Karen McAllister
Karen McAllister is completing a doctorate in anthropology at McGill University in Montreal. She has conducted research on local environmental knowledge, property rights systems, and community based natural resource management in Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, India and Bangladesh. Karen has worked for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Email: karen.mcallister@mcgill.ca or ke_mcallister@yahoo.com |
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Research on Land-grabbing:
Rubber, rights and resistance: local and transnational land grabbing in northern Laos
My research concerns the introduction of rubber trees from China into highland communities in Northern Laos. Rubber is being introduced as plantation concessions and contract farming arrangements with Chinese companies, and is also being adopted independently by highland farmers who seek to become “modern” and improve their economic status. Land grabbing for rubber is occurring at different and interacting socio-political and spatial scales, involving Chinese companies, state officials, Lao entrepreneurs, and villagers themselves. Land reform policies, intended to improve security of local land rights, have been used to legally free up village territories for lease to rubber companies in the name of poverty alleviation. The connected processes of accumulation and dispossession resulting from planting rubber are occurring along ethnic lines, with some ethnic groups benefiting and others being dispossessed. My research examines the ethnic dimensions and forms of resistance, acquiescence, and conflict arising from property transitions resulting from land grabs for rubber in Luang Prabang Province.
