ABSTRACT
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Vietnam is a comprehensive resource exploring social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of Vietnam, one of contemporary Asia’s most dynamic but least understood countries. Following an introduction that highlights major changes that have unfolded in Vietnam over the past three decades, the volume is organised into four thematic parts:
- Politics and Society
- Economy and Society
- Social life and Institutions
- Cultures in Motion
Part one address key aspects of Vietnam’s politics, from the role of the Communist Party of Vietnam in shaping the country’s institutional evolution to continuity and change in patterns of socio-political organisation, political expression, state repression, diplomatic relations, and human rights. Part two assesses the transformation of Vietnam’s economy, addressing patterns of economic growth, investment and trade, the role of the state in the economy, and other economic aspects of social life. Parts three and four examine developments across a variety of social and cultural fields, through chapters on themes including welfare, inequality, social policy, urbanization, the environment and society, gender, ethnicity, the family, cuisine, art, mass media, and the politics of remembrance.
Featuring 38 essays by leading Vietnam scholars from around the world, this book provides a cutting-edge analysis of Vietnam’s transformation and changing engagement with the world. It is an invaluable interdisciplinary reference work that will be of interest to students and academics of Southeast Asian Studies, as well as policymakers, analysts and anyone wishing to learn more about contemporary Vietnam.
1. How to Study Contemporary Vietnam? 2. The Communist Party of Vietnam: Consolidating Market-Leninism 3. Political representation in contemporary Vietnam 4. Public political criticism in Vietnam, 1990s-2018 5. Civil society and advocacy networks in Vietnam 6. The Role of the Military and Public Security in Contemporary Vietnam 7. Human rights in Contemporary Vietnam 8. Vietnam's foreign policy: Structure, evolution and contemporary challenges 9. Vietnam’s Extraordinary Economic Journey From Poverty to Prosperity 10. Vietnam’s Foreign Direct Investment and Export Performance 11. Contemporary Vietnam: State effectiveness under conditions of commercialization 12. The political economy of private sector development in Vietnam since Doi Moi 13. Decentralization and Economic Development in Vietnam 14. Contradictions of Multi-stakeholder Labor Relations in Vietnam 15. Land in Contemporary Vietnam 16. Market Personhood in Urban Southern Vietnam 17. Contemporary Vietnam's Economy in historical perspective: Đổi mới or đổi lại? 18. Welfare, Inequality, and Opportunity in Contemporary Vietnam 19. Education and development in Vietnam: A Glass half full? 20. Contemporary Vietnam’s health status and health system 21. Post-Colonial Urbanization in Vietnam: Urban Order and Unruliness 22. Sociocultural Life and Social Relations in Rural Vietnam’s Lowlands 23. The Cosmopolitan delta: Ethnic pluralism at the mouth of Mekong 24. Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam: State Relations and Social Change 25. Environment and society in contemporary Vietnam 26. The Family in Contemporary Vietnam 27. Feminism in Vietnam: Women's studies, gender research, and intersections 28. Masculinity and Violence in Vietnam 29. Marriage, Family and Kinship in Vietnam: Shadows and Silences 30. The Affairs of Men: Extramarital Relationships, Gender Relations, and Masculinity in Contemporary Vietnam 31. LGBTQ in Vietnam/ Heteronomativity and resistance 32. Contemporary Vietnamese Cuisine 33. Driving Doi Moi: Motorbikes, Cars, and Capitalism in Vietnam’s Socialist Market Economy 34. Religion in Contemporary Vietnam 35. Movements of Independent Art in Contemporary Vietnam 36. Revolutionary Journalism in Contemporary Vietnam 37. Popular television in Contemporary Vietnam: Socialist politics and market competition 38. Remembrance, commemoration, and revolutionary apparitions: Ritualizing connections with the past and the future in Vietnam
