Places

This chapter suggests that to understand places in Laos we need to view them relationally. This requires attention to the historical construction of Laos as a nation, to spatial dynamics associated with the country’s development, and to geopolitical configurations. This relational approach eschews the tendency in the descriptive geography of Laos to essentialize fixed ideas of ‘timeless’ place and space defined by the country’s landlocked, mountainous and ‘underdeveloped’ features. The chapter starts by considering the very notion of Laos as an entity. The discussion then orients places along a set of axes that sees them defined in relation to one another. The ongoing making of Laos as a modern nation state is evident in projects of territorialization in the name of national development. Given the dependence of the country’s economy on extractive resource projects, the role of resource frontiers receives particular attention. Finally, the chapter explores places in Laos in relation to its neighbours by considering the geographical slogan and aspiration of moving from a landlocked to a land-linked country.