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Turning land into capital? The expansion and extraction of value in Laos

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  • Miles Kenney-Lazar

Abstract

Since 2006, the government of Laos has pursued a policy of “Turning Land into Capital†, which broadly refers to the generation of economic value from the marketization of land, producing not only profit but also government revenue and economic development. The policy's ambiguity raises questions regarding the precise political-economic processes at work and what exactly the transformation of land into capital might mean. Building on Marxist theorizations of land, value, capital, and rent, this paper argues that land under capitalism does not only operate as a rent-bearing asset, in which value is extracted from elsewhere. Land can also be treated as a real form of capital, or capitalized, when its social relations are transformed to facilitate value expansion and act as a store of value mobilized for further investment. It is imperative to investigate how land is used to expand value as capital, extract value as rent, or do both. This paper examines four manifestations of the Turning Land into Capital policy to outline the contours of struggles and contestations over the production and distribution of value in the Lao political economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Miles Kenney-Lazar, 2023. "Turning land into capital? The expansion and extraction of value in Laos," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(6), pages 1565-1580, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:6:p:1565-1580
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X211063493
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fan, Ben & Hua, Xiaobo & Kono, Yasuyuki, 2025. "Transcending banana investments: Unraveling the hidden dynamics of Chinese land investment in Laos," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

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