and Dynamics of Social Violence’. In Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman,
Mamphela Ramphele an Pamela Reynolds (eds) Violence and Subjectivity”, University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 226-241.
Kleinman, Arthur and Joan Kleinman 1996 ‘The Appeal of Experience; the
Dismay of Images: Cultural Appropriations of Suffering in our Times’,
Daedalus 125(1):1-18.
LCDC (Lao National Commission for Drug Control & Supervision) and UNODC (United Nations Offce on Drugs and Crime) 2006. The National
Programme Strategy for the Post Opium Scenario, 2006-2009.
Lyttleton, Chris and Paul T. Cohen 2003 “Harm Reduction and Alternative
Development in the Golden Triangle”, Drug and Alcohol Review 22:83-91.
Lyttleton, Chris, Paul Cohen, Houmphanh Rattanavong, Bouakham
Thongkhamhane and Souriyanh Sisaengrat 2004Watermelons, Bars and
Trucks: Dangerous Intersections in Northwest Laos, Report, Lao Institute of Cultural Research, Macquarie University, and Rockefeller Foundation.
Lyttleton, Chris (2004) “Relative Pleasures: Drugs, Development and Modern Dependencies in Asia’s Golden Triangle”, Development and Change
35(5): 909-935.
NCA (Norwegian Church Aid) 2007. Village Profles: Long District. Report.
Pheng Souvanthong 1995 Shifting Cultivation in Lao PDR: An Overview of
Land Use and Policy Initiatives, International Institute for Environment
and Development, Forestry and Land Use Series No.5.
Romagny, Laurent and Steeve Daviau 2003 Synthesis of Reports on
Resettlement in Long Distict, Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR, Action
Contre la Faim, June.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy 1986 “Speaking “Truth” to Illness: Metaphors,
Reifcation, and the Pedagogy for Patients”, Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17:137-140.
Singer, Merrill 1990 “Reinventing Medical Anthropology: Toward a Critical
Realignment”, Social Science & Medicine 30(2): 179-187.
Surached Laochaivaj 2004 A Comparative Study of Technical College
Students and Rubber Plantation Labourers’ Attitudes towards
Methamphetamine Use in Chumphon Province, Thailand. MA thesis (Applied Anthropology), Macquarie University.
UNDCP (United Nations International Drug Control Programme) 2000 Country Drug Prole Lao PDR, UNDCP, Lap PDR.
UNDCP 2002 Programme Module Document, Long Alternative Development
Project, UNDCP, Lao PDR.
Weiyi Shi. 2008. Rubber Boom in Luang Namtha: A Transnational Perspective. Study Prepared for Lao-German Program Rural Development in Mountainous Areas of Northern Lao PDR, GTZ.
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Published
2019-02-21
How to Cite
COHEN, PAUL T. 2019. “The Akha and Social Suffering: The Unintended Consequences of International and National Policies in Northern Laos”. Social Sciences Academic Journal, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University 20 (1):83-111. https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jss/article/view/173776.
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