Present but not Powerful: Neoliberalism, the State, and Development in Vietnam

Gainsborough, Martin

doi:10.1080/14747731003798435

Cited by 58 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In our case studies -the World Bank's social accountability programs in Cambodia and the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) slum eradication program in Metro Manila, The Philippines -we found that international donors are powerful, but not hegemonic: strategies of political resistance to donor intrusions are conceivable and frequently successfully enacted. 6 Furthermore, the outcome of donor intrusions is not always necessarily anti-poor and retrogressive, as the Foucaultian approach suggests. Sometimes the poor can benefit from donor-sponsored poverty alleviations programs.…”

Section: Development Effectiveness and The Turn To Political Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development Effectiveness and the Politics of Commitment

Hughes¹,

Hutchison²

2012

Third World Quarterly

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Section: Development Effectiveness and The Turn To Political Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some individual analysts cross over between these institutions, and a number of these are critical observers of the turn, reflecting on what is 6 occurring. Below we discuss the applications for political economy put forward by this varied literature.…”

Section: Development Effectiveness and The Turn To Political Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development Effectiveness and the Politics of Commitment

Hughes¹,

Hutchison²

2012

Third World Quarterly

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“…Rather than portraying Vietnam today as a centralized structure, Trotsky (2001) describes Vietnam as a paternalistic state where the government tends to believe that it can take effective care of the local communities. As a paternalistic state the government tends to act on the basis of its own assumptions rather than through a meaningful participatory consultation process (Gainsborough 2010). Related to this paternal approach, research shows that a conventional "top-down" approach to development remains dominant in the country's development strategies (Arsenio et al 2003;Fritzen 2002;Nguyen & Nguyen 2011).…”

Section: The Relationship Between Political Reform and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a country stricken in persistent poverty prior to the 1990s, Vietnam has now become a low middle-income country with a steady annual growth of seven percent. The country has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the South-east Asian region (Boothroyd & Pham 2000;Gainsborough 2010). …”

Section: Vietnam: the Contemporary Political Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Political Culture on the Human Rights-based Approach to Development in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

Dang¹

2018

JSD

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The Human Rights-based-Approach (HRBA) to development has been endorsed by the United Nations (UN) and development agencies as the preferable approach to development. It has the potential to adequately address poverty in the developing world and to align development work with universal instruments on human rights, such as the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) (1948). However, while much has been written about the HRBA as a viable approach to development, little is known about how the HRBA is implemented in practice, especially in non-western settings. This paper provides empirical data from a HRBA-framed poverty reduction project conducted in two ethnic communities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, undertaken by Action Aid International Vietnam (AAV). The results demonstrate that the adaptation of the HRBA to these two local contexts was not easy or smooth. While there are many dimensions that shape the success of development work, in this article I focus on the ways in which political culture can create obstacles to the implementation of the HRBA. The article concludes by recommending some strategies that work to ameliorate these concerns.

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“…Vietnamese authorities prefer survey-based quantitative studies, discounting qualitative social studies (Waibel and Ehlert 2012). There is an ongoing debate about how to discern the reverberations of global capitalism in a nation-state that still claims to be socialist, and whether neoliberalism is a useful concept for understanding market-state-society interactions in the country (Gainsborough 2010;Schwenkel and Leshkowich 2012). Anglo-American neoliberal tendencies have deprioritizing social welfare since the 1970s, favoring free market activity and the ethics that accompany it.…”

Section: Individualizing Stigmatizing and Moralizing Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Health dispossessions and the moralization of disease: the case of diarrhea in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Kotsila

2017

Journal of Political Ecology

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Despite the swift development of Vietnam's water supply and sanitation (wat/san) sector, over the last ten years there have been 1.5 million annual documented cases of diarrhea. Western perspectives blame insufficient medical or economic advancement for failing to prevent diarrhea and its treatment, failing to grasp how disease is shaped in the cultural, moral and political domain. This article examines the nature and function of public health policy and discourse against the spread of the disease in Can Tho City, Mekong Delta. Some 94 qualitative interviews were conducted with government representatives, medical staff and water experts, and a survey of 131 households in urban and rural areas. Focusing only on improving the construction of wat/san 'hardware' does not improve 'cultural software', and ignores the needs of vulnerable minorities, compromising the control of diarrhea. I also show how state discourse follows neoliberal approaches in individualizing health responsibilities, and moralizing disease. Local (mis)perceptions and risky behaviors emerge as the result of structural constraints that include poverty, a lack of access to useful health information, and the cultivation of stigma around diarrhea. These types of health dispossessions serve a political purpose, where the state escapes responsibility for public health failures, and thus enhancing its efforts to maintain legitimacy as a good implementer and a 'caring head.' Keywords: Vietnam, public health, health individualization, moralization of disease, blame discourse, diarrhea. RésuméMalgré le développement rapide du secteur de l'approvisionnement en eau et de l'assainissement (wat / san) au Vietnam, il y a eu au cours des dix dernières années 1,5 million de cas annuels de diarrhée. Les perspectives occidentales accusent l'insuffisance de progrès médicaux ou économiques pour ne pas prévenir la diarrhée et son traitement, ne comprenant pas comment la maladie est façonnée dans le domaine culturel, moral et politique. Cet article examine la nature et la fonction de la politique de santé publique et le discours contre la propagation de la maladie dans la ville de Can Tho, dans le delta du Mékong. Quelque 94 entrevues qualitatives ont été menées auprès de représentants du gouvernement, du personnel médical et des experts en eau, et une enquête auprès de 131 ménages vivant en milieu urbain et rural. Se concentrer uniquement sur l'amélioration de la construction du «matériel» wat / san n'améliore pas les «logiciels culturels» et ignore les besoins des minorités vulnérables, compromettant ainsi le contrôle de la diarrhée. Je montre aussi comment le discours d'Etat suit les approches néolibérales en individualisant les responsabilités en matière de santé et en moralisant les maladies. Les perceptions locales et les comportements à risque sont le résultat de contraintes structurelles qui incluent la pauvreté, le manque d'accès à des informations utiles sur la santé et la propagation de la stigmatisation autour de la diarrhée. Ces types de dépossessi...

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Present but not Powerful: Neoliberalism, the State, and Development in Vietnam

Cited by 58 publications

References 31 publications

Development Effectiveness and the Politics of Commitment

Development Effectiveness and the Politics of Commitment

The Impact of Political Culture on the Human Rights-based Approach to Development in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

Health dispossessions and the moralization of disease: the case of diarrhea in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

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