Rethinking Rural Schooling in Laos: From a deficit perspective to patchworked mobilities, the state, and the trope of remoteness

By combining insights from mobilities studies and the anthropology of the state and
development, conceptual space is created for thinking about the social effects of the
diverse sets of mobilities underpinning and related to rural schooling. This includes
realising the state as a social relationship. Thereby, this article goes beyond a common
deficit perspective on rural schooling. Drawing on ethnographic data, I show how
diverse mobilities involving different sets of actors are valued and recognised differently,
in part, because of their particular relation to constructs of remoteness, the
state, and visions about rural futures.