Research Projects

Vietnam Project The SEARCs Viet Nam program was established to advance scholarly analysis of key issues in the social and political economy of Viet Nam. City University currently has three researchers who conduct active research in Viet Nam, including Professor of Public and Social Administration and Acting-Dean Martin Painter, Assistant Professor Chan-Yuk Wah, of the Department of Asian & International Studies (AIS), and Assistant Professor Jonathan London, also of AIS and director of the Viet Nam program.

Over the course of the next several years, the Viet Nam program will host a number of workshops and conferences and public lectures pertaining to Viet Nam. The first such event took place on the 11th and 12th of August, 2008, with a workshop on the theme 'Remaking the Vietnamese State.' Some 16 scholars from Viet Nam and around the world participated in the workshop, including: Dr. Caroline Brassard, Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore Dr. Adam Fforde, Melbourne University, Australia Dr. Huynh Thi Ngoc Tuyet, Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences, Viet Nam Dr. Kim Jee Young, Chinese University of Hong Kong Dr. Kim Ninh, The Asia Foundation, Viet Nam Dr. Le Dang Doanh, Institute of Development Studies, Viet Nam Dr. Edmund J. Malesky, University of California, San Diego, United States Dr. Pietro P. Masina, University of Naples, Italy  Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hai, Waseda Univeristy, Japan Dr. Oscar Salemink, VU University Amsterdam, Netherland Dr. Thomas Sikor, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom Prof. Carlyle Thayer, Australian Defense Forces Academy, Australia Dr. Thaveeporn Vasavakul, Independent scholar from Viet Nam Dr. Jonathan London, City University of Hong Kong Professor Martin Painter, City University of Hong Kong

By all accounts – and despite a major typhoon –  the workshop was a success. The papers are likely to appear as working papers, a special journal edition or symposium, and/or in an edited volume.Stay tuned to this space for details.

There are, in addition, two upcoming events. The first will address Viet Nam's changing relation with the regional and global political economies.  The second event, to occur in either August or December of 2008 will compare Viet Nam and China's exit paths from state-socialism, their social outcomes, and their theoretical significance. Inquiries for either of these events should be directed to Jonathan London at jdlondon@cityu.edu.hk.Descriptions of these workshop events are provided below.

WORKSHOP
Viet Nam, East Asia, and Beyond – or – Viet Nam and Globalization

Over the past two decades, Viet Nam has experienced profound changes in its social, political, economic, and cultural institutions. Much of these changes can be traced to the erosion and then dismantlement of Viet Nam's centrally-planned economy. Viet Nam's associated processes of integration with regional markets and political processes and institutions, while frequently given mentioned, have not been subjected to explicit analysis.And yet Viet Nam's importance in the region is growing, and not only in economic ways. Suggested papers would address the following:

• Viet Nam and East Asia: Who Cares & Why
• Viet Nam & China: Immutable Tensions and Contradictions
• Viet Nam & Taiwan
• Viet Nam and Hong Kong
• Viet Nam and Korea
• Viet Nam and Japan
• Viet Nam, Singapore, and 'The Singapore Model'
• Viet Nam, the United States and the Geopolitics of East Asia
• The Migration of Industry from Indonesia to Viet Nam
• Human Trafficking
• The Marketing of Viet Nam: Basket Case to Export Hub
• Viet Nam & East Asian Tourism

The themes of the conference can be left open, or we can troll for broadly political economy themes, that are left open but in some way touch upon core concerns, such as political links, trade links etc. The idea overall is to develop critical analyses of Viet Nam's significance in the region, political, economic, and otherwise.

WORKSHOP
August or December 2009

Transforming Asian Socialisms

In 1996, parallel conference at the Australia National University and the University of Hawaii explored 'transforming Asian Socialisms'. The result was an edited volume that teamed Viet Nam and China scholars in explicit comparisons of China in Viet Nam on specific thematic issues. Ten years later, Viet Nam and China have the fastest growing economies in the world. Both countries appear to have consolidated a form of governance that combines Leninist political principles with market-based strategies of accumulation. There, however, important differences between the countries, not only in scale but also in the attributes of each country's political economies and social institutions. Casual observers of the two countries frequently assume Viet Nam is a mini-China that 'follows' China. Scholars of China's considerable interest in Viet Nam's experience with grassroots democracy suggests otherwise. Revisiting a comparison of the two countries will advance our understandings of their similarities and differences, and what (if any thing) can be learned. Possible themes include:

• State-society relations
• Agrarian transformations
• Center-local relations
• Migration
• Land Policy
• Health Policies
• Education Policies
• Urban life
• 'Civil Society' Democracy
• Media and Political Expression
• The (ir)Relevance of North Korean Comparisons