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Precariousness, Harassment and Crisis : Gendered Workplace Violence in Vietnam’s Global Industry

Rydstrom, Helle LU orcid (2025) In Global Political Economy p.1-20
Abstract
Global capital is increasingly settling in Vietnam’s ‘socialist-oriented market economy’. Those employed in the outsourced workplace may encounter precarious and insecure working conditions, while women employees may even be subjected to gender-based violence. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the Industrial Zones of northern Vietnam, this article examines gendered workplace violence and the crises it provokes in the life of a targeted woman. The article argues that combining research on gender-based violence with anthropological studies of gendered labour precarity and, moreover, the anthropology of crisis allows for an analytical framework by which the phases, scales and spaces of harm can be unravelled. Focusing on a specific... (More)
Global capital is increasingly settling in Vietnam’s ‘socialist-oriented market economy’. Those employed in the outsourced workplace may encounter precarious and insecure working conditions, while women employees may even be subjected to gender-based violence. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the Industrial Zones of northern Vietnam, this article examines gendered workplace violence and the crises it provokes in the life of a targeted woman. The article argues that combining research on gender-based violence with anthropological studies of gendered labour precarity and, moreover, the anthropology of crisis allows for an analytical framework by which the phases, scales and spaces of harm can be unravelled. Focusing on a specific incident of male-to-female sexual harassment in global industry, the article shows how this workplace-related incident caused an immediate crisis but also spilled over into other aspects of the abused woman’s life, as the crisis changed in modality, intensity and temporality. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
in
Global Political Economy
pages
1 - 20
ISSN
2635-2257
DOI
10.1332/26352257Y2025D000000035
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
19b03d59-003a-4980-beb6-fc6253d6c394
date added to LUP
2025-10-03 14:36:02
date last changed
2025-10-03 15:58:07
@article{19b03d59-003a-4980-beb6-fc6253d6c394,
  abstract     = {{Global capital is increasingly settling in Vietnam’s ‘socialist-oriented market economy’. Those employed in the outsourced workplace may encounter precarious and insecure working conditions, while women employees may even be subjected to gender-based violence. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in the Industrial Zones of northern Vietnam, this article examines gendered workplace violence and the crises it provokes in the life of a targeted woman. The article argues that combining research on gender-based violence with anthropological studies of gendered labour precarity and, moreover, the anthropology of crisis allows for an analytical framework by which the phases, scales and spaces of harm can be unravelled. Focusing on a specific incident of male-to-female sexual harassment in global industry, the article shows how this workplace-related incident caused an immediate crisis but also spilled over into other aspects of the abused woman’s life, as the crisis changed in modality, intensity and temporality.}},
  author       = {{Rydstrom, Helle}},
  issn         = {{2635-2257}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--20}},
  series       = {{Global Political Economy}},
  title        = {{Precariousness, Harassment and Crisis : Gendered Workplace Violence in Vietnam’s Global Industry}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/26352257Y2025D000000035}},
  doi          = {{10.1332/26352257Y2025D000000035}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}