Agricultural Modernization and Climate Change in Vietnam's Post-Socialist Transition

摘要

This article presents a critique of Vietnam's agricultural modernization in the context of its post-socialist transition and the emerging climate crisis. Agricultural modernization has led to impressive rates of wealth creation that have pulled many Vietnamese out of poverty and food insecurity over the past two decades. However, the model's own logic of accumulation has also made the country increasingly reliant on complex processes and has locked in various technological path dependencies. These include energy- and input-intensive production, engineered landscapes, reduced agro-biodiversity, and weakened social networks, knowledge and skills. As a result, Vietnam is becoming more sensitive and less able to adapt to structural shocks, notably that of climate change. Furthermore, and crucially, the post-socialist transition since the launch of Doi moi (market reform) has given rise to a political economy with dominant interests increasingly vested in the continuity of this modernization mode!. The article argues that it is this new dynamics of class and state-society relations that now represents the main obstacle to the development of credible solutions to the climate crisis.