Selling labor-domain livelihood assets: A qualitative approach to non-subcontracting home-based garment workers in the Lao PDR

Abstract

This article examines how informal household workers selling labor are domain of livelihood assets required as a means to make a living. It is argued that five types of assets are well established in the livelihood work of workers in the Lao PDR (Laos). Qualitative methods were used to collect data, including in-depth interviews with 20 key informants. Contextual content analyses were performed using the ATLAS.ti program. Our main findings indicate that two groups are differently involved in livelihoods work in Laos. The first group of home-based garment workers (kinship, combines, and self-employed) highly transformed the social assets, human assets, and economic assets to achieve their livelihoods. Even selling one's labor involves a high transformation of progressive assets into livelihood outcomes. The second group of home-based garment workers (neighboring and industrial outworkers) were poor at transforming capital assets to achieve livelihoods. Further obstacles including lack of employment opportunities, welfare, and labor protections lead to fluctuating incomes. Finally, the contributions of actively selling labor are presented in the context of the key elements of empirical evidence.