Upland Transformations in Vietnam considers the effects of economic development, authority formation and landscape change on the country's "uplands." By positioning the uplands as an integral part of political, economic and cultural processes at the national and international levels, the book shatters stereotypes of the upland regions as a separate ethnic and biophysical realm, and calls into question the assumptions that have informed research on upland areas and post-socialist transitions, and government policy for these regions.
Movements from customary to state authority or from a...