From Oil to Bridge: Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s Assemblage of Act of Adaptation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61462/cujss.v56i1.5070Keywords:
Assemblage, Post-socialism, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, palm oil industry, Thai–Lao Friendship BridgeAbstract
This article aims to study the mechanisms of economic and political adaptation in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic after the socialist era, focusing on explaining the “act of adaptation” through the concept of assemblage. The study explains this mechanism through ethnographic methods, including traveling with oil tankers across the Thai–Lao border via the First and Second Thai–Lao Friendship Bridges to explore the collaborative mechanisms sustaining the Lao socialist state. The data collection for this article was conducted from January 2024 to February 2024. The findings indicate that fuel and the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridges are significant actants in the performance of the socialist state’s adaptation mechanisms. This study suggests that understanding the adaptation of the socialist state requires considering the collaborative assemblage of actants beyond the state, which helps explain the continuity of the socialist identity of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
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