State-Society Interaction in Vietnam

This book, based on anthropological research on local irrigation management in the Mekong Delta, sheds light on state-society interactions at the interface between bureaucratic and informal areas. Data from ethnographic case studies was framed abductively by an institutional bricolage approach (Cleaver 2012) and state power (Goebel 2011). The study goes beyond an institutions process and individual bargaining to argue that local irrigation management is guided by the co-evolution between the state and local actors. It is the everyday dialogue that, in the co-existence of the hierarchical state management structure and the space of local flexibility, officially and unofficially refines the local practices.