Social Challenges for the Mekong Region

Abstract

This book provides local writers’ perspectives on a wide range of significant, often related, social challenges. They discuss, in a Mekong Region context: international economic integration, the rise of transnational civil society, the relationships between Mekong states and external powers, changing geopolitics, poverty, government policies affecting ethnic minorities, gender inequity, industrialization, labor migration, human rights, HIV/AIDS and drug use, biotechnology impacts on agriculture, uplands land use, fisheries disputes, access to natural resources, state approaches to sustainable development, and the governance of Mekong River and regional infrastructure “development” projects. Neatly summarizing this diversity is neither possible nor desirable. However, one message is clear: Mekong Region challenges require a wider spectrum of regional perspectives to be heard, more learning and, to an extent, concerted action. Show more