Sociology of the Frontier, Frontiers of Sociology? Ecotourism in Laos and the Social Practice of Resource Production

This presentation departs from the overall concern with the nature of power and the power of nature in current global capitalist society. It focuses on one central product of this society, ecotourism in countries like Laos: frontier economies that, by definition, challenge the well-arranged epistemologies of institutionalized disciplines. I argue that attempts at understanding frontier dynamics must be decidedly sociological, i.e. aware of the dimensions and peculiarities of social practice as the very place where transformations and continuities take form. On the other hand – since theory itself is bound by and thus must reflect the complexities and limitations of time and place – sociology of frontiers must also transcend itself: first, by transcending the inherent bias that “everything is social”, albeit acknowledging that every “thing” is social. Second, just like socio-economic processes “run wild” at the frontier, frontier sociology has to transcend academic boundaries, within and outside the discipline.

Nature reserves are “thick” social facts constituted and maintained by socially organized and differentiated practices, and ecotourism is central in this regard. I analyze ecotourism in Lao nature reserves as a socially organized practice that crosses scales (local-global), dimensions (ecology-religion), and nature relations (subsistence-capitalist) as well as binaries such as “tradition vs. modernity” and “conservation vs. development”, which continue to pre-occupy large parts of environmental thinking and practice. Seeing nature conservation as effective resource production, I suggest a theory of frontiers as social spaces of productive conversion. I will show how a careful, reflexive materialism and an elaborated notion of social practice as the place of symbolic-material crisis regulation provide fruitful methodological grounds for a critical social theory of eco-capitalism. The presentation highlights the challenges and chances for a theory of social nature relations in late capitalism fit to deal with the diverse pitfalls of its frontiers.