Domesticating consumer goods in the global economy: Examples from Vietnam and Russia

In this article, I compare findings from my own research on consumerism in Ho Chi Minh City to the research of others in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and consider why shoppers in Vietnam and Russia worry about the origins of the products they encounter in their newly marketized economies. Consumer anxieties in both countries reveal a shared crisis of 'locality' – a common concern about the movement of goods between spaces designated as 'domestic' and 'foreign;' at the same time, however, they point to different constructions of these categories in the context of market reform. In conclusion, I argue that, through their consumption practices, shoppers in Vietnam and Russia are reframing socialist and neoliberal notions of self, society, and the market. Keywords: VietnamRussiapostsocialismglobal capitalismconsumerism Acknowledgments An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 AES Meetings. I want to thank the organizers of this panel as well as those of the 2003 AAA panel, for facilitating this discussion. I am grateful to our discussants at both panels, especially Mayfair Yang and Daphne Berdahl, for their valuable comments and insights. Thanks also to the editors and anonymous reviewers at Ethnos, who offered excellent suggestions for revision. Amy Ninetto and Jennifer Patico contributed to my understanding of economic reform in Russia, and encouraged this comparative exercise. Finally, special thanks to Jeff Fleisher for his careful readings of earlier drafts. Notes 1. See Hann (Citation2002) for an exception to this trend. 2. See James (Citation1996), Miller (Citation1998), and Orlove (Citation1997) for discussions of how consumers use these terms in other ethnographic contexts. 3. I am grateful to Jennifer Patico for encouraging me to consider how the differential impact of production outsourcing may be influencing consumption practices in Russia and Vietnam. 4. The contrast I am drawing here between production and consumption is simplistic and potentially misleading. Scholars of postsocialist Russia have offered competing explanations of the importance of consumption during Soviet times. For instance, Humphrey (Citation1995) contends that Soviet-era Russians were not consumers in the Western sense, because they did not rely on consumption as a vehicle for establishing difference and constructing identity. Caldwell (Citation2002), however, argues that the general scarcity of goods, combined with pre-determined but profoundly inequitable state systems of distribution, fueled consumer desires and consumption practices among Soviet citizens. 5. The idea that domestically produced foodstuffs are fresher or better tasting than imported food products is not self-evident. As Dunn (Citation2004) shows in her discussion of quality management in a baby food factory in Poland, positive or negative qualities may be associated equally with domestic or foreign goods. Further, it is worth noting that in Russia, 'domestic' does not necessarily mean 'local,' since domestically produced food products may be shipped hundreds or even thousands of miles before reaching their sites of consumption. 6. The importance that Vietnamese shoppers give to place and conditions of manufacture in the context of market reform does not appear to be shared by consumers in reform-era China (Davis Citation2000:11). 7. Although counterfeiting is widespread in Vietnam, all the products described in this article are made under the authority of parent corporations, which recognize and mark them as authentic.