The aim of the thesis is to investigate patterns and consequences of internal and international migration in Laos during the period 1985-2005 on both a macro-and a micro-level. The thesis focuses on the influences of socio-economic change and government policies on inter-regional and rural-urban migration as well as on crossborder migration from Laos to Thailand. The study also examines the effects of migration and industrial factory work on gender relations during economic transition and consequences of undocumented migration to Thailand. The background consists of a discussion on socio-economic change within the country and on government policies influencing migration patterns, as well as on how socio-economic change, urbanization and industrialization in the region affect internal and international migration in Laos. The thesis consists of three empirical studies which derive from different sources of data; the first is based on Population Censuses in 1995 and 2005 and the second and the third draw from empirical surveys in 2004-2005 and 2006. Paper I focuses on how socioeconomic factors and government policies influence migration patterns in Laos. The paper found that the interregional migration rate decreased in the later census period. This was due to significantly higher rural-rural migration in the earlier period, which in turn was influenced by various types of government policies. Papers II and III are based on micro surveys; paper II focuses on an urban industrial area in Vientiane Capital and explores the current feminization of rural-urban migrations during economic transition with specific focus on the effects of industrial work on gender roles and status of women as industrial workers. Industrial work was seen by the women as temporary jobs for saving money, for sending remittances, and for either returning home or moving to other jobs in Vientiane or Thailand. Paper III is based on surveys in three provinces, and deals with undocumented migration from Laos to Thailand and its consequences. Different income levels, existing social networks, similar language and socio-cultural backgrounds were determinants of cross-border migrations. The study found that migrants who had contacts with informal brokers were highly exposed to risks of human trafficking and violence.

This thesis looks at the introduction of educational action research as part of the national education reforms in Lao PDR. National policies on education emphasise concepts such as ‘education for all’ and ‘student-centred education’ taken from the globalised education reform agenda. Action research became a tool to implement the new pedagogy of student-centred education that was labelled ‘the five-pointed star’. The thesis contributes to the field of global policy studies. It combines global and contextual aspects in order to analyse how action research travelled from policy to practice. This process was part of a Lao national education reform that developed after the introduction of the new economic mechanism, when the previous socialist planned-economy system was replaced by a globalised market-oriented system. Data were collected from national policy documents, international donor documents, instructional material, and interviews with Lao educators involved with action research in different ways. Furthermore, we carried out action research as part of our own teaching duties in Lao PDR, which were subsequently documented and analysed. In this study of educational reform in Lao PDR we have found that an educational approach like action research that is introduced as part of a taken-for-granted global agenda of change, is reduced to a technical rationality and practices that resemble previous experiences. Our findings are explained from the theoretical perspectives of hidden policy ensembles and policy backlashes. Hidden policy ensembles reduce action research to a technical rationality due to their alien cultural and social connections that are not brought into the open at the reform arena. Policy backlashes become a way for practitioners to create meaning based on previous contextual practices, conceptions, and discourses as a consequence of the technical rationality created by the hidden policy ensembles and the use of the cascade model. The thesis concludes with an outline of a possible future educational development in the form of a critical and educative action research network in Lao PDR that is inspired by cross-cultural dialogue, a critical pedagogy of place, and our own action research experiences.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur två översättare har tolkat och översatt de kinesiska idiom som förekommer i verket Camel Xiangzi skriven av Lao She. Den ena översättningen utfördes av Shi Xiaojing år 1981 och den andra översättningen av Howard Goldblatt år 2010. Utifrån en kvalitativ komparativ metod med hjälp av Mona Bakers sex översättningsstrategier gällande översättning av idiom, har respektive översättares översättning av idiom identifierats och kategoriserats enligt Bakers strategier. Dessutom syftar uppsatsen till att undersöka om det förekommer några likheter och skillnader gällande översättarnas översättningar. Genom att använda två lexikon om översättning av kinesiska idiom kunde 30 idiom i Camel Xiangzi identifieras. Resultatet visade att endast tre av Mona Bakers översättningsstrategier kunde identifieras vid översättarnas översättningar av idiom. De strategierna var: “using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form”, “translation by paraphrase'' and “translation by omission of entire idiom”. Det visade sig även vid översättning av en del av idiomen krävdes det att Bakers strategier kombinerades eller identifierades med uppsatsförfattarens egna konstruerade strategier. Slutligen visade studien att Mona Bakers översättningsstrategier inte alltid lämpar sig vid översättning av kinesiska idiom, vilket delvis beror på kulturella skillnader mellan språken. / The thesis aims to investigate how two translators, Shi Xiaojing and Howard Goldblatt have interpreted and translated the Chinese idioms that appear in the work Camel Xiangzi written by Lao She. Based on a qualitative comparative method using Mona Baker's six translation strategies for translating idioms, each translator's translation of idioms has been identified and categorized according to Baker's strategies. In addition, the thesis aims to investigate whether there are any similarities and differences regarding the translators' translations. Using two dictionaries on the translation of Chinese idioms, 30 idioms in Camel Xiangzi could be identified. The results showed that only three of Mona Baker's translation strategies could be identified in the translators' translations of idioms. The strategies were: “using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form”, “translation by paraphrase” and “translation by omission of entire idiom”. Furthermore the result showed that when translating part of the idiom, Baker's strategies were required to be combined or identified with the essay author's own created strategies. Finally, the study showed that Mona Baker's translation strategies were not always suitable for translating Chinese idioms, which is partly due to cultural differences between the languages.

