Risk Epistemologies and Aesthetic Reflexivity of a Disaster-Affected Community: Findings from Vietnam

1133120

SRO0010.1177/13607804221133120Sociological Research OnlineNguyen-Trung

research-article2022

Article

Risk Epistemologies and
Aesthetic Reflexivity of a
Disaster-Affected Community:
Findings from Vietnam

Sociological Research Online
1–15
© The Author(s) 2022
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Kien Nguyen-Trung
Monash University, Australia

Abstract
Scholars and policymakers often use their expert knowledge to define the risk that laypeople
face. Nonetheless, they have frequently overlooked how laypeople describe and explain the risks
they face on a daily basis. Moreover, an emphasis on individualisation and reflexivity in Western
societies has led to little understanding of how a non-Western community constructs its shared
risk culture and how this culture associates aesthetic reflexivity and risk epistemologies. The
purpose of this research is to fill these gaps by exploring how Vietnamese farmers reflexively

define risk in their everyday lives, which in turn informs their risk-taking attitude and action.
Drawing on a case study of disaster-prone farmers in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, this research
reveals a distinct set of farmers’ risk epistemologies through a process of hermeneutic reflexivity
situated in their risk culture and a shared identity. They do not view risk as wholly negative but
rather as an opportunity to attain the aim of surviving and profiting. They see cultivating a risky
crop as a collective action of risking their lives, sharing with their community both the challenges
and the opportunities that risk might offer. My article makes a case for sociological research into
non-Western civilizations, where late modernity and reflexivity might not be accompanied by
individualisation but rather with collectivism and tradition.

Keywords
aesthetic reflexivity, disaster, farmers, laypeople, risk epistemologies, risk perception, Vietnam

Introduction
Beck (1992) contends that Western civilizations have evolved into a risk society as a
result of increasing technical failures (e.g. the Chernobyl accident). He asserts that the
first modernity has given way to a late modernity in which societies must contend with

Corresponding author:
Kien Nguyen-Trung, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash
University, Menzies Building, 20 Chancellors Walk, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia.
Email:


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Nguyen-Trung

hand, this finding shows that Vietnamese farmers’ reflexive capacity is comparable to
that of farmers living in Chernobyl-affected areas (Wynne, 1992). On the other hand, it

implies the significance of traditions and culture in constructing Vietnamese farmers’
biographies and risk dispositions. This paper argues that sociological research on nonWestern civilizations should take into account the context-sensitive forms of reflexivity
and risk epistemologies, which might not have been previously articulated in the West.
In sum, I have examined and presented various themes in Vietnamese farmers’ risk
knowledge in this research. Farmers conceptualised risk in four interrelated ways. First,
farmers defined risk in terms of their livelihood as rice growers. Rice farming is a core
value ingrained in their risk culture, which shapes how farmers define and recognise
risks. Second, farmers viewed risk as an inability to cope with the unpredictability of
climatic change and environmental threats as well as the strength of divine force. Thus,
some farmers accepted risk as something created by God or were at the mercy of other
supernatural forces. Third, risk is a blend of positive and negative aspects, as well as
reward and punishment. Farmers usually emphasised the opportunities presented by risk
rather than the challenges they would encounter. Fourth, farmers defined risk as a collective action of putting their lives at risk. They exhibited a risk-taking mentality, believing
that it was an integral part of being a rice farmer. Farmers portrayed themselves in this
decision-making process as a communal identity rather than as a single individual identity since they could share both the benefits and the consequences of taking risks together.
Acknowledgements
The author wants to thank his wife and two daughters for their love, support, and understanding.
Heartfelt thanks to Associate Professor Helen Forbes-Mewett and Professor Dharmalingam
Arunachalam (Monash University) for their tremendous support.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/
or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Monash Postgraduate Publication
Award (2021). The author would like to thank Monash University for funding this research.

ORCID iD
Kien Nguyen-Trung

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Author biography
Kien Nguyen-Trung is a research fellow at BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash Sustainable
Development Institute. He is a member of The Qualitative Report’s editorial board and the founder
of the Vietnamese Social Research Methodology. His current work aims at facilitating sustainable
behaviour and social change in climate change adaptation and disaster risk management. His
recent publications focus on the social construction of disaster vulnerability, the role of social capital in disaster recovery, and the organised irresponsibility and environmental movement in regional
Australia.
Date submitted 3 April 2021
Date accepted 16 September 2022