Consuming doi moi: Development and middle class consumption in Vietnam
Consuming
doi moi: Development and middle class
consumption in Vietnam
Arve
Hansen (pp 171-186)
Abstract:
Since doi moi, Vietnam has undergone a variety
of social and economic transformations. Among the most obvious are found in the
realm of consumption. The new openness to international trade and foreign
investments has radically increased the availability of goods. And new
opportunities for income have led to increased purchasing power in most social
strata, although to very different extents. High-consuming urban middle classes
are emerging rapidly-Vietnam’s middle class is indeed considered the fastest
growing in Southeast Asia-symbolising economic progress and modernisation on
the one hand and growing inequalities and environmental unsustainability on the
other. These changes are reflected in surging consumption of a wide variety of
goods, from household appliances and food items to vehicles and luxury
products. This paper approaches the new ‘socialist consumer classes’ partly
through the particular political-economic contexts that have fostered them, but
mainly through the consumption patterns and consumer culture that define them.
Combining secondary statistical data with insights from ethnographic fieldwork,
the paper discusses the drivers of changing consumption patterns and
investigates the new roles of goods in everyday middle-class practices in
Hanoi, in turn using consumption as a lens to analyse post-doi moi society.
Keywords:
Middle class; consumption; practice theory; doi moi;
Vietnam; development.
Received
2nd April 2017; Revised 25th April 2017; Accepted 29th
April 2017
References
Bélanger, D., Drummond,
L. B. W., & Nguyen-Marshall, V. 2012. Introduction: Who Are the Urban
Middle Class in Vietnam? In V. Nguyen-Marshall, L. B. W. Drummond, & D.
Bélanger (Eds.), The Reinvention of
Distinction: Modernity and the Middle Class in Urban Vietnam. Dordrecht:
Springer
Beresford, M. 2008. "Doi Moi in review:
The challenges of building market socialism in Vietnam". Journal of Contemporary Asia, 38 (2), 221-243.
Birdsall, N. 2014.
Who You Callin’ Middle Class? A Plea to
the Development Community. Retrieved from
http://www.cgdev.org/blog/who-you-callin%E2%80%99-middle-class-plea-development-community
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A social critique of the
judgement of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Broz,
L., & Habeck, J. O. 2015. Siberian Automobility Boom: From the
Joy of Destination to the Joy of Driving There. Mobilities, 10 (4), 552-570.
doi:10.1080/17450101.2015.1059029
Chen, J. 2013. A Middle Class without Democracy: Economic
Growth and Prospects for Democratization in China. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Dadush, U., &
Ali, S. 2012. In search of the global
middle class: A new index. Washington DC: Brookings Institution.
Dicken, P. 2015. Global shift: mapping the changing contours
of the world economy. Los Angeles: Sage.
Douglas, M., &
Isherwood, B. 1979. The world of goods.
New York: Basic Books.
Drummond, L. and
Rydstrom, H. 2004. Gender Practices in
Contemporary Vietnam. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.
Gainsborough, M. 2010. Vietnam: Rethinking the state. London: Zed
Books.
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and self-identity. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Guilmoto,
C. Z., & de Loenzien, M. 2015. Emerging, transitory or
residual? One-person households in Viet Nam. Demographic Research, 32, 1147-1176.
Gram-Hanssen, K. 2011. "Understanding
change and continuity in residential energy consumption". Journal of Consumer Culture, 11 (1), 61-78.
Gregson, N., Metcalfe,
A., & Crewe, L. 2009. "Practices of Object
Maintenance and Repair: How consumers attend to consumer objects within the
home". Journal
of Consumer Culture, 9 (2),
248-272.
Gronow, J., & Warde,
A. 2001. Ordinary consumption.
London: Routledge.
Hansen, A. 2016a.
Capitalist transition of wheels:
Development, consumption and motorised mobility in Hanoi, PhD thesis,
University of Oslo. Available online:
Hansen, A. 2016b.
Hanoi on Wheels: Emerging automobility in the land of the motorbike. Mobilities. doi:
10.1080/17450101.2016.1156425
Hansen, A. 2016c.
Driving Development? The Problems and Promises of the Car in Vietnam. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 45 (4),
551-569.
Hansen, A., &
Wethal, U. 2015. Emerging Economies and Challenges to Sustainability. In A.
Hansen & U. Wethal (Eds.), Emerging
Economies and Challenges to Sustainability: Theories, Strategies, Local
Realities. London and New York: Routledge.
Hansen, A. 2015a.
The best of both worlds? The power and pitfalls of Vietnam's development model.
In A. Hansen & U. Wethal (Eds.), Emerging
Economies and Challenges to Sustainability: Theories, Strategies, Local
Realities. London and New York: Routledge.
Hansen, A. 2015b.
"Transport in transition: Doi moi and the consumption of cars and
motorbikes in Hanoi". Journal of
Consumer Culture. doi:10.1177/1469540515602301
Hansen, A. 2015c.
Motorbike Madness? Development and Two-Wheeled Mobility in Hanoi. Asia in Focus, 2, 5-13.
Hansen, A. 2017. Doi moi on two and four wheels:
capitalist development and motorised mobility in
Vietnam, In A.
