Social Capital Configuration Variation and the Contemporary Transformation of Rural Vietnam 1

• Published in: Pacific affairs Vol. 91; no. 2; pp. 283 - 307
• Main Author: Luong, Hy V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vancouver Pacific Affairs. The University of British Columbia 01.06.2018
• Subjects: 21st century; Coasts; Community; Economic development; Electric rates; Households; Income; Independent variables; Industrial production; Kinship; Labor migration; Labor supply; Market economies; Migration; Political economy; Polls & surveys; Provinces; Regions; Rural areas; Rural communities; Soccer; Social capital; Social dynamics; Social networks; Social policy; Social structure; Standard of living; Tournaments & championships; Transformation; Wages & salaries; Red River Delta; Vietnam; Mekong River Delta
• ISSN: 0030-851X; 1715-3379
• DOI: 10.5509/2018912283

This article examines the contemporary transformation of rural Vietnam in relation to market economy dynamics and regionally varying configurations of social capital. It is based on the author's longitudinal and panel study of seven Vietnamese lowland communities (two in the north, two in the mid-central coast, and three in the southern Mekong Delta) over a decade in the twenty-first century. Living standards in the rural Vietnamese lowlands have increased significantly thanks mainly to migration, industrial production dispersal to smaller provinces, and the higher wages in rural communities that have resulted from reduced labour supply. However, per capita income has generally increased faster in communities in the northern delta and the central coast than in those of the Mekong Delta. This article suggests that the differences in social capital configuration between the northern Red River Delta and the central coast on the one hand, and in the southern Mekong Delta on the other, have contributed to the faster per capita income growth in the former.