Research Note: On the energy footprint of a Vietnamese middle-class household

• Main Author: Earl, Catherine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Pazifische Studien e.V. 2013-03-01
• Series: Pacific Geographies
• Subjects: Vietnam; environmental sustainability; middle class; urban migration; household energy use; ecological footprint
• Online Access: http://www.pacific-geographies.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/pg39_earl.pdf

Environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation in Vietnam have become pressing issues for researchers and policy makers. At the same time Vietnam’s re-emerging middle classes are be-ginning to gain attention. HCMC’s middle classes express their relatively better social positions through the material markers of a high standard of living, which produces status that is locally valued. The power they now wield as consumers and trend-setters is recognised as a potential source for stimulating social change towards sustainable urban development (Waibel 2009: 3). But the urban environment is diverse. Unlike development in the peri-urban fringe, residents in the densely-populated inner city adapt their living practices to the constraints of the built environment and their household resources. Further, with so many of HCMC’s new middle classes being first-generation migrants, many are familiar with economical and provincial practices of energy conservation, recycling and reuse.