Traders, Markets, and the State in Vietnam: Anthropological Perspectives

Abstract

In the past two decades, marketplaces as sites of multifarious economic, social, and cultural exchanges have attracted renewed interest of economic anthropologists. The collapse of communism, forexample, unleashed a tidal wave of small-scale cross- border shuttle traders and contributed to the mushrooming of so-called post-so- cialist bazaars that have since been subjected to various forms of state regulation. In some parts of the world, traditional marketplaces are being promoted (and even recreated) to satisfy Western tourists' desire for an authentic oriental bazaar experi- ence. Elsewhere, or in different contexts, they are seen as indicators of a backward economy that need to be replaced by modern supermarkets and shopping malls. On the contrary, planners in the West now foster the development of community mar- kets in order to enhance public life and improve community relations. In short, mar- ketplaces, bazaars, and other sites of small-scale trading - sites of the so-called in- formal economy - hold plenty in store for anthropologists to explore and investigate.Established in 2011, the Max Planck Institute (MPI) research group Traders, Mar- kets, and the State in Vietnam investigates local markets and other sites of small retail trade in the seemingly paradoxical context of Vietnam's continuing socialist orienta- tion, on the one hand, and contemporary neoliberal economic and social transforma- tions, on the other. The group currently consists of Kirsten W. Endres as head of the group, two PhD students (Lisa Barthelmes and Esther Horat), and, since April 2013, Caroline Grillot as postdoctoral researcher (replacing Christine Bonnin who took up new assignments in January 2013). Besides holding regular informal meetings, the group organizes and participates in workshops and conference panels in order to place its findings in broader comparative contexts and to contribute to theoretical conceptualizations of the relationship between neoliberal reforms, economic restruc- turing, and changing state-society dynamics.Market Development Policies in Vietnam TodayFerdinand Braudel's (1982/2002) monumental study on European civilization and capi- talism in the fifteenth to eighteenth century is a poignant reminder that public mar- kets have, in different historic times and places, commonly been sites of intense policing and regulation. Along with the growth of markets, complex contestations emerged over important issues such as the institutionalization and control of mar- ketplaces, the levying of taxes, the use of public space, as well as, more generally, over changes in production and exchange relations.Vietnam is no exception in this regard. The 'appropriate' development of tradi- tional marketplaces has been on the Vietnamese government's agenda since the early 2000s. New policies were issued in the areas of distribution network planning, general public market regulations and management issues, and the privatization of market construction, renovation, and upgrading. In the capital of Hanoi, in particu- lar, a number of long-standing public retail markets have been demolished and re- built as multi-story trade centers by private sector contractors (Barthelmes, 2013). As a result, many small-scale market vendors, after years of struggling for economic survival in temporary markets awaiting relocation, now suffer the consequences of higher monthly fees, inadequate spatial conditions, and the loss of customers. In addition, since the mid-1990s, other 'disorderly' forms of commercial activity, such as street vending and hawking, have repeatedly been banned in government efforts to bring order to city streets and discipline citizens into becoming 'modern' urban subjects. Yet the state's modernizing mission represents only one side of the coin. Equally important in explaining the elimination of traditional public markets is the current climate of wealth accumulation in Vietnam that takes place at the higher levels of an 'unholy' confluence between clientelistic mechanisms of political power and capitalist opportunities to profit - opportunities that serve the interests of a powerful politico-economic elite by absorbing its over-accumulated capital (Harvey, 2003). …