Complicated Webs: Experiential Risk in the Vietnamese Coffee Industry

Abstract

AbstractThis article explores the political and cultural dimensions of risk and uncertainty as coffee farmers and other industry professionals emerge from crisis and traverse complex economic, environmental, and political landscapes in post‐Đổi Mới (Economic Reform) Vietnam. Based on ethnographic research across the coffee industry and the everyday lives of farmers, this article conceptualizes risk, on the one hand, as a technique of market expansion and, on the other hand, as an experience. It discusses a contrast between emergent market‐based discourses of risk management and experiential knowledge of risk in the Vietnamese coffee industry. In educational and training spaces, coffee industry experts interpret risk within a narrow framework of profitability and long‐term production. Vietnamese coffee farmers, in contrast, experience risk as part of the everyday coffee production landscape, which is shaped by environmental instability, crop failure, and economic volatility. This article argues that this experiential risk catalyzes farmers to employ novel mitigation strategies and to confront contentious state agricultural policies and international development programs. [Vietnam, risk, uncertainty, coffee, commodities]