Research Project: Economic Transformation and Gender Relations in two Lao Communities: the Cases of Mining in Sepone and Tourism in Vangvieng.

This project focuses on economic transformation and changing gender relations in Lao PDR , more specifically it focuses on the change of economy and gender relation, moving from a command to a market-based economy, in two different parts of the country and in two different sectors of the economy: the case of Sepone Gold Mines Project run by the Australian company Oxiana in Vilabuly District in Savannakhet in the southern part and the case of expanding family tourism businesses in Vangvieng, Vientiane Province, in the central part of Lao PDR.
The over all aim of this study is to examine the change of economy and gender relations which have taken place in Laos PDR since the application of the new economic mechanism in the middle of 1980s, but the focus is given more attentively on local level which emphasize changes on the grass root level, on how people have engaged and handled the transformation of economy resulting from the new economic policy ‘implemented’ by the government.