Consumption of Local Food and Social Changes in Vientiane in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

This article aims to reflect the relationship between social changes and changes in local food consumption among the young generation of Lao people in Vientiane in the Lao PDR, where everyone faces the influence of economic changes and globalization. The result of this research indicates that the Lao younger generation has developed knowledge, eating patterns, and attitudes towards local food that are different from those of their ancestors. They have changed ways of eating to respond to new trends in the society by having better quality food, eating less local food, and creating their own hybrid style of modern and local food. Moreover, this behavior has in turn spread to other groups of consumers in Laos. This behavior pattern is regarded as paradigm shifts in order to not only maintain local culture but also to adapt to modernization, which has resulted from the rapid growth of capitalism in the era of globalization.