This article focuses on the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU): one of the oldest and largest machineries for women's issues in the world. This article explores how this mass membership organisation in a socialist state is currently addressing the realities of women's daily lives and gender relations in Vietnam. It considers the extent to which a mass state-led organisation triggers feminist solidarity. Our research, in one of the local branches of the VWU, examined the organisation's membership rates, programmes and activities, and its gender-equality objectives. We found that the VWU fails to challenge traditional gender norms, actually emphasising women's responsibilities in maintaining a 'happy family'. However, solidarity with the poor is a key concern of the district offices' agenda and many women do actually benefit practically from their projects. We conclude that the VWU's main weaknesses emerge from its hierarchical structure and a centrally planned gender policy, which avoids addressing critical power issues.Cet article se concentre sur la Vietnam Women's Union (VWU), l'une des machines les plus anciennes et les plus conside´rables du monde pour les questions concernant les femmes. Il traite de la manie`re dont cette organisation base´e sur l'adhe´sion de masse dans un État socialiste aborde actuellement les re´alite´s de la vie quotidienne des femmes et les rapports entre les sexes au Vietnam. Il examine dans quelle mesure une organisation de masse dirige´e par l'État de´clenche la solidarite´fe´minine. Les recherches que nous avons mene´es dans l'une des antennes locales de la VWU ont examine´les taux d'adhe´sion de membres a`la VWU, ses programmes et activite´s, et ses objectifs en termes d'e´galite´entre les sexes. Nous avons constate´que la VWU ne parvient pas am ettre en question les normes traditionnelles de genre, et qu'elle accentue de fait les responsabilite´s des femmes dans le maintien d'une « famille heureuse ». Cependant, la solidarite´avec les pauvres constitue une pre´occupation cle´a`l'ordre du jour des bureaux de district, et de nombreuses femmes tirent, de fait, des avantages pratiques de leurs projets. Nous concluons que les principales faiblesses de la VWU e´manent de sa structure hie´rarchique et d'une politique de genre planifie´e au niveau central qui e´vite d'aborder les questions cruciales de pouvoir.El presente artículo se centra en la Unio´n de Mujeres de Vietnam (UMV), una de las organizaciones ma´s antiguas y ma´s grandes del mundo. En este sentido, se examina co´mo dicha agrupacio´n de afiliacio´n masiva esta´enfrentando las realidades de las vidas cotidianas de las mujeres y las relaciones de ge´nero en el Estado socialista de Vietnam. Asimismo, el artículo analiza hasta que´punto una organizacio´n de masas dirigida por el Estado, puede incentivar la solidaridad feminista. Al realizar su investigacio´n en una de las oficinas locales de UMV, las autoras examinaron las tasas de afiliacio´n, los programas y las actividades de la organizacio´n, así como sus objetivos encaminados a ...

The objective of this chapter is to explore Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) practices in Vietnam. Based on intensive empirical research in the Mekong Delta, the daily reality of water resources management is investigated in several sub-sectors. It will be shown that water management practices deviate to a large extent from the existing legal frameworks, policies and strategies commonly based on IWRM principles. It will be argued that the gap between of fi cial policy and actual practices is not the outcome of lacking capacity or resource scarcity, as often assumed in donor and government reports. Rather, it is a result of the peculiar structural features of the contemporary state in Vietnam.

As developing countries with recent histories of isolation and extreme poverty, followed by restoration and reform, both Cambodia and Vietnam have seen new opportunities and demands for non-state actors to engage in and manage the effects of rapid socio-economic transformation.This book examines how in both countries, civil society actors and the state manage their relationship to one another in an environment that is continuously shaped and (re)constructed by changing legislation, collaboration and negotiation, advocacy and protest, and social control. Further, it explores the countries' divergent experiences whilst also uncovering the underlying basis and drivers of civil society activity that are shared by Cambodia and Vietnam. Crucially, this book engages with the contested nature of civil society and how it is socially constructed through research and development activities, by looking at contemporary discourses and manifestations of civil society in the two countries, including national and community-level organizations, associations, and networks that operate in a variety of sectors, such as gender, the environment and health.Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in Cambodia and Vietnam, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Southeast Asian studies, Southeast Asian politics, development studies and civil society.

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Rund 32.000 Fachkräfte leisteten einen Entwicklungsdienst im Globalen Süden. Obwohl dies nach dem Entwicklungshelfer-Gesetz „ohne Erwerbsabsicht“ stattfindet, wurde bislang nicht untersucht, inwiefern sich eine solche Tätigkeit und Engagement wechselseitig bedingen. Dieser Beitrag untersucht zwei Forschungsfragen: (1) Inwieweit ist Engagement-Bereitschaft ausschlaggebend für die Aufnahme eines Entwicklungsdienstes? (2) Inwieweit sind Fachkräfte vor und nach dem Entwicklungsdienst engagiert und wie verändert sich das Engagement durch den Dienst? Auf Basis einer quantitativen Studie lässt sich festhalten, dass (i) Engagement-Bereitschaft die entscheidende Motivation für den Entwicklungsdienst darstellt, (ii) die meisten Fachkräfte bereits vor ihrem Entwicklungsdienst engagiert waren, und (iii) der Entwicklungsdienst vor allem durch eine Vertiefung der Engagement-Bereitschaft und Verbreiterung von Engagement-Formen qualitativ nachwirkt. Diese Befunde werden vor dem Forschungsstand zu internationalen Freiwilligendiensten diskutiert.