Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Moral Economy Meets Global Economy: Shrimp Aquaculture and Social Transformation in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

研究生Hong Anh Vu在阿方索·卡斯特罗博士的指导下，将调查商业养虾是否增强或破坏了越南湄公河三角洲地区的农村生计。过去十年里，养虾已经成为越南经济的主要贡献者，每年的收入超过5亿美元。越南政府在国际捐助者的支持下，将对虾养殖作为出口导向型增长和发展战略的一部分。尽管对虾养殖对社会和环境的影响以及作为生计战略的可持续性出现了重大问题，但对虾养殖的扩大仍在继续。该项目将探讨虾类水产养殖在三角洲环境、社会和经济景观的当地生计战略中的作用。研究人员将使用定性和定量的方法，对四个村庄的家庭进行调查，以了解在全球化引发的越南农村快速变化中，居民是如何决定自己的生计的。她将记录和评价：资源使用的变化，特别是土地和水的变化；家庭对社会不同群体对虾养殖带来的机遇和挑战的反应；当地机构变化的影响；全球市场需求和国家政策如何影响家庭的选择和反应。她的目标是了解农户在寻求新的生计战略时如何谈判获得物质和社会资产；以及(2)探讨水产养殖对家庭以可持续方式克服贫困的能力的影响程度。这项研究之所以重要，是因为在世界许多地区，各种鱼类养殖业已经成为经济投资的主要领域。了解其影响将有助于政策制定者制定更好的可持续发展战略。这笔助学金还用于研究生的教育。

Graduate student Hong Anh Vu, supervised by Dr. Alfonso Castro, will investigate whether commercial shrimp farming enhances or undermines rural livelihoods in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Shrimp farming has emerged over the last decade as a major contributor to the Vietnamese economy, earning more than half a billion dollars annually. The Vietnamese government, backed by international donors, promotes shrimp farming as part of an export-led growth and development strategy. The expansion of shrimp farming continues despite the emergence of significant questions about its social and environmental impacts, and its sustainability as a livelihood strategy. This project will explore the role of shrimp aquaculture in local livelihood strategies in the environmental, social, and economic landscapes of the Delta. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, the researcher will survey households in four villages to learn how residents make decisions about their livelihoods amid the rapid pace at which globalization-induced changes have been taking place in rural Vietnam. She will document and evaluate: changes in resource use, particularly land and water; household responses to opportunities and challenges presented by shrimp aquaculture in socially differentiated groups; impacts of changes in local institutions; and how global market imperatives and national policies shape options and responses of households. Her goal is to understand how peasant households negotiate access to material and social assets as they pursue new livelihood strategies; and (2) explore the extent to which aquaculture is affecting the ability of households to overcome poverty in a sustainable manner. The research is important because fish aquaculture of all kinds has become a major arena for economic investment in many parts of the world. Understanding its impacts will help policy makers develop better strategies for sustainable development. The grant also contributes to the education of a graduate student.