Law and Precariousness in an Authoritarian State: The Case of Illegal House Construction in Vietnam

While sociolegal research in authoritarian regimes has examined the cultural and regulatory factors accounting for why and how people bypass, manipulate, or resist the law, little attention has been paid to an important double-edged effect of law in legitimating and sanctioning subversive or illegal behavior. Through an examination of illegal house construction in peri-urban Vietnam, this study fills this gap by drawing attention to the relationship between law and precariousness. Precariousness influences individuals’ perceptions of and behavior toward the law; at the same time, however, law creates and reinforces precariousness, a condition of vulnerability and uncertainty subject to the local state's discretion and compassion.     

Can education policy be health policy? Implications of research on the social determinants of health

Research on the social determinants of health has demonstrated robust correlations between several social factors, health status, and life expectancy. Some of these factors could be modified through policy intervention. National-level public policies explicitly based on population health research are in various stages of development in many Western countries, but in spite of evident need, seemingly not at all in the United States. Because research shows such a strong association between education and good health, we offer evidence to show that at least two pressing problems in American society, namely the uneven distribution of educational attainment and health disparities linked to socioeconomic position, may be ameliorated through policy initiatives that link quality early childhood care, child development programs, and parental training in a seamless continuum with strengthened K-12 education.     

借助汉越音、汉越词对越汉语词汇教学

一、越语与汉语的关系(一)越语与汉语的关系首先要说明越语和汉语是不同语系的两种语言,所以,我们在对越南学生进行汉语教学时不能采用同源教学法。关于越语的语源,最近越南境外的学者都普遍认为越语属于南亚语系(王力先生也接受这种观点),即与芒语(M uong)是同一个语言系统,是     

Empirical Research and the Development and Assessment of Transitional Justice Mechanisms

In this paper, we demonstrate different methods of empiricalresearch available to transitional justice practitioners andscholars. Guidelines on how to conduct research in the fieldof transitional justice are outlined on the basis of the principlesof monitoring and evaluation for decision making, program developmentand policy development. We argue that such methods offer policymakers a systematic way to consult a population and constructa comprehensive view of what this population has experienced(e.g., violations), what they know (e.g., knowledge of varioustransitional justice mechanisms), what they believe in (e.g.,definition of justice) or what they need (e.g., accountability).Such knowledge is essential for developing effective evidence-basedtransitional justice programs.     

Fiscal effects of budget referendums: evidence from New York school districts

This paper provides empirical evidence on how budget referendums affect school inputs by taking advantage of an exogenous enactment of budget referendums for small city school districts (SCSDs) in New York State in 1998. The paper shows that SCSDs reduce instructional spending and increase student-teacher ratios while preserving administrative spending in response to budget referendums. These empirical findings are obtained by difference-in-differences estimations on data processed with propensity score matching, and the results are robust to sensitivity analysis.     

Women’s adoption of improved cook stoves in Timor-Leste: challenges and opportunities

This article examines Timorese women’s decision-making process of adoption of improved cooked stoves, using Slaski and Thurber’s conceptual framework of “motivation, affordability, and level of engagement”, developed by Slaski and Thurber (2009). Despite the obvious, evidence-based socio-economic benefits of using improved cook stoves, the majority of households still persist with their traditional cooking method. This article argues that the level of engagement with new technology needs to be contextualised in light of cultural attributes and beliefs which have led to the slow uptake of clean, efficient cooking technology.     

Creating Culturally Responsive Services for Vietnamese-Heritage Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Journal of Family Violence - Despite a population of over two million Vietnamese people in the United States, very few domestic violence shelters employ Vietnamese-speaking staff or provide...     

Labour Unrest in Vietnam and China: Insurgency or Contained Contention?

This article reviews three recent books on labour politics in Vietnam and China: Angie Tran’s Ties That Bind: Cultural Identity, Class and Law in Vietnam’s Labor Resistance; Jeffrey Becker’s Social Ties, Resources and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China: From Peasants to Protesters, and Eli Friedman’s Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Post-Socialist China. These three books capture the changing patterns of labour unrest and labour institutions in Vietnam and China, which are accounted for by the social foundation of resistance as well as the political economy of capitalist development. Their main contribution to the existing literature is that they draw out the new dynamics and new venues within the state that can both enable and constrain labour resistance and struggle in these countries. However, this article also argues that these works have not adequately theorised the nature of change within the state and the role of the law in labour resistance. It therefore suggests that bringing in the law to socio-political institutions is essential to a research agenda that explores continuity and change in labour politics in Vietnam and China as transitional economies.     

Coping with Precariousness: How Social Insurance Law Shapes Workers' Survival Strategies in Vietnam

This article examines the role of social insurance law in the survival strategies of factory workers in Vietnam, especially when they are faced with pressing family needs and an uncertain future. Despite the official discourse of the law which encourages employees to accumulate social insurance for their pension benefits, workers in this study have considered their social insurance fund as a form of saving and opted to gain early access to it when they are in desperate need of money. Workers understand and use the law in a way that answers to their needs; however, such action simultaneously puts them outside the protection of the law. In workers' daily struggles, law generates a moral tension between rights and needs, and ultimately perpetuates their precarious, vulnerable condition. The article demonstrates how workers' legal consciousness varies according to their perception of their precariousness, a precariousness generated by the fragile nature of their work and underpinned by their traditional familial moral obligations. This research advances our understanding of the way state law in postsocialist regimes informs social action and consciousness in ways that oftentimes contradict the spirit of the law.