Panel 33: Governance in Southeast Asia

Chair: John Harold Barnett, Emporia State University
Panelists

John Harold Barnett, Emporia State University, “Blue Economy: Cambodia 2015–2023”

Blue Economy is a fairly new idea that came from a United Nations Conference at Rio de Janeiro in 2012. This conference called for marine development, prevention of environmental degradation, and creation of sustainable jobs. Blue Economy also calls for further development of the aquaculture sector. The Association of Southeast Asian States, Changwon Agreement, and the Da Na Nang Compact agreed on using new technology to sustain the oceans and seas around the Southeast Asian Region. Cambodia is a signatory of these agreements. These agreements call for using digital technology as part of the Cambodian long term strategy and policies for Blue Economy. This presentation will discuss how Cambodia is using the incorporation of digital technology into their long term strategies and policies.

Thanh Binh Le, independent researcher, “The Impact of Birth Plannedness: A Cultural Approach”

Superstition influences fertility decisions in Asian countries (Goodkind, 1991; Yip et al., 2002; Mocan & Yu, 2020; Lo, 2003). Since parents’ fertility decisions reflect a parental desire for child services and involve a trade-off between quantity and quality of children (Becker, 1960), adding to the opportunity cost of having children (Caucutt et al., 2002), it is important to plan births for child quality assurance. Nhat-Thanh & Vu (1968) and Takegata et al. (2020) reviewed the perceived influence of the zodiac on one’s fate in Vietnamese culture, Thus, it is reasonable for parents to plan childbirth in a “good” zodiac year, given the fact that the cyclical nature of the zodiac is every twelve-year (for zodiac only) and sixty-year (for zodiac with materials) cycles. This paper uses the 2018 Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey data to answer this question in the context of Vietnam. By categorizing lunar years into three groups: good, bad, and neutral, I use these characteristics as proxy variables for birth plannedness to evaluate its influence on educational outcomes. Preliminary results show that kids born in inauspicious years are more likely to drop school and tend to claim lower-level degrees when growing up, compared with ones born in “good” zodiac year. Furthermore, the influence of birth unplannedness is amplified and exacerbated by demographic context (size and location of households), while intra-household spillover effects are recorded. Therefore, from household perspectives, it is suggested that parents ignore considering the zodiac in their fertility decisions and invest equally in all children to create an equitable and respectful environment for all children to thrive. At a macro level, the cultural context should be acknowledged in healthcare and education policy designs.

Emma Willoughby, University of Michigan, “The Making of ‘Wet Markets’: Political and Economic Insights from Vietnam”

How are “wet markets” made? Taking a social constructivist approach, this paper explores how food marketplaces are defined and perceived by both domestic and international actors. With the emergence of COVID-19 being linked to places known as “wet markets,” or “traditional markets,” international organizations and the U.S. government have turned their attention to these food marketplaces with the key goal being to increase or improve member states’ regulation of these markets. This vision of state regulation rests upon particular technical ideals about disease monitoring programs, nutrition, and hygiene standards within marketplaces, with little acknowledgement of the historical regulatory context. I have conducted an in-depth singular case study of Vietnam, a country often overshadowed and underexplained in comparative authoritarianism because of scholars’ reliance on China. I hypothesize that international reputation acts as a key mechanism shaping perspectives of traditional marketplaces among Vietnamese decisionmakers. My findings come from a variety of qualitative evidence collected during eight months of fieldwork conducted January-September 2023, including semi-structured interviews with public health professionals, observations and interviews with traders in marketplaces in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and primary and secondary historical sources. This project illustrates the promulgation of particular ideas about democratic governance, economic development, and food, coming from international organizations. This is especially important as issues of public health and social constructions of food consumption become increasingly resonant globally.