Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Conference
Traders in Motion: networks, identities,
and contestations in the Vietnamese marketplace
25-26 September 2014
Organisers:
Venue:
Kirsten W. Endres (and members of the Research Group ‘Traders,
Markets, and the State in Vietnam’)
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/S., Germany
OUTLINE
Commercial activities have, in different times and places, commonly been subject to intense
policing and regulation. Along with the growing importance of trade, complex contestations
emerged over the institutionalization and control of marketplaces, the levying of taxes, the
use of public space, as well as, more generally, over changes in production and exchange
relations. Vietnam has been no exception in this regard: The multiple dynamics of economic
growth, urban/rural social transformation, and state efforts to implant ‘modernity’ and a
‘civilized lifestyle’ have profoundly impacted on the ways in which Vietnamese small-scale
traders participate in, and benefit from, commercial activities since the introduction of
market-oriented reforms.
This workshop aims to examine how Vietnamese small-scale traders experience, reflect
upon, and negotiate current state policies and regulations that affect their lives and trading
activities (or businesses) in one way or other. We conceive of marketplaces and other sites
of small-scale trading – sites of the so-called informal economy – not just as places of
economic exchange, but also as contested social and moral spaces in which networks are
forged, identities are shaped, and power relations are negotiated. By looking at various
types and places of small-scale trade in contemporary Vietnam, this workshop seeks to shed
light on local-level economic agency in the seemingly paradoxical context of Vietnam's
continuing socialist orientation, on the one hand, and contemporary neoliberal economic
and social transformations, on the other.
We invite contributions relating (but not limited) to the following interconnected themes:
 Networks and Identities – the (re)creation of gendered relationships/networks and
their role in shaping particular trading practices, as well as the ways in which diverse
identities are shaped, negotiated and performed through practices of trading
MPI for Social Anthropology, December 2013
 Borders and neighbours – mastering the “art of neighbouring” across national
boundaries, negotiating differences in business ethics, and challenging/reinforcing
cultural stereotypes through cross-border trade relations
 State and society – the means and ways by which rules and regulations are enforced
and negotiated (or subverted) in places of small-scale trade; the social/economic
impacts of trade-related government policies and regulatory uncertainty
 Motion and mobility – the socio-spatial dimensions of small-scale trading practices,
the movements of traders and goods between localities, regions and nations, and
questions of social mobility in the context of class and gender
 Money and morality – the circulation/flow of money and capital in and between
various economic and social spheres, e.g. in the context of moral obligations to
family, kin and community
Speakers will be invited by the organiser.
Contact
Kirsten W. Endres, email: endres@eth.mpg.de
For further information on the Research Group ‘Traders, Markets, and the State in Vietnam’
see: www.eth.mpg.de/cms/en/research/d2/traders.html
MPI for Social Anthropology, December 2013