Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of biopolitical subject formation and governmentality, this articl... more Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of biopolitical subject formation and governmentality, this article seeks to understand transnational state power and how Vietnamese migrant workers negotiate within a transnational framework both while working in Malaysia and upon their return to Vietnam. By conducting multi-sited interviews in Vietnam and Malaysia between 2008 and 2015, we contribute to the transnational labor migration literature by focusing on Vietnamese factory and construction workers in Malaysia and their resistance to transnational state power. We argue that these two emerging economies, as part of the neoliberal world, use their systems, media, and technologies to produce and manage citizens (in Vietnam) and non-citizen subjects (migrants in Malaysia) who comply with labor export policy and foreign worker policy, respectively. These two states ensure both government and individual accumulation to sustain their power. Meanwhile, Vietnamese migrant subjects negotiate their roles...
This paper examines the development of textile and garment manufacturing in the context of the pr... more This paper examines the development of textile and garment manufacturing in the context of the prevailing arguments on pursuing marketoriented liberalisation and state directed domestic linkages, and the impacts of these developments on unions and workers in Vietnam. Despite rapid growth in exports and employment, the empirical evidence shows that market-oriented integration in the global economy has limited firms' operations to low valueadded activities and workers to toil for non-livable wages. The global supply chain has also exposed firms and consigned workers to the vicissitudes of volatile fluctuations in demand causing retrenchments, substandard working conditions and a vicious circle of underdevelopment and poverty. Albeit limited the state-controlled Vinatex has managed to promote domestic linkages in Vietnam, suggesting that the industry can actually be restructured to absorb higher value-added activities. A shift to upgrading activities, including learning and skills training, is essential to support improvements in wages and working conditions.
This article focuses on how the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) responds to work... more This article focuses on how the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) responds to workers' strikes. A complex, non-monolithic VGCL has developed a “third sleeve,” its dynamic pro-labor press, which plays strategic mediating roles among the state, labor unions, and management. The labor newspapers use their forums to champion workers' rights and interests and empower labor unions that negotiate with state bureaucracies and management on the workers' behalf. Simultaneously, the labor press must respond to policies and agendas of the VGCL and the state, which still hold to their power to monitor and control workers' collective action.
This study investigates what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means to Vietnam’s smalland me... more This study investigates what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means to Vietnam’s smalland medium-size enterprise (SME) owners and workers, using Scott’s three-pillar (norms, regulation, cognition) institutional framework. The findings are based on factory visits and interviews with 40 managers/owners and 218 workers conducted in two sectors textile/garment/footwear (TGF) and food/beverage processing (FBP) around Ho Chi Minh City in 2011. Scott’s framework is useful in highlighting similarities and differences between these two sectors. We found more stringent state regulation and greater industry pressure on the quality and safety of products than on labour standards in both sectors. Most factories in the TGF sector assembled for the global supply chains and are under pressure by industry norms, while most companies in the FBP sector produced for the domestic market are subjected to greater state regulation. Moreover, contributing critical perspectives to Scott’s framework, we ...
Focusing on the understudied Cham (Sunni) Muslims who live in the Mekong Delta region of southern... more Focusing on the understudied Cham (Sunni) Muslims who live in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam , decades after Vietnam joined the market system, I found that they have sustained their century-old mobile ways of life—including retailing, fishing, and sewing—in close connection with the global Islamic community to make a living and to continue their religious studies. But a mixed picture emerges in their response to Vietnam’s labor export policy since 2002: practicing geographical agency with short-term successes but facing more risks as both men and women engage in extra local journeys, crossing borders into Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13547860 2014 974343, Dec 15, 2014
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
This case study focuses on strategic mediating roles of labor newspapers. Concentrating on minimu... more This case study focuses on strategic mediating roles of labor newspapers. Concentrating on minimum wage strikes from 2005 to 2006, it shows the state's pro-foreign direct investment policy, tensions between state bureaucracies and labor unions, and their debates. It demonstrates alternatives to the "race to the bottom" thesis. The larger implication is that labor organizing and spontaneous collective actions can be successful even within a one-party state. It remains to be seen how the new strike law ratified in 2006 addresses structural weaknesses of the labor unions and the state, and how it affects labor organizing for workers' rights and interests.
