A Mobile Trading Network from Central Coastal Vietnam: Growth, Social Network, and Gender

Abstract

This chapter examines the significant growth of a mobile Vietnamese trading network in the past two decades, from Ho Chi Minh City to the entire southern half of Vietnam. The prominence of villagers from one lowlands village in the central coastal province of Quảng Ngãi in this trading niche highlights the importance of social network in Vietnamese political economy. About half of the traders in this trading network are male, and half, female, in contrast to the common dominance of women in Vietnamese petty trade. In relation to the literature on gender and trade in Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia, the chapter also examines how malleable gender is in Vietnamese trading activities.