Gender and household decision-making in a Lao Village: implications for livelihoods in hydropower development

Hydropower development with concomitant changes in water and land regimes often results in livelihood transformation of affected people, entailing changes in intra-household decision-making upon which livelihood strategies are based. Economic factors underlying gender dimensions of household decision-making have been studied rigorously since the 1970s. However, empirical data on gender and decision-making within households, needed for evidence-based action, remain scarce. This is more so in hydropower contexts. This article explores gender and livelihood-related decision-making within rural households in the context of hydropower development in Lao PDR. Based on a social well-being conceptual approach with data from a household survey and qualitative interviews, it focuses on household decisions in an ethnic minority resettlement site soon after displacement, from an interpretive perspective. The article, first, aims to assess the extent to which household decision-making is gendered and secondly, to understand the complex reasoning behind household decisions, especially the relevance of material, relational, and subjective factors. It argues that while most household decisions are ostensibly considered as ‘joint’ in the study site, the nuanced nature of gendered values, norms, practices, relations, attitudes, and feelings underlying these decisions are important to assessing why households might or might not adopt livelihood interventions proposed by hydropower developers.     

Book reviews

Gender and the Built Environment: Emancipation in Planning, Housing and Mobility in Europe. L. Ottes, E. Poventud, M. van Schendelen and G. Segond von Banchet (Eds), Assen, Van Gorcum, 1995, 298 pp, pb, ISBN 9 0232 3027 2 (no stated price)

Baltic Europe in the Perspective of Global Change. Antoni Kuklinski (Ed.), Warsaw, Oficyna Naukowa, 1995, 517 pp, pb, ISBN 83 85505 27 X (no stated price)

Trading Industries—Trading Regions. H. Noponen, J. Graham and A. R. Markusen (Eds), London/New York, The Guildford Press, 1993, x + 310 pp, £16.99 pb, ISBM 0 89862 753 2

Competitive Cities: Succeeding in the Global Economy. H. Duffy, London, Spon, 1995, 190 pp, £24.99 hb, ISBN 0 419 19840 7

De l'atelier au territoire: Le travail en quête d'espace (From workshop to territory: labour looking for new spaces). Thérèse Evette and François Lautier (Eds), Paris, L'Harmattan, 1994, 248 pp, £15.00 pb, ISBN 2 7384 3159 3     

Book reviews

L'avenir des villes — The Future of Cities. Marc Bonneville (Ed.), Lyon Programme Pluriannuel en Sciences Humaines Rhônes‐Alpes, 1993, 176 pp., 100FF, ISBN 2–909604–03–9.

Spatial Policy in a Divided Nation. Richard T. Harrison and Mark Hart (Eds), London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, with the Regional Studies Association, London, Regional Policy and Development Series 2, 1993, 304 pp., £25.00, ISBN 1–85302–103–2.

Les régions qui gagnent. Georges Benko and Alain Lipietz (Eds), Paris: Presses Unwersitaires de France, 1992, 424 pp..

Rebuilding the City: Property‐led Urban Regeneration. P. Healey, S. HDavoudi, S. Tavsanoglu, M. O'Toole and D. Usher (Eds), London: E & F Spon, 1992, 320 pp., £30.00, ISBN 0 419 17280 7 (hbk).

The Embedded Firm: On the Socio‐economics of Industrial Networks. Gernot Grabher (Ed.), Routledge, 1993, 306 pp., ISBN 0–415–07374‐X.

Inner City Regeneration: The Demise of Regional and Local Government. N. Lewis, Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992, £6.99, ISBN 0335086328.     

Bayesian Model Averaging for Spatial Econometric Models

We extend the literature on Bayesian model comparison for ordinary least-squares regression models to include spatial autoregressive and spatial error models. Our focus is on comparing models that consist of different matrices of explanatory variables. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo model composition methodology labeled MC ³ by Madigan and York is developed for two types of spatial econometric models that are frequently used in the literature. The methodology deals with cases where the number of possible models based on different combinations of candidate explanatory variables is large enough such that calculation of posterior probabilities for all models is difficult or infeasible. Estimates and inferences are produced by averaging over models using the posterior model probabilities as weights, a procedure known as Bayesian model averaging. We illustrate the methods using a spatial econometric model of origin–destination population migration flows between the 48 U.S. states and the District of Columbia during the 1990–2000 period.     

Intrasite features distribution as a source of social information: The case of Djaba-Hosséré (Northern Cameroon)

The spatial organization of Dìì settlements has been considered as the reflection of the peculiar social organization of Dìì chiefdoms: a model based on an association of several lineages, most of them being necessary for the working of the whole. The distribution of thousands of surface remains (features and ceramics) located on the eastern foot of the Djaba massif, the site of the eponymous chieftaincy in the early 19th century, together with stratigraphic data, is likely to provide information about the age and the foundation process of a Dìì chiefdom. Following the spatial analysis, we will see that, locally, the growth of political complexity began about the 18th century and that this process may have resulted in the arrival of ‘foreigners’ among one or more of the autochthonous communities, one of what appears to have been strongly involved in metallurgical activities. Archaeological data seems thus to indicate that the foundation myth of the ‘generous foreigner’ shared by most of the Dìì chieftaincies was based on historical events.     

Materializing Identities: An African Perspective

Archaeological approaches to social boundaries are currently emphasizing the dynamic nature of processes thought which individuals construct, maintain, and negotiate their identity. Although the integration of such concepts has led to a more accurate reconstruction of past social boundaries, it has also revealed a need for more sophisticated ways of interpreting material culture. This paper is a step in that direction. Focusing on pottery chaînes opératoires and addressing questions about the salience and scale of particular behaviors, I seek to develop general propositions regarding the relationships between technological styles and aspects of social identity. To that end, I compare African pottery techniques at a subcontinental level and see whether there are recurrent patterns in their distribution and whether these can be related to specific social boundaries or historical processes of group formation.