This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) a... more This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using an institutional theoretical framework, we analyzed fieldwork interviews with twenty SMEs and perspectives of 165 SME managers and workers in textiles, garment, and footwear industries, the most important wage-earning sector in Vietnam. Having understood in the context of a developing ''market economy with socialist orientation'' (thus a ''Southern perspective''), we find that socially responsible practices and expectations developed long before the arrival of CSR as a western concept and an MNC agenda. While identifying and contributing ideas concerning forms of ''informal'' CSR practices-influenced by social and cultural expectations-to the CSR/SME literature, we are conscious of the mixed effects of these practices and the ongoing nuanced negotiations between workers and managers in these SMEs. In our research, we found that it takes both domestic and international stakeholders to improve labor conditions in Vietnam under the banner of CSR.
This paper investigates the dilemmas of reaching the Vietnamese goal of 'civilized and equitable'... more This paper investigates the dilemmas of reaching the Vietnamese goal of 'civilized and equitable' society expressed from central planning towards a 'socialist market economy under state guidance' with deeper integration into the global capitalist system, and their impacts on the labor markets. Using long-run statistical data, historical contexts and industrial policies, and fieldwork interviews (from 1980s to 2014), we focus on two important labor-intensive, export-based industries: the longestablished textile/garment industry and the emerging electronics industry, which surpassed textile exports in 2013. Evidence shows that the 'high road' to industrialization model À with domestic linkages and skills upgrading À does not accompany growth in exports, as low-skilled assembly, mostly young female workers join the labor force with non-liveable wages and substandard working conditions. These two case studies delve into different stages of industrial policy, which is more defined in the textile/garment case and underdeveloped in the electronics case.
This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) a... more This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using an institutional theoretical framework, we analyzed fieldwork interviews with twenty SMEs and perspectives of 165 SME managers and workers in textiles, garment, and footwear industries, the most important wage-earning sector in Vietnam. Having understood in the context of a developing ''market economy with socialist orientation'' (thus a ''Southern perspective''), we find that socially responsible practices and expectations developed long before the arrival of CSR as a western concept and an MNC agenda. While identifying and contributing ideas concerning forms of ''informal'' CSR practices-influenced by social and cultural expectations-to the CSR/SME literature, we are conscious of the mixed effects of these practices and the ongoing nuanced negotiations between workers and managers in these SMEs. In our research, we found that it takes both domestic and international stakeholders to improve labor conditions in Vietnam under the banner of CSR.
Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of biopolitical subject formation and governmentality, this articl... more Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of biopolitical subject formation and governmentality, this article seeks to understand transnational state power and how Vietnamese migrant workers negotiate within a transnational framework both while working in Malaysia and upon their return to Vietnam. By conducting multi-sited interviews in Vietnam and Malaysia between 2008 and 2015, we contribute to the transnational labor migration literature by focusing on Vietnamese factory and construction workers in Malaysia and their resistance to transnational state power. We argue that these two emerging economies, as part of the neoliberal world, use their systems, media, and technologies to produce and manage citizens (in Vietnam) and non-citizen subjects (migrants in Malaysia) who comply with labor export policy and foreign worker policy, respectively. These two states ensure both government and individual accumulation to sustain their power. Meanwhile, Vietnamese migrant subjects negotiate their roles...
This paper examines the development of textile and garment manufacturing in the context of the pr... more This paper examines the development of textile and garment manufacturing in the context of the prevailing arguments on pursuing marketoriented liberalisation and state directed domestic linkages, and the impacts of these developments on unions and workers in Vietnam. Despite rapid growth in exports and employment, the empirical evidence shows that market-oriented integration in the global economy has limited firms' operations to low valueadded activities and workers to toil for non-livable wages. The global supply chain has also exposed firms and consigned workers to the vicissitudes of volatile fluctuations in demand causing retrenchments, substandard working conditions and a vicious circle of underdevelopment and poverty. Albeit limited the state-controlled Vinatex has managed to promote domestic linkages in Vietnam, suggesting that the industry can actually be restructured to absorb higher value-added activities. A shift to upgrading activities, including learning and skills training, is essential to support improvements in wages and working conditions.
This article focuses on how the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) responds to work... more This article focuses on how the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) responds to workers' strikes. A complex, non-monolithic VGCL has developed a “third sleeve,” its dynamic pro-labor press, which plays strategic mediating roles among the state, labor unions, and management. The labor newspapers use their forums to champion workers' rights and interests and empower labor unions that negotiate with state bureaucracies and management on the workers' behalf. Simultaneously, the labor press must respond to policies and agendas of the VGCL and the state, which still hold to their power to monitor and control workers' collective action.
