Paper short abstract:

Leveraging ethnographic data from a hydropower resettlement site in north-western Laos, this study primarily aims to analyze how various relocated youngsters from different socioeconomic backgrounds have confronted the new (im)mobilities of hydro/electric infrastructures.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last three decades, there has been a growing number of commissioned hydroelectric dams in Laos. Such proliferation has also caught the interest of numerous development practictioners and social scientists. While many Lao scholars have already investigated the adverse effects of development-induced displacement on relocated households, they have been recticent about how new hydro/electric infrastructures (i.e., electricity, roads, internet, livelihood reconstruction programs, etc.) have impinged upon the lives of young ressettled villagers. These infrastructures—both material and nonmaterial—unevenly distribute new resources, thereby facilitating new opportunities, new physical and social mobilities, and new marginalizations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from a hydropower resettlement site in north-western Laos, this study primarily aims to analyze how various resettled youngsters have confronted the new (im)mobilities of hydro/electric infrastructures. It will focus on the narratives of three relocated youngsters who represent different socioeconomic backgrounds within the resettlement. In particular, this study will scrutinize not only the former lives of these young people in old villages, but also their present livelihoods, survival strategies, and possessed capital in the new settlement, as well as their future plans and aspirations. This analysis will unfold the relocation stories of young people who are both winners and losers of the resettlement, or those youngsters who become more abject after the relocation, and those who exploit and enjoy the new hydro/electric infrastructures, respectively.