Mediating Resistance among Productive Paradoxes

Resistance to sustainable development policies in authoritarian contexts is a global phenomenon. In Vietnam, the state tries to prevent resistance using repressive-responsive measures and instrumentalises the sustainable development discourse under its ecological modernisation program to frame the measures. NGO s and communities may only participate in governance processes within boundaries and narratives defined by the Vietnamese state. The sustainable development paradigm as a norm is therefore omni-present. Still, resistance to the state’s definition of sustainable development exists. This article illustrates how a farming community resists the narrative and shows how a Vietnamese NGO mediates the community’s covert everyday resistance to overt forms and rightful resistance. It achieves case-based successes by making paradoxes between different discourses productive. This article contributes to understanding the role of the sustainable development discourse in Vietnam and argues that resistance is actually taking place despite a widespread will to be modern. It adds to the literature on resistance by enabling an in-depth look into the process of mediation between different forms of resistance

Corporate governance · Covert · Mediation · Narrative · Sustainable development · Vietnamese · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies