Potent Places in Central Vietnam: ‘Everything that Comes Out of the Earth is Cham’

Set apart from the so-called ‘Hinduisation’ process, the Cham country is characterised by the presence of many sites or shrines dedicated to local deities. This paper—based on the analysis of archaeological and anthropological evidence—aims to identify these cults, to clarify the associated practices and to demonstrate how the local cults map out the entire local geography. Moreover, in central Vietnam, it is possible to precisely examine ‘potent places’ in order to achieve a better understanding of the local cults and the persistence of those cults from antiquity to the present. In ancient times, each local deity was connected to a political power, which ‘exhaled’ it and, at the same time, put a mark on the territory. The diversity of potent places allows a better understanding of puzzling territories. The continuity of ritual practices performed at Cham potent places, centuries after the disappearance of any form of Cham political power, shows the link between the first occupants of the land and the following Viet inhabitants.     

‘There is Nothing that is Difficult’: History and Hardship on and after the Ho Chi Minh Trail in North Vietnam

The North Vietnamese Army considered the Ho Chi Minh Trail a key part of their victory during the Vietnam War against the United States. The trail was often defended by encouraging large numbers of lowland Vietnamese villagers to show their patriotism by moving to the uplands. Ho Chi Minh himself said of the enormous task of making the trail, ‘There is nothing that is difficult’. Based on fieldwork in Ha Tinh province, where the trail began, this paper addresses what happened after the war to the many migrants who had moved to defend and support the trail. After 1975, many families had expected increased government support as a thank you for their tremendous patriotism and sacrifice during the war. Instead, they became gradually disillusioned with collective farming, and later with the retreat of state services, and incidences of social protest and discontent have been increasingly clamorous in the post-war era.     

‘La Lenin is my passport’: schooling,mobility and belonging in socialist Cuba and its diaspora

Based on an ethnographic study of transnational networks of alumni of an academically selective boarding school in Havana, this article explores the nexus between mobility, schooling and belonging in the context of socialist Cuba and its diaspora. Drawing on Goffman’s work, I argue that the boarding school experience was transformative; it facilitated or consolidated social mobility for its pupils, which later, for many, led to geographic mobility in the form of study and work outside Cuba. After graduating, alumni continue to identify with the school and to reproduce their alumni identities. The affective webs of belonging forged through family links and friendships fostered at the school constitute emotionally sustaining networks that also provide material support after migrating. I propose that the school represents a site of identification for a globally dispersed non-national diaspora and argue that migration scholars need to embed international migration within people’s lives more broadly.     

my mather

Ji Xianlin is a well-Known writer and scholar in China.My Mother reflects not only his attachment to his mother,but also depicts various aspects of the traditional Chinese family in the 1920s.My Mother gives insight into such aspects as Chinese family structure,economic conditions and women's status within the family.     

Integration or transformation? Looking in the future of Information and Communication Technology in education in Vietnam

Over the last two decades, crucial factors for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education have improved significantly in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it is clear that, as in other countries, no educational revolution is taking place. We argue that there is a need for a broad dialogue on the future of ICT in education in Vietnam as discussion of ideas about future possibilities can be instrumental in rationalizing and generating educational change. We explore how a group of key players representing the public and private sector as well as development partners in the field look at the future of ICT in education in the country. Following the Delphi method, these key players assessed in different survey rounds the current situation of ICT in education, identified a series of targets and were asked to assess these targets in respect of their importance. The key players reached a consensus that the purpose of technology integration is to achieve learning goals and enhance learning. However, there is more controversy on targets that could potentially transform education practice in Vietnam. We discuss the value of the Delphi technique and argue for increased participation of all involved stakeholders in policy development on ICT in education.     

Growth with equity: income inequality in Vietnam, 2002–14

We use the 2002 through 2014 Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys to construct comparable measures of household income and estimates of income inequality over this high-growth period. We focus on two questions: How have benefits from growth been distributed; and do changes in the structure of the economy map into changes in inequality? We explore dimensions in which inequality may vary, notably urban versus rural, and by ethnic status. We also decompose inequality by income source to highlight key factors underlying the relatively low levels of inequality during this period. We find that agricultural opportunities played an important role in dampening inequality, but more important has been the steady development of wage-labor markets in both urban and rural areas. An important caveat to the generally rosy picture we paint is the deteriorating position of ethnic minorities. Finally, we draw comparisons with China and document key differences in their growth-inequality experiences.     

What is Prevalent in Chinese Cities?

BEIJING: Taking Pedicabs to Weddings It is a fashion among young people in Beijing to take pedicabs to their weddings and bridal chambers. Today's hip young Beijingers no longer crave extravagant weddings aimed at attracting the gazes of     

Organic coasts? Regulatory challenges of certifying integrated shrimp–mangrove production systems in Vietnam

The Vietnamese government aims to expand the scale of Naturland certified organic production in integrated shrimp–mangrove farming systems across the coast of Ca Mau province by 2015. In doing so the division between public and private regulation has become blurred. We analyze the government's goal by examining the regulatory challenges of using organic certification as a means of linking farm-level management to the sustainability of coastal (mangrove) landscapes. The results show the importance of farmer perceptions of sustainable farm and landscape management, fair benefit sharing mechanisms in the certified value chain, and legitimate private sector-led auditing. We conclude that in order to overcome conflicts of interest and legitimate representation in organic certification, the social and economic conditions of production require regulatory intervention from provincial and local level government. To achieve benefits beyond the scale of the farm, the role of shrimp producers should be redefined as partners in rather than targets of regulation.     

What is ethnic in an ethnic economy?

This article examines critically the relationship between ethnicity and entrepreneurship in the sociology of immigrant economies. It argues that what is ethnic in an ethnic economy has often been confusingly conceptualised and that several factors now call for re-assessing the ethnic nature of immigrants' business activities. On the basis of a review of recent research, three such factors are outlined: the porosity of ethnic boundaries to cross-group business interactions; the diversity within immigrant economies in terms of status, gender, class and generation; and the political and institutional context in which immigrant economies take place. The conclusion stresses the need for multiple explanations of how and why immigrants become entrepreneurs, which take into account not only the meso-level constituted by ethnicity and social capital, but also micro-individual factors and macro-institutional settings.     

Learning at my Second College

With the implementation of China's reform and opening policy, foreign-invested enterprises have developed quickly since the 1980s. According to incomplete statistics, there are a total of 190,000 foreign-invested enterprises in China. With high salaries, pleasant working environments, advanced management and a system of selecting for employment on the basis of qualification, these enterprises employ a group of well-educated young people. They are becoming an important part of China's white-collar stratum.Fang Xia, secretary of the Medical Pro]ect Department of the Beijing-based Siemens Technological Development Co. Ltd., is one of the white-collar women working for foreign-invested enterprises. With her excellent German language skill, and her spirit, she has won the trust of her colleagues and her boss. Here are her feelings and experience working in Siemens.     

China is Full of Confidence in Keeping Promises

AT the closing ceremony of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Mme. Peng Peiyun, Chinese State Councilor, said, "I believe that this Conference will become a starting point of the worldwide women's cause. The effect of the Conference depends on     

How temporary is temporary employment in Spain?

I use a multinomial logit model and the Spanish Active Population Survey (EPA) for the period 1987–1996 to study labor force transitions of temporary workers. These workers hold fixed-term employment contracts, which Spanish labor law distinguishes from indefinite contracts. Since the EPA questionnaire allows the identification of workers with either type of contract, I use matched EPA files to analyze transitions from temporary to permanent employment and explore the extent to which workers holding fixed-term employment contracts tend to be trapped in temporary employment relationships. I am grateful to an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. Pedro Albarrán-Pérez provided excellent research assistance.     

‘The language is disgusting and they refer to my disability’: the cyberharassment of disabled people

Disabled people face hostility and harassment in their socio-cultural environment. The use of electronic communications creates an online context that further reshapes this discrimination. We explored the experiences of 19 disabled victims of cyberharassment. Five themes emerged from the study: disability and health consequences, family involvement, misrepresentation of self, perceived complexity, and lack of awareness and expertise. Cyberharassment incidents against disabled people were influenced by the pre-existing impairment, perceived hate-targeting, and perpetrators faking disability to get closer to victims online. Our findings highlight a growing issue requiring action and proper support.     

Wer ist in Deutschland willkommen?Who is welcome in Germany?

Germany is currently experiencing a huge inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of migrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for migrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people who flee from political persecution are much more accepted compared to migrants who come because of economic reasons. This is particularly true for the right to receive social benefits. On the other hand, our results suggest that there is a strong preference for high-skilled and culturally non-distant migrants. Concerns regarding individual competition on the job market seem to play only a minor role.     

Does “buyer beware” work in migration? Contracting between brokers and migrants in Vietnam

This article is an attempt to open the lid a little of the “black box of migration” i.e. brokers. Analysing contracts between brokers and labour migrants, we identify four different forms of exploitation of migrants by brokers: expropriation of skill premium, risk shifting, over‐charging, and non‐refund of deposits. Opportunistic behaviour by brokers, as evidenced by such exploitation, is seen as a market failure that is explained by human attributes and transactional characteristics. Given the rigidities in the human attributes of the contracting parties and the nature of migration as a risky multi‐period transaction, proposals are made for non‐market interventions, which can lead to more equitable contracting.     

Why is the Divorce Rate Declining in Indonesia?

This article examines trends in marital dissolution in Indonesia. Analysis considers the impact of educational expansion, delayed marriage, urbanization, increasing employment before marriage, legislative change, and increased free choice in marriage on the decline in marital disruption. Trends such as delayed marriage and educational expansion account for about one third of the decline in marital dissolution. Moreover, factors associated with marital disruption are shifting in importance. In particular, age at marriage and marital duration are becoming less reliable predictors of marital stability, whereas education is becoming more important. We conclude that the shifting forces governing marital formation and dissolution in Indonesia have modified the linkages between the conjugal couple, broader kinship systems, and modes of economic support such that traditional patterns sustaining high levels of marital instability are no longer in effect.     

I Return to my Second Home

LAST September, Chai Ran, my classmate and roommate in Shanxi, and I took a train to Yuanping to visit our second home. Twenty-five years ago, we 31 students from Beijing went to live in the Xiadalin Village in Yuanping, Shanxi Province, where we lived and labored for seven years. In our railway car, Chai told me that Yuanping, to which the Xiadalin Village belonged in the past administration, was celebrating its emergence as a city. Chai had married a villager and had returned to Beijing only two years ago. Her son and daughter, who were both born in the village, had just visited there and had brought her the news. Although I knew that Yuanping had changed a great deal, I was still unable to imagine what it had become, since I had left eighteen years ago. In my memory, it was only a series of streets with a     

Improving Social Work Education in Vietnam Through International Cooperation: The ‘Social Work Education Enhancement Program’

This paper describes an initiative to improve social work education in Vietnam through a three-year international collaborative, including US Aid for International Development, San José State University, eight universities in Vietnam, Vietnam's government ministries, and Cisco Systems, Inc. The social work profession was officially recognized by the Vietnamese government in 2010. Despite the rapid expansion of social work education programs, there are significant limitations in the universities' ability to provide social work education. The goal of the Social Work Education Enhancement Program (SWEEP) is to strengthen the capacity of Vietnam's undergraduate social work programs to deliver quality education and prepare trained, job-ready social workers. The SWEEP project aims to improve the administration of social work education, the professional capacity of faculty, social work curriculum, and networking technology to enable centers for excellence in learning and scholarship. To ensure that the SWEEP team targeted training and technical assistance activities that were culturally congruent, a comprehensive needs assessment and frequent mid-course evaluations were conducted, showing many shared and unique contextual issues facing universities. The collaborative process of developing social work education which fits the local context can be replicated in other countries that are in the early stages of social work development.     

If the PRS Experience in Latin America is a Disappointment,What is the Alternative?

This is a reflection inspired by Geske Dijkstra's article ‘The PRSP Approach and the Illusion of Improved Aid Effectiveness: Lessons from Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua’ (Development Policy Review 23 (4), July 2005) which questions the usefulness of the PRS approach in Latin America, building to a considerable degree on studies carried out in the three countries by the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), which Sida financed. ¹ 1 The reports are produced annually and available at http://www.iss.nl/prsp .