Managing the Re‐Entry Process of Returnee Government Scholars in an Emerging Transition Economy – An Embeddedness Perspective

This paper reports the findings of a study that investigates the factors affecting the re‐entry and readjustment process of returnee government scholars in Vietnam. These returnee scholars were originally sent overseas to study as part of changes introduced by the Vietnamese government to develop its domestic talent pool. Using the perspective of home country embeddedness, we find that career and community embeddedness factors, together with readjustment factors, have an effect on returnee scholars’ career and life satisfaction in their home country. These factors subsequently affected their intention to stay or re‐expatriate. The study contributes to public sector change management theory by examining factors affecting the re‐entry process of returnees within an emerging transition economy. It also adds to the limited studies on understanding and managing the re‐entry processes and state‐led diaspora strategies among returnee government scholars from emerging transition economies and their effectiveness.     

Does the Cost‐Cutting Strategy of Closing Public Schools Provide Financial Benefits? Evidence From Ohio

From 1995 through 2014, 15 percent of school districts nationwide closed at least one school without opening any new school. Although budgetary constraints have been claimed as a major reason to close a public school, no empirical study has examined the financial benefits of school closures. This study finds that Ohio school closures reduce an average district's total operating expenditures by $278–$285 per pupil, and that savings come primarily from cuts in classroom instructional services, including teachers. This study provides empirical evidence on the financial implications of school closings needed for stakeholders involved in a school closing process.     

Vietnam Rising Dragon: Contesting Dominant Western Masculinities in Ho Chi Minh City's Global Sex Industry

Scholars have produced a substantial body of literature on the lives of female sex workers in the commercial sex industry in developed and developing countries around the world. This literature on heterosexual relations has focused overwhelmingly on the experiences of female sex workers, neglecting to examine the significance of male clients (Chapkis 1997; Prasad Sociological Perspectives 42(2):181–213, 1999; Weitzer Annual Review of Sociology, 35(1), 213–234, 2009). The limited studies that do address male clients focus exclusively on Western men who participate in romance or sex tours. No study has examined sex work as a site for the performance and production of specific masculinities for the increasing number of local, non-Western, business elites in the new global economy. Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic research conducted between 2009 and 2010 and informal interviews with 25 clients, 25 sex workers, and three madams in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I illustrate how local Vietnamese and Asian businessmen enact their masculinity in relation to other men through the medium of hard cash. Local elites' participation in local hostess bars allows them to capitalise on Vietnam's rapid economic restructuring in the context of the 2008 global economic crisis in order to assert their place as major players in the world order. In doing so, wealthy local Vietnamese and Asian businessmen deconstruct dominant Western ideals to assert their place in the global order.     

Food safety and the political economy of food governance: the case of shrimp farming in Nam Dinh Province,Vietnam

This contribution is a critique of the public and private governance models in response to the food safety crisis in Vietnam. Using shrimp farming in Nam Dinh province as a case study, the paper argues that public food governance has addressed some of the safety issues in the input sector but remains largely ineffective at the production level due to limited financial and human resources. In turn, private governance has had more successes but its impact is limited to the value-chain while food safety can be influenced by both sectoral and cross-sectoral production practices. In addition, it reinforces the subordination of direct producers by keeping them within industrial production, passing down the cost of safety compliance, and forcing them to assume production risks while reducing their profit margins. More importantly, safety governance under industrial farming is likely to open new opportunities for land expropriation and concentration, affecting the livelihood of small farmers and potentially leading to political unrest. The essay thus asserts that food safety needs to be addressed under the integrated framework of Food Sovereignty, which seeks to obtain food quality, including safety together with agroecological production, farmers' control of productive resources and the enabling of local trading systems.     

Rice Land Designation Policy in Vietnam and the Implications of Policy Reform for Food Security and Economic Welfare

With the aim of promoting national food security, the Vietnamese government enforces the designation of around 35 per cent of agricultural land strictly for paddy rice cultivation. We investigate the economic effects of adjusting this policy, using an economy-wide model of Vietnam with detailed modelling of region-specific land use, agricultural activity, poverty and food security measures. Our results show that the removal of the rice land designation policy increases real private consumption by an average of 0.35 per cent per annum over 2011–2030, while also reducing poverty, improving food security and contributing to more nutritionally balanced diets among Vietnamese households.     

越南保险市场发展研究

越南自1986年以来进行了一系列经济和保险业改革,并取得了显著成效.尤其是随着越南加入WTO以及金融自由化步伐的加快,保险市场得到了飞速发展.本文阐述越南保险市场的发展历程,分析越南保险市场发展的现状、特点及存在的主要问题,并提出促进越南保险市场健康发展的建议.     

越南及东南亚其他国家经济：出现不同特点

最近，不少观点认为，越南正面对的困难是由世界经济不利因素造成的。这种说法在一定程度上是正确的，但同样处于如此不利背景下，东南亚地区其他国家的经济状况仍然有所改善并迅猛发展，基本与越南经济黯淡的现状相反。本文将综述作为东盟成员的越南及东南亚其他国家经济出现不同的特点。     

The regulation of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in Australia

The Australian Government has recently recommended that all jurisdictions regulate Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners along the lines of the Chinese Medicine Registration Act 2000 (Vic). In light of this recommendation, this article examines whether the Victorian legislation is an effective means of regulating a group of practitioners who operate under an alternative health care system. While the main focus is on the challenges of regulating of Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, the article also considers the broader issue of whether a statutory approach is the appropriate method of regulating unregistered complementary and alternative medicine practitioners.