Webinar | ‘Can You Policy’? Definitions of Policy in Lao PDR & Practical Implications

What does “policy” mean in the Lao context? How do these assumptions affect how governmental policies are interpreted and implemented?

Associate Professor Holly High will discuss the meaning of “policy” in Laos, including its potential origins and misconceptions:

“Drawing on findings from research into the interactions between science and policy in Laos conducted by a team of Lao and Australian social scientists, this paper recounts our finding that one of the key terms in our research question — policy — was prone to misunderstanding as we translated it back and forth between English and Lao. I will argue that these difficulties of translation help us not only to appreciate the differences between English and Lao concepts, but also to see that the Lao concept can be taken as an inspiration for rethinking the role of the good in policy more broadly.”

Dr. Holly High is an anthropologist and Associate Research Professor at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. She has performed fieldwork in Laos, and has held postdoctoral positions at Yale, Cambridge, and Sydney. She uses ethnographic methods and anthropological analysis to understand human experience. She has written about anthropological approaches to debt, power and desire; psychoanalytic theory and anthropology; Lao policy (including cultural, poverty, health and agricultural policies) in relation to lived experience in that country; everyday politics in Laos; emerging infectious disease as an intercultural zone; and religion in Laos. Currently, she is investigating transformations in pregnancy, birth, and early childhood in Laos.

• Eventbrite registration is required to attend the event. https://bit.ly/3wVcspQ
• Ticket: Free – Donation Suggested
• Update: Watch now on YouTube – https://youtu.be/covjSy6Len4