Labor relations in rural Laos: Lao peasant’s moral economy and the ethic of the business owners

This article examines the norms and the values introduced into the relations established between employers and employees, peasants and Laotian and Chinese entrepreneurs, as that which is being developed these last ten years in Northern Laos. Through some examples of ethnographic surveys conducted in the lowlands of Phongsaly Province, the article shows the importance for Lao entrepreneurs to establish reciprocal relations to save the “face” of their employees, as a substitute for the old horizontal relations of cooperation between peasants.