Hansen & K.B. Nielsen (Eds.), Cars, Automobility and Development in Asia:
Wheels of change. London:
Routledge
Huong Le Thu.
2015.
The Middle Class in Hanoi: Vulnerability and Concerns. ISEAS Perspective # 8,
Singapore: ISEAS.
JDPR [Joint Development
Partner Report] (2012). Vietnam
Development Report 2012: Market Economy for a Middle-Income Vietnam. Hanoi:
World Bank.
Kharas, H., & Gertz,
G. 2010. The New Global Middle Class: A Cross-Over from West to East. In C. Li
(Ed.), China's Emerging Middle Class:
Beyond Economic Transformation. Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Krishna, A.,
& Bajpai, D. 2015. Layers in Globalising Society and the New Middle Class
in India. Economic and Political Weekly,
L (5), 69-77.
Li, C. 2010.
Introduction: The Rise of the Middle Class in the Middle Kingdom. In C. Li
(Ed.), China's emerging middle class: Beyond
economic transformation. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press.
Malesky, E. and
London, J. 2014. ‘The Political Economy of Development in China and Vietnam’. Annual Review of Political Science, 17,
395-419.
Masina, P. 2006. Vietnam's development strategies. Oxon
UK ; New York: Routledge.
Masina, P. 2012. Vietnam
between Developmental State and Neoliberalism: The Case of the Industrial
Sector. In C. Kyung-Sup, B. Fine, & L. Weiss (Eds.), Developmental Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and Beyond.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
McNeill, D., &
Wilhite, H. 2015. Making sense of sustainable development in a changing world.
In A. Hansen & U. Wethal (Eds.), Emerging
Economies and Challenges to Sustainability: Theories, Strategies, Local
Realities. London and New York: Routledge.
Myrvang, C. 2009.
Forbruksagentene: Slik vekket de
kjøpelysten. Oslo: Pax Forlag.
Notar, B. 2017. Car
Crazy: The Rise of Car Culture in China. In A. Hansen & K.B. Nielsen
(Eds.), Cars, Automobility and Development in Asia: Wheels of change. London: Routledge.
OICA 2014.
Vehicles in use.
Sahakian, M., &
Wilhite, H. 2014. "Making practice theory more practicable: Towards
more sustainable forms of consumption". Journal of Consumer Culture, 14 (1), 25-44.
Saigoneer. 2017.
‘Vietnam has world’s second fastes growing car market’.
Sanne, C. 2002.
Willing consumers-or locked-in? Policies for sustainable consumption. Ecological Economics, 42, 273-287Shove, E.
(2003). Comfort, cleanliness and
convenience: the social organization of normality. Oxford: Berg.
Shove, E., Pantzar, M.,
& Watson, M. 2012. The dynamics of
social practice : everyday life and how it changes. Los Angeles: Sage.
Siegelbaum, L. H.
2008. Cars for comrades: The life of the
Soviet automobile. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Truitt, A. 2008. On the
back of a motorbike: Middle-class mobility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. American Ethnologist, 35 (1), 3-19
UNDP. 2013. Human Development Report 2013: The Rise of
the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. New York: UNDP.
Van Arkadie, B., &
Mallon, R. 2003. Viet Nam: A
transition tiger? The Australian National University: Asia Pacific Press.
Vann, E. F. 2012.
Afterword: Consumption and Middle-Class Subjectivity in Vietnam. In V.
Nguyen-Marshall, L. B. W. Drummond, & D. Bélanger (Eds.), The Reinvention of Distinction: Modernity
and the Middle Class in Urban Vietnam. Dordrecht: Springer.
Veblen, T. 2005. [1899]). The theory of the leisure class : an
economic study of institutions. Delhi: Aakar Books.
Vu, T. 2014.
Persistence Amid Decay: The Communist Party of Vietnam at 83. In J. London
(Ed.), Politics in Contemporary Vietnam:
Party, State, and Authority Relations (pp. 21-41). New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Warde, A. 2005. "Consumption and
Theories of Practice". Journal
of Consumer Culture, 5 (2),
131-153.
Warde, A. 2014.
After taste: Culture, consumption and theories of practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 14(3),
279-303.
Wilhite, H. 2008. New
thinking on the agentive relationship between end-use technologies and
energy-using practices. Energy
Efficiency, 1
(2),
121-130.
Wilhite, H. 2009. The
conditioning of comfort. Building
Research & Information, 37 (1).
Wilhite, H. 2012.
Towards a better accounting of the roles of body, things and habits in
consumption. In A. Warde & D. Southerton (Eds.), COLLeGIUM: Studies across
Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences: The Habits of Consumption (Vol. 12).
Helsinki: Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Wilhite, H., &
Hansen, A. 2015. Reflections on the meta-practice of capitalism and its
capacity for sustaining a low energy transformation. In
C. Zelem & C. Beslay (Eds.), Sociologie
de l'énergie: Gouvernance et pratiques sociales. Paris: CNRS Editions.
World Bank and
Ministry of Planning and Investment. 2016. ‘Vietnam 2035: Toward Prosperity,
Creativity, Equity, and Democracy’. Washington DC: World Bank.
Wunker, S. 2011.
How the Vespa became Vietnamese.
Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenwunker/2011/11/08/how-the-vespa-became-vietnamese/
Comments
Post a Comment