Anh The Phung, Nghia Minh Bui, Chung Quang Le, Quyet Thi Nguyen. From fields to cities: Social-economic and ideological transformations in Vietnam’s peasant communities // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №2. P. 135-154.

EDN: PJPTSK

Annotation

Vietnam’s rapid rural urbanization has determined complex social-economic, cultural and ideological changes in peasant communities. The article considers these transformations through the economic restructuring of rural labor and land use, cultural adaptation of traditional practices, and evolving ideological representations of the Vietnamese peasantry. The article is based on secondary sources (ethnographic studies, policy documents, and statistical data) and a comparative thematic approach combining rural sociology and critical discourse analysis. The findings reveal that while urbanization contributes to economic diversification and social mobility, it also creates persistent challenges such as land grabbing, growing inequality, and cultural erosion. Contrary to linear modernization theories, the study identifies hybrid rural-urban realities with smallholder farming, kinship networks, and symbolic land relations. Ideologically, rural population combines traditional communal ethics and individualist, marketoriented logics. The comparative analysis of Russian, Chinese and other transitional economies proves the universality of such dilemmas, particularly the tension between modernization and rural continuity. The study concludes with policy recommendations for inclusive and culturally sensitive rural development, emphasizing the need to integrate formal reforms with grassroots agency and local knowledge, which contributes to ongoing debates in rural sociology and peasant studies with relevance for both Vietnamese policymakers and the global agrarian thought.

Keywords

Cultural adaptation, hybrid rurality, ideological change, land grabbing, peasantry, rural urbanization, Vietnam.  

About the authors

Anh The Phung — PhD (History), Deputy Head, Faculty of Political Science and Law, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Engineering, Vo Van Ngan St., 01, Thu Duc Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, 71300, Vietnam.
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Nghia Minh Bui — Lecturer, Institute of International Political Economy, University of Finance–Marketing, Nguyen Kiem St., 778, Duc Nhuan Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, 71300, Vietnam.
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Chung Quang Le — Lecturer, Faculty of Political Science and Law, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Engineering, Vo Van Ngan St., 01, Thu Duc Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, 71300, Vietnam.
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Quyet Thi Nguyen — PhD (Philosophy), Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science and Law, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Engineering, Vo Van Ngan St., 01, Thu Duc Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, 71300, Vietnam.
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Prasetyo A., Samudro B. R., Pratama Y. P., Sistriatmaja M. B. Agricultural policy for Indonesia: Stalin’s state gigantism or Bukharin’s cooperative farming // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №2. P. 22-47.

EDN: FYGXRA

Annotation

This article considers the systemic failure of Indonesia’s Food Estate Program (2020–2024) through the analytical lens of the 1920s Soviet agrarian debates between Nikolai Bukharin and Joseph Stalin. The study addresses a critical paradox: state agricultural policies continue to fail while Indonesia imports record amounts of rice despite 33 million small farmers. The authors applied a mixed-methods approach and the extended case study to construct an Agricultural Terms of Trade Index to empirically test the Scissors Crisis hypothesis (50 policy documents and fieldwork in three provinces). The key findings are as follows: (1) Food Estate projects scored 4.6/5 based on Stalinist characteristics (gigantism, coercion, ecological disregard), producing only 4,300 tons of rice at a cost of Rp 349 million per ton vs market price of Rp 6 million; (2) Agricultural Terms of Trade worsened by 40% in 2022–2024, making farmers leave the market and increasing rice imports from 444,000 tons (2019) to 3.05 million tons (2024); (3) successful cooperative models demonstrated 2.1–3.1% efficiency and maintained productivity under crisis periods. The study theoretically confirms the applicability of the Bukharinist political economy for the 21st-century agrarian analysis, proving its relevance beyond Soviet historiography, and proposes a three-tier policy roadmap, prioritizing smallholder empowerment, terms-of-trade stabilization, and cooperative industrialization as alternatives to state gigantism and corporate agriculture.

Keywords

Food sovereignty, agricultural policy, terms of trade, cooperatives, Indonesia, Bukharinist critique, land grabbing, peasant studies, food estate, smallholder agriculture, state intervention.  

About the authors

Prasetyo Andri, Lecturer, Department of Development Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami, 36, Kentingan, Jebres, Surakarta, Central Java 57126.
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Samudro Bhimo Rizky — PhD (Economics), Full Professor, Department of Development Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami, 36, Kentingan, Jebres, Surakarta, Central Java 57126.
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Pratama Yogi Pasca — PhD (Economics), Associate Professor, Department of Development Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami, 36, Kentingan, Jebres, Surakarta, Central Java 57126.
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Sistriatmaja Muhammad Bagus, Lecturer, Department of Development Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami, 36, Kentingan, Jebres, Surakarta, Central Java 57126.
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Rogova M.V. Territorial transformation of coastal settlements and their neighborhood // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2020. V.5. №2. P. 130-140.

DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-2-130-140

Annotation

The article considers the rural space transformations determined by the tourist and recreational development. Tourist facilities are usually located either on agricultural lands or in rural settlements, i.e. on the periphery of rural communities—hills or coastal areas. On the most attractive parts of the Lake Baikal coast, in rural communities and their neighborhood, there are new territorial structures developing—cottage settlements. At the same time, there is a reverse process—the increasing abandoned space inside settlements (abandoned houses and houses for sale due to the youth outflow to the city, growing labor migration). The article presents the results of the study of the changing geographical and cultural landscape of the village, of its increasing institutional and environmental challenges. On the agricultural land, there are new tourist and recreational facilities, which leads the multi-structural rural economy to a single recreational path and changes the perception of this trend by the rural population. Before, tourist services constituted only one survival strategy in the multi-structural system, while today the development of the entrepreneur stratum with recreational tasks does not correspond to the existing system of values. This is no longer an integral part of the rural economy; it is a commercial business competing with the rural population. Moreover, tourist sites on the agricultural land have huge institutional costs and support the corrupt system of land relations. The article is based on the field research conducted in rural communities of the Baikal region in 2005–2007 and 2011–2018.

Keywords

land grabbing, new territorial structures, multi-structural rural economy, rural transformation, tourism and recreation

About the author

Marina V. Rogova, PhD (Geography), Junior Researcher, Institute of Geography named after V.B. Sochava, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. UlanBatorskaya St, 1, Irkutsk, 664033.
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