Examining Vietnamese diasporic literature as a critical site for understanding memory, identity, and cosmopolitanism from below, this book repositions Vietnamese literary writings as a form of cultural and political engagement.Through literary and media works by Vietnamese writers across the United States, France, Germany, and Australia, the authors trace generational shifts from South Vietnamese exile and first-generation writers, to 1.5- and second-generation authors. They examin...

This book advances the Capability Approach as an ethical, people-centred framework for social impact assessment in development practice. Focusing on two Australian Government–funded WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) projects in rural Vietnam and Cambodia, it investigates how development interventions can expand—or constrain—people’s capabilities to live the lives they value.Although the projects share similar designs and implementation processes, a capability-informed analysis r...

This book provides an innovative theoretical and empirical exploration of the political participation and democratic capability of people living in authoritarian states. Merging perspectives from sociology and political science, the book demonstrates that despite autocratic restrictions on opposition, there is often still leeway for people to express themselves as political agents and to develop democratic capability.The first two chapters problematise political participation and d...

This book examines the extent to which studying and living overseas enable returning graduates to enhance their professional work and contribute to community development. It assesses the transformative potential that returnees are assumed to have in terms of capabilities and skills acquired through an international education. This book is based on a research study on Vietnamese overseas graduates who have returned to Vietnam. It examines the complexity of competing aspirations, responsibil...