Trading in Uncertainty

This book is an ethnographic case study, based on first hand observation, of family businesses in the northern Vietnamese village of Ninh Hip along the Red River Delta, which became a major hub for textiles in the wake of the country's shift towards market socialism. The author explores how the traders experience, negotiate and react to a marketization process that is markedly shaped by the state's morally ambivalent governance, and which can be thus characterised as an admixture of socialist and neoliberal ideologies.

How are traders shaping the political economy of Vietnam? How has the labour force changed as textile-handling has become an increasingly profitable undertaking? Horat explores the relationships between traders and local authorities, as well as changing ideas of masculinity and femininity. Focusing on the redevelopment of the market landscape and the increasing share of private ownership that have given rise to great uncertainty, this book provides a we ll-timed inquiry into current debates of economic development in a uniquely shaped market environment.

Takes an economic anthropological approach to Vietnam's textile trading and local economies Provides in-depth ethnographic analysis of economic life in a Vietnamese village Trade and traders are not looked at through a primarily economic angle, but as enmeshed in the political, social and moral context of contemporary Vietnam Captures the complexities and diversities of family businesses in Vietnam Highlights the shifting notions of gender in small-scale trade in Vietnam Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Esther Horat is Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She wrote her doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany, as well as at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Klappentext

This book is an ethnographic case study, based on first hand observation, of family businesses in the northern Vietnamese village of Ninh Hip along the Red River Delta, which became a major hub for textiles in the wake of the country's shift towards market socialism. The author explores how the traders experience, negotiate and react to a marketization process that is markedly shaped by the state's morally ambivalent governance, and which can be thus characterised as an admixture of socialist and neoliberal ideologies.

How are traders shaping the political economy of Vietnam? How has the labour force changed as textile-handling has become an increasingly profitable undertaking? Horat explores the relationships between traders and local authorities, as well as changing ideas of masculinity and femininity. Focusing on the redevelopment of the market landscape and the increasing share of private ownership that have given rise to great uncertainty, this book provides a well-timed inquiry into current debates of economic development in a uniquely shaped market environment. Esther Horat is Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She wrote her doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany, as well as at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction: Neoliberal Governance and Market Socialism.- Chapter 2. The Village in the Market.- Chapter 3. Trading in Uncertainty.- Chapter 4. Building Families, Building Businesses.- Chapter 5. The Gendering of Market Trade.- Chapter 6. Trust and Entrepreneurialism.- Chapter 7. Spatial Organisation of Trade.- Chapter 8. Morality and the Making of a Community.- Chapter 9. Conclusion.