“Carrot and stick”: Cooperative citizenship and the pedagogic state in Vietnam

Abstract

This chapter discusses the concept of pedagogic state based on everyday practices of state control in Vietnam. Rooted in an idealised form of cooperative citizenship, the state aims to create a utopian “civilised society” merging narratives of morality and modernity. Simultaneously, the government considers itself as an educator who teaches its citizens morally correct behaviour through mechanisms of reward and punishment. Therefore, this chapter defines citizenship in an authoritarian context from a state perspective. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as empirical context, qualitative data from fieldwork in Vietnam as well as policy documents, newspaper articles, and social media content are analysed. Vietnam’s shift towards more repressive pandemic measures constitutes a move away from the utopian idea of a cooperative citizenship. By asserting itself in a more violent fashion, the state emphasises its pedagogic aspirations. Citizens are left to self-monitor their behaviour in an arbitrary environment characterised by disillusionment with the state. However, new forms of social activism in support of marginalised social groups emerge. Everyday resistance against an overbearing state keeps the utopian aspirations of an equitable cooperative citizenship in a post-pandemic Vietnam alive.