Locked into a permanent position of vulnerability? Farmers’ trust and social capital with the government from Critical Disaster Studies perspectives

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) Vol. 120; no. 5; pp. 4463 - 4483
• Main Authors: Nguyen-Trung, Kien, Uekusa, Shinya, Matthewman, Steve
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural cooperatives; Catastrophic failure analysis; Civil Engineering; Coastal zone; Crop production; Disaster management; Disaster recovery; Disaster studies; Disasters; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Emergency preparedness; Environmental Management; Farmers; Food; Food chains; Food supply; Foods; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Government; Hydrogeology; Local government; Natural Hazards; Original Paper; Resilience; Supply chain sustainability; Supply chains; Vulnerability; Farmers; Cooperative; Social vulnerability; Critical disaster studies; Sustainable food supply chain; Vietnamese Mekong Delta; Social capital
• ISSN: 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-023-06383-2

In disaster scholarship, there is limited understanding about how vulnerability is socially constructed by a convergence of varying social structural and historical processes that predispose certain vulnerable groups to disasters even before a hazard event occurs. This article aims to fill this void by using Critical Disaster Studies perspectives to explore the root causes of why crop farmers in the coastal region of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta have been locked in a permanent position of vulnerability. In order to develop more sustainable food supply chains, this exploration aims to shed light on the socio-cultural interpretations, experiences, and needs of disaster-affected farmers—the most important but vulnerable actors in the crop production hierarchy in Vietnam. Following a historic disaster between late 2015 and early 2016, local governments deliberately organised farmers into an agricultural cooperative in an attempt to support farmers in enhancing economic resilience and disaster preparedness. However, this intervention has failed since farmers refused to participate in the organisation’s activities. While this reaction may seem irrational, it reflects farmers’ distrust in the government, which was largely a result of their collective trauma from the state’s agricultural collectivisation policy implemented between 1976 and 1985. Farmers chose to cling to their individual working routines out of concern about government supervision, forcing them to take bigger risks and pay for the food supply chains’ catastrophic damage. Our findings show that a strained relationship between farmers and the government can jeopardise disaster recovery and resilience building. Our paper adds to the Critical Disaster Studies literature by revisiting the concepts of vulnerability and resilience, emphasising the importance of addressing socio-cultural vulnerability before improving disaster resilience.