This study sought to explore the resettlement of Indochinese refugees to their new life in Portland, Oregon. Three basic areas were under consideration. The first area dealt with demographic data: who are the refugees and what are their pasts? The second area focused on aspects of successful resettlement: what do refugees seek in order to consider themselves successfully resettled, and how do their ideas of successful resettlement collate with their present state of resettlement? The third area dealt with the effectiveness of resettlement programs: how have various assistance programs been helpful to the refugees, and are the refugees aware of the community's social services resources?

No description available.

金元之際的中原知識階層所處的是一個大動盪的時代，一方面漫天戰火奪去了無數生 靈性命，破壞了政治、社會秩序；一方面蒙古接替女真，成為中原新的統治者。由於 起初蒙古人並未大幅施行漢法，因此這已不是單純的朝代更替，而是整個政治、經濟 、社會制度的轉變。處於此一時間的中原知識階層他們如何自處、有那些一般性質、 如何協助蒙古可汗治理中原並保存漢文化，這些問題便是本論文探討的核心所在。 本論文研究的時間範圍是從衛紹王即位的大安元年（一二０九）至元世祖建國號為元 的至元八年（一二七一），共計六十二年。凡在大安元年以後去世，並在垤元八年以 前已有所成的中原士人（亦即成長在原金朝統治區域內的土人），恂是本論文研究的 對象。 法國年鑑學派史學家布勞岱將歷史分為三個層次﹕最表層是短期「事件」；中層是持 續較長的「時間」；最底層是綿延可達數世紀的「長時期」。就社會的結構而言，「 事件」只是在社會表面的人文現象；「時期」是數十年就可能改變的社會中層結；「 長時期」則是灴易改變的社會深層結構。就本論文的研究主題而言，金元之際中原知 識階層的言論、作為、以及當時個別的政、經、社結構屬於「時間」的層次；秦、漢 以後古代中國的政、經〉社模式則屬於「長時間」的層次。本論文的研究係從「事件 」層次著手，而逐漸突顯出屬於「時間」的中層社會結構，至於「長時間」層次的探 討，僅略有所及。 金元之際蒙古、西域、中原三大文化和他們的承傳者，彼此間相互的激盪，而中原文 化並未佔盡優勢，但對於元初政體的建構亦有其不可忽視的貢獻。

Charles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly unique, or sui generis. The concept of the sui generis, meaning “of its own kind,” provides a useful lens for examining the novel, as Finney develops not only creatures, but people, which are truly of their own kind, borrowing from existing mythologies, traits of humanity, and aspects of nature, recombining them in a singular way which resists classification. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

<p>This is a story about Lao Pako. Lao Pako is located on a small hill on the southern bank of the river Nam Ngum in central Laos. Four seasons of archaeological fieldwork have yielded considerable amounts of pottery, metallurgical remains, glass beads, stone artefacts, spindle whorls as well as other material and structural information that have created a foundation for interpretation. The archaeological interpretation presents Lao Pako as a place where people came to perform rituals c. 1500 years ago. In these rituals, sophisticated combinations of pottery depositions, infant burials and iron production produced a narrative about what it means to be in the world. Things in and on the ground created, and continue to create, non-verbal sentences about life and death, fertility, decay and worldly reproduction. </p><p>The archaeological interpretation is, however, not the only valid story about Lao Pako. This is a place where spirits are; it is also a tourist resort and a national treasure. These other stories all work to create Lao Pako as a place of interest and are used in this thesis to define the archaeological story, and to visualize the aims and agendas inherent in the production of archaeological knowledge. </p><p>Using the conceptual apparatus of postcolonial and other critical theory, the thesis aims to critically deconstruct the archaeology performed by the author and others. It entails an explicit critique of the deterministic temporal unilinearity that is inherent in the archaeological narrative of the evolution of humankind, as well as against essentialist notions of culture and the dissociation of the past as exotic otherness. Thus, the stories about Lao Pako demonstrate the need to critically revise the role of archaeology in a postcolonial world, and create archaeological stories by which we are touched, moved and disturbed, without resorting to imperialist notions of time and progress.</p>