Abstract
The socioeconomic transformation in Vietnam ’s Central Highlands has achieved good results in developing diverse cash crops that have a high output. However, this situation pushed indigenous inhabitants into the vulnerability context of livelihood constraint, which is caused by a lack of land and insufficient key assets. To examine the specific context of the indigenous people, this chapter forms a theoretical framework, which is constructed by three components of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity, and resilience). More importantly, the actor concept is integrated in this framework to form the core connection of the three components and shed light on the active agent role of indigenous people. In addition, this chapter deals with the main methods, which combine spatial data and survey data.
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Notes
- 1.
Conceptual works usually bifurcate into two opposing approaches: “biophysical” and “social”, “outcome” and “context”, “current” and “future” (Adger 2006; Wolf et al. 2013), “pre-existing condition” and “tempered response” (Cutter 1996), “internal side” and “external side” (Bohle 2001; Chambers 2006), etc. However, it is not the purpose of this research to review and gain insight into each conceptual frame. For a summary of approaches to vulnerability, the reader is directed to W. Adger 2006 and Füssel 2007.
- 2.
Klein and Nicholls (1999) regard “natural vulnerability” as one of the determinants of “socioeconomic vulnerability”; Brooks (2003), in contrast, regards “social vulnerability” as one of the determinants of biophysical vulnerability. And in a different point of view, Cutter (1996) sees “biophysical” and “social” vulnerability as parallel processes that exist independently.
- 3.
Landsat imagery is available since 1972 from six satellites in the Landsat series. These satellites have been a major component of NASA’s Earth observation program, with three primary sensors evolving over 30 years: MSS (Multispectral Scanner), TM (Thematic Mapper), and ETM+ (Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus) (http://glcf.umd.edu/data/landsat/).
- 4.
MCD12Q1 is derived from observations spanning a year’s input of Terra and Aqua MODIS data at 500 m spatial resolution. Many components of the classification algorithm are applied: training site is revised, land surface temperature is included, and ancillary datasets are used in post-processing (Friedl et al. 2010). The interpreting process, after that, was conducted by a supervised classification. The primary land cover scheme identifies 17 land cover classes defined by the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which includes 11 natural vegetation classes, 3 developed and mosaicked land classes, and 3 nonvegetated land classes. For ease of use, a number of other classification schemes are also provided by different communities (Friedl and Sulla-Menashe 2013).
- 5.
Supervised classification is based on the spectral characteristics of identified sample areas or training fields (Daniel Müller 2003).
- 6.
Due to specific crops among different study sites, paddy class will be detected in Kontum City and Lak District, and flower class will be detected in Lac Duong, instead.
- 7.
Vietnam’s Central Highlands is a tough study area, as it is a huge mountainous area where it is historically viewed as a remote, isolated area that is difficult to access. Moreover, in recent decades, Central Highlands has come out to be a sensitive area due to some conflicts and demonstrations relating to land rights and freedom of religion in 2001 and 2004 (Human Rights Watch 2002; UNHCR 2006). Therefore, research about Central Highlands, in whatever topics, is regarded as socially or politically sensitive.
- 8.
At every study site, the author had to firstly present herself at the highest government management offices (the People’s Committee) and obtained the contacts with local cadres (in communes and villages). A village in the Central Highlands nowadays is a state administrative unit though it still appears as a traditional social unit controlled by its header. The mixture in the management of its society generated more barriers and confusions to access. The experiences from the specialists introduced that besides asking for the permission from authorities, the researchers should get contact with villages’ headers on the field as the first step to “penetrate” study sites.
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Thái, H.A.C. (2018). Vulnerability Context: A Study on Livelihood Pathways of the Indigenous People. In: Livelihood Pathways of Indigenous People in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71171-3_1
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