Governing the Working Subject: Ethics of the Individual in the Market Socialist Economy of Vietnam and China II

Panel Convenor(s)

• MN

  Minh Nguyen

  Bielefeld University, Germany
• HT

  Huy Tran

  Bielefeld University, Germany

Panel Chair(s)

• MN

  Minh Nguyen

  Bielefeld University, Germany

Panel Discussant(s)

• MN

  Minh Nguyen

  Bielefeld University, Germany

Presenter(s)

• HT

  Huy Tran

  Bielefeld University, Germany
• MN

  My-Phuong Nguyen-Hoang

  Social Life Research Institute - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• NL

  Ngoc Luong

  Bielefeld University, Germany

It has been decades after the sweeping reforms that gave rise to the economic system referred to as the market socialist economy in Vietnam and China following the era of state socialism. Today, ordinary people in these countries seem to take for granted the combination of Communist party politics with neoliberal economics as they negotiate between the contradictory demands of coexisting social orders and value frameworks. In contrast to the earlier socialist mandate on the individual to prioritize collective goals over self-interest and individual success, people nowadays are encouraged to pursue self-interest, private wealth accumulation and realise themselves in the market, whether as employed or self-employed persons. Along with the promise of freedom of choice and personal autonomy, solidary and collectivist ethics are ceding to individualized ethics such as self-entrepreneurship and self-responsibility in the conduct of working lives. Such ethics of the individual, however, must continue to display socialist allegiance while the individual must remain governable by the party states.

In these constitutionally socialist countries, the ethics of the individual helps to legitimize the transformations (1) of work into highly flexible labour regimes serving the demands of capitalist accumulation and (2) of welfare into thin layers of social protection that have been paving the way for the privatization of public goods and services. As such, the individualization of responsibilities for livelihoods and welfare seems not so much an individual choice, but an imperative of the social orders in which people live and work. The collection of papers in our panels will discuss the significance of the ethics of the individual for working lives, labour regimes, and welfare systems in the market socialist economy in Vietnam and China. They will explore and reflect on how the ethics of the individual shape the emergence and governing of new and existing employment sectors in the socialist market economy, the social and economic ramifications of the ethics of the individual in specific constellations of working lives in Vietnam and China, as well as the meanings of the ethics of the individual for the socialist market economy.

Presentations:

• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  The Ethics of Lump Sum: The Preference over Short-term Work Contracts and Early Social Insurance Withdrawal among Factory Workers in China and Vietnam
  

  Presenter: Huy An Tran – Bielefeld University
• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  Foucauldian Perspectives on the Ethics of the Individual in Agricultural Cooperatives within Vietnam's Market Socialist Economy
  

  Presenter: My-Phuong Nguyen-Hoang – Social Life Research Institute - Ho Chi Minh City
• 11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)

  Made-to-Aspire: How Migrant Factory Workers' Future-making Constructed through Entrepreneurship Pursuit
  

  Presenter: Ngoc Minh Luong – Bielefeld University