Economic Activity and Social Network during Doi Moi in Rural Village of the Red River Delta, Vietnam

Abstract

The Doi Moi (renovation) policy, which started in 1986, converted a planned economy into a market economy. As a result, the economic growth has been remarkable. The effect of this policy has reached even to rural areas and stimulated not only agricultural activity but also side activities like family handicrafts, retail, peddling, seasonal labor, and so on. Moreover, this economic transformation has brought social transformation to Vietnam and this is the reason why Doi Moi is considered as a big turning point for Vietnam.Incidentally, Doi Moi has occurred in a rural village in the Red River Delta, northern Vietnam, an area which is characterized by its "autonomy of rural villages" and strength of social bonds. Hence, each rural village in the Red River Delta is wealthy in its uniqueness and diversity.The autonomy of villages is considered to be the proximal layer of the Vietnamese society, as shown with term "traditional village." How should we grasp this social proximal layer during the drastic transformation of Doi Moi? It is true that autonomy declined once during the socialization of totalitarianism. However, this autonomy has been activated again under Doi Moi, which can be clearly shown by the reconstruction of such common values and property as the communal house, temple, and village festival, which has enriched the social organization in the village.This is to say, Doi Moi has activated not only the rural economy but also the rural society. Yet it is common for economic and social concerns to be discussed individually or in opposition to each other. This is because the comprehension of social mechanisms is different from the comprehension of economic ones; the former is considered to be rational and based on the principle of the market economy but the latter is considered to be under traditional social rules. I, however, think these two are connected to each other. In fact in the Red River Delta, the social network is used practically in the development of economic activity; furthermore, social network is strengthened by utilization in economic activity. The purpose of this paper is to prove this hypothesis and to examine the action between social network and economic activity at the micro level of individuals and households, which reflects these connections much more than when looking at the whole village. This is because individuals are the main components of a rural village and the practical decision makers for the economic activity and the social activity there. Here I will use the term "social network" to refer to the whole "face to face" personal network including both long-established relations based on relatives and the local community as well as newly established relations through personal stages of life like schoolmates and comrades in arms.Moreover, this paper aims to analyze on a plural scale: the village level is the micro scale (main scale of this paper) and district level is the mezzo scale. In addition to the viewpoint of the plural scale, utilizing the mezzo scale is original too. With this analysis, it will be possible to grasp a coordinated image of the Red River Delta by combining the macro image from a statistical approach and the micro image from a detailed field survey. The study area of this paper is the Thanh Mien district, Hai Duong province. This is befitting for a study area for two reasons: first because it is located around the middle of the Red River Delta, and therefore represents the delta area, and second because the Thanh Mien district is far from such large cities as Hanoi, and Hai Phong which faces Tonkin Gulf. Therefore, it has less urban or market influences, and hence the village community bonds are relatively tight. In the same way, Pham Tan village was chosen as a study village, because it is one of the most remote villages in the Thanh Mien district.