ABSTRACT
The challenge when it comes to interpreting changing rural livelihoods in Southeast Asia is to pinpoint what, exactly, is changing, why and with what consequences for human development. To be sure, much has changed in the region over the last half century. From subsistence and semi-subsistence modes of production, rural households today are thoroughly enmeshed in the market economy, not only producing agricultural commodities for sale but also engaging with a range of other commercial, often non-farm activities. These changes have, in turn, importantly shaped aspirations and cultural norms in the countryside.
