Business associations and the politics of contained participation in Vietnam

The development of the private sector in Vietnam since the mid-1990s has accompanied the emergence of organised business interests, which is recognised as vital to pursuing the agenda of economic modernisation. This article aims to explore the significance of the interactions between the state and business associations representing small-and-medium enterprises. It demonstrates that business associations have transformed state–business relations in a way that is distinguishable from state corporatism or societal pluralism. The analysis examines the interplay between state actors and emerging non-state entities, and the deliberative capacity of intermediary organisations in the policy-making process, specifically through the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises. It is argued that this process constitutes a new mode of political participation that reflects the entanglement of the state and private capital interests. It reveals features of contained participation and contributes to the research agenda on deliberative and governance practices in post-socialist transitional economies.

越南私有部门自1990年代中期以来的发展,伴随着管理有组织商业利益的立法的出台。而有组织的商业利益被视为实现经济现代化的关键。本文探讨了国家与商业协会在为中小企业打造适宜市场环境方面所进行的互动。商业协会成为具有战略意义的政治主体,以一种不同于国家统合主义或社会多元主义的方式改写了政府和商业的关系。本文探讨了国家主体与新兴非国家实体之间的相互作用,并评价了中间组织——尤其像越南中小企业协会——在政策制定过程中的协商能力。作者认为,该过程造成了一种新的政治参与方式,反映了国家和私人资本利益之间的纠结。它还揭示了其中所包含的参与的诸特点,并对于研究后社会主义转型经济体中出现的协商及治理实践,或能起到抛砖引玉的作用。     

小憩

经常会在非常喧闹的地方,看见这样安静的场景。面对着广场,面对着街景,或面对着水,就这么闲闲地坐着。也可能在思考,也可能什么也不想,只是用目光,淡泊地看着对面能看得着的东西。像是在看,其实是在休息。这样的休息,是欧洲人的日常状态,如果欧洲有一万种风情,这是其中的一种。     

回顾与展望——《民国档案》步入21世纪

清代著名学者阮元有去:"学术盛衰,当于百年后论升降焉".《民国档案》创刊迄今,已历15个年头,所刊史料、论文业已逾千万字,当兹中华人民共和国建国50周年大庆及新旧世纪之交际,适时总缬十多年来的办刊工作,发扬成绩鼓舞士气,找出缺陷加以改进,以利今后扬长避短,更好地办好刊物,编辑部同仁同感甚有必要.     

IT Industrial Development in Taiwan and the Constraints on Environmental Mobilization

Studies in the development of high‐tech industries have shown low levels of community involvement and environmental mobilization. In contrast to the tenets of social movement theories, it seems that the openness of political systems and the tactics of social movements are not enough to lead to increased grassroots environmental resistance in the context of high‐tech development. This article uses the example of high‐tech electronic development in Hsinchu, Taiwan, to examine why and how grassroots activism has been impeded in the past two decades. The article highlights the industrial characteristics and processes within the information technology sector, and analyses existing obstacles to environmental mobilization in the context of a fast‐growing high‐tech economy. It argues that a unique IT development structure has dramatically changed local social characteristics in a way that constrains grassroots mobilization in public social agendas. It also shows how the influential and rapidly expanding IT sector has come to dominate resource‐use in the area, leaving opposing forces more powerless than ever.     

西晋越窑提梁人物鸡首壶

中国古代瓷器有一种很典型的器物——鸡首壶,又名鸡头壶、天鸡壶、罂,这种壶是一种将壶的流（嘴）捏塑成鸡头状的盘口壶,它创烧于三国末年,经魏晋南北朝以至隋代的发展、演变,盛极一时,隋以后逐渐消失。     

Rethinking State-Society Relations in Vietnam: The Case of Business Associations in Ho Chi Minh City

The growing private sector in the post-reform Vietnamese economy and its new forms of mobilisation have led to newly emergent social forces that have shaped internal state agendas and political deliberations. With a view to exploring the nature of institutional change in Vietnam, I argue that business associations have played a crucial intermediary role between the state and the private sector over past decades. These associations and the spaces of governance that they constitute are neither characteristic of autonomous actors as suggested by liberal theory nor a form of state corporatism. This paper adopts the “state-in-society” approach, which contends that the state and society should be considered through new governance spaces within the state. These spaces create institutional mechanisms for interaction between the government and business, and provide a framework for deliberative engagement between state and non-state actors. This framework will be tested through an examination of associations of small and medium enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City and their connections to the city authorities. I argue that business associations will be accommodated by the state and will coalesce with existing bureaucratic interests. This proposition contributes to the new research agenda that applies the state-in-society approach to post-socialist institutions.     

Industrial District and the Multiplication of Labour: The Chinese Apparel Industry in Prato,Italy

Since the 1990s, the Chinese apparel industry in Prato has developed from a few stitching workshops into full‐fledged production networks. However, persistent disparity between the Chinese and Italian labor has triggered widespread social tensions. Drawing upon the recent literature of critical labor studies, this paper offers a different perspective to see the disparity in terms of the multiplication of labor across scales. The Chinese labor in Prato is made cheap and flexible by the proliferation of institutional and social borders, which were in turn inadvertently produced by Italian immigration policies, Chinese social norms, and local and regional economic conditions. In particular, the Chinese migrant workers have played an active role in producing social borders and in their own exploitation. Therefore, the labor polarization in Prato can hardly be solved by local institutional arrangements, and Italian trade unions have failed to organize the Chinese migrant labor in Prato.     

明代“嘉靖重轮重郭异品大钱”跋

《上海博物馆藏钱币.元明钱币》编,刊出之钱图440,明世宗嘉靖大钱①,制异。此钱径特大,尤为特别的是,正背两面外轮各含双线,内郭亦挂双线,中国古钱唯此独具,为“双面重轮重郭超号异品大钱”。钱图刊出之后,见泉界多有评述。有称“孤品”②,也有识为“臆造品”③。学术探讨,看法不一,事属正常,而意见如此相左,必有可议之处。有幸,笔者在1998年北京报国寺第二次全国钱币交流会上,见到与图440同一版式的一枚大钱。初不以为然,看后便无法释手。钱之铜质黄中偏暗,俗称水浑铜;包浆通体入骨,面带斑点状细小铜绿;穿口略小,“嘉靖通宝”四字秀劲有力,…     

《土族红领巾》:闪耀土乡二十载

你知道青海省第一家少先队队报诞生在哪里吗?出乎很多人的意料,它不是诞生在办学条件优越的城市学校,而是由一所大山里的学校——互助土族自治县东山乡什巴小学创办的。如今,这份名叫《土族红领巾》的队报已走过了2D年的风雨,成为土族少年展示自我的舞台,沟通外界的桥梁。     

清秘密会社“天运乙丑”银牌

1991年8月24日,杭州岳王路花鸟钱币市场,有位上海交易者,让出一枚罕见的清代秘密会社银饼式传会银牌。现收藏于杭州南宋钱币博物馆。这种银饼式传会凭证,前所未闻,尚属首见。