This study investigates what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means to Vietnam’s smalland me... more This study investigates what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means to Vietnam’s smalland medium-size enterprise (SME) owners and workers, using Scott’s three-pillar (norms, regulation, cognition) institutional framework. The findings are based on factory visits and interviews with 40 managers/owners and 218 workers conducted in two sectors textile/garment/footwear (TGF) and food/beverage processing (FBP) around Ho Chi Minh City in 2011. Scott’s framework is useful in highlighting similarities and differences between these two sectors. We found more stringent state regulation and greater industry pressure on the quality and safety of products than on labour standards in both sectors. Most factories in the TGF sector assembled for the global supply chains and are under pressure by industry norms, while most companies in the FBP sector produced for the domestic market are subjected to greater state regulation. Moreover, contributing critical perspectives to Scott’s framework, we ...
Focusing on the understudied Cham (Sunni) Muslims who live in the Mekong Delta region of southern... more Focusing on the understudied Cham (Sunni) Muslims who live in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam , decades after Vietnam joined the market system, I found that they have sustained their century-old mobile ways of life—including retailing, fishing, and sewing—in close connection with the global Islamic community to make a living and to continue their religious studies. But a mixed picture emerges in their response to Vietnam’s labor export policy since 2002: practicing geographical agency with short-term successes but facing more risks as both men and women engage in extra local journeys, crossing borders into Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13547860 2014 974343, Dec 15, 2014
The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
This case study focuses on strategic mediating roles of labor newspapers. Concentrating on minimu... more This case study focuses on strategic mediating roles of labor newspapers. Concentrating on minimum wage strikes from 2005 to 2006, it shows the state's pro-foreign direct investment policy, tensions between state bureaucracies and labor unions, and their debates. It demonstrates alternatives to the "race to the bottom" thesis. The larger implication is that labor organizing and spontaneous collective actions can be successful even within a one-party state. It remains to be seen how the new strike law ratified in 2006 addresses structural weaknesses of the labor unions and the state, and how it affects labor organizing for workers' rights and interests.
This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) a... more This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using an institutional theoretical framework, we analyzed fieldwork interviews with twenty SMEs and perspectives of 165 SME managers and workers in textiles, garment, and footwear industries, the most important wage-earning sector in Vietnam. Having understood in the context of a developing ''market economy with socialist orientation'' (thus a ''Southern perspective''), we find that socially responsible practices and expectations developed long before the arrival of CSR as a western concept and an MNC agenda. While identifying and contributing ideas concerning forms of ''informal'' CSR practices-influenced by social and cultural expectations-to the CSR/SME literature, we are conscious of the mixed effects of these practices and the ongoing nuanced negotiations between workers and managers in these SMEs. In our research, we found that it takes both domestic and international stakeholders to improve labor conditions in Vietnam under the banner of CSR.
This paper investigates the dilemmas of reaching the Vietnamese goal of 'civilized and equitable'... more This paper investigates the dilemmas of reaching the Vietnamese goal of 'civilized and equitable' society expressed from central planning towards a 'socialist market economy under state guidance' with deeper integration into the global capitalist system, and their impacts on the labor markets. Using long-run statistical data, historical contexts and industrial policies, and fieldwork interviews (from 1980s to 2014), we focus on two important labor-intensive, export-based industries: the longestablished textile/garment industry and the emerging electronics industry, which surpassed textile exports in 2013. Evidence shows that the 'high road' to industrialization model À with domestic linkages and skills upgrading À does not accompany growth in exports, as low-skilled assembly, mostly young female workers join the labor force with non-liveable wages and substandard working conditions. These two case studies delve into different stages of industrial policy, which is more defined in the textile/garment case and underdeveloped in the electronics case.
This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) a... more This article contributes to the limited literatures on small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using an institutional theoretical framework, we analyzed fieldwork interviews with twenty SMEs and perspectives of 165 SME managers and workers in textiles, garment, and footwear industries, the most important wage-earning sector in Vietnam. Having understood in the context of a developing ''market economy with socialist orientation'' (thus a ''Southern perspective''), we find that socially responsible practices and expectations developed long before the arrival of CSR as a western concept and an MNC agenda. While identifying and contributing ideas concerning forms of ''informal'' CSR practices-influenced by social and cultural expectations-to the CSR/SME literature, we are conscious of the mixed effects of these practices and the ongoing nuanced negotiations between workers and managers in these SMEs. In our research, we found that it takes both domestic and international stakeholders to improve labor conditions in Vietnam under the banner of CSR.
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