Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Moral Economy Meets Global Economy: Shrimp Aquaculture and Social Transformation in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Syracuse University, Syracuse NY

Investigators

Abstract

Graduate student Hong Anh Vu, supervised by Dr. Alfonso Castro, will investigate whether commercial shrimp farming enhances or undermines rural livelihoods in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Shrimp farming has emerged over the last decade as a major contributor to the Vietnamese economy, earning more than half a billion dollars annually. The Vietnamese government, backed by international donors, promotes shrimp farming as part of an export-led growth and development strategy. The expansion of shrimp farming continues despite the emergence of significant questions about its social and environmental impacts, and its sustainability as a livelihood strategy. This project will explore the role of shrimp aquaculture in local livelihood strategies in the environmental, social, and economic landscapes of the Delta. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the researcher will survey households in four villages to learn how residents make decisions about their livelihoods amid the rapid pace at which globalization-induced changes have been taking place in rural Vietnam. She will document and evaluate: changes in resource use, particularly land and water; household responses to opportunities and challenges presented by shrimp aquaculture in socially differentiated groups; impacts of changes in local institutions; and how global market imperatives and national policies shape options and responses of households. Her goal is to understand how peasant households negotiate access to material and social assets as they pursue new livelihood strategies; and (2) explore the extent to which aquaculture is affecting the ability of households to overcome poverty in a sustainable manner. The research is important because fish aquaculture of all kinds has become a major arena for economic investment in many parts of the world. Understanding its impacts will help policy makers develop better strategies for sustainable development. The grant also contributes to the education of a graduate student.