Resettlement, displacement and agrarian change in northern uplands of Vietnam

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the pivotal ways in which water-related development projects shape interrelated processes of agrarian change. It looks at the politics surrounding dam building in Vietnam, the relationship between the state and ethnic minority people in resources use, and the ways ethnic minorities/resettlers in the vicinity of dams have experienced and responded to changes in their everyday lives -- their political and livelihoods responses.;The research found that damming rivers for power generation in Vietnam spoke to relationships between center and periphery, highlands and lowlands, ethnic majority and minority peoples. Ethnic minority people have long been considered as undeveloped and have been targets for development. However, development-induced displacement has had major effects on inhabitants in the vicinity of dam sites, transforming social, cultural and agrarian landscapes of the region at different scales. Despite the government's attempt to improve its policies, there have still been no clear guidelines on how to implement `good practices' of hydropower construction. And at the same time, improvements in policy have not always brought positive changes on the ground. The research also highlights the fact that upland peasants/resettlers were not passive victims of the state development projects but, rather, actively fought for their survival and autonomy. Their responses were in a multitude of forms, ranging from coping strategies to opposition resistance against the state development apparatus. Besides struggle between the state as patron and its clients, and between the powerful and the powerless, there was also struggle among the powerless, at either individual or collective levels.;Drawing on theories of development, ethnic identity, and state power and resource management in the uplands of Southeast Asia, this research has three aims. The first aim is to understand the state's motivation and logic behind dam construction. The second aim is to investigate the dam planning process, and to explore how international standards on good dam practices are taken into account, as well as how upland people respond to these decisions. Finally, the third aim is to examine how the process of negotiation of the resettlement projects reconfigured livelihoods in the Northwest.