The Southeast of Vietnam as a cultural zone and roles of culture - people in the sustainable development of the region

By Trần Ngọc Thêm
DOI:

Abstract

The Southeast plays a very important role in Vietnam’s economic development. Despite a high concentration of social scientists in the Southeast region, there remains a paradox that the Southeast culture has not been sufficiently researched into. Applying the method of cultural zoning based on the changes of the three dimensions Subject – Space - Time developed by the author, the article concludes that the Southeast is a separate cultural zone besides the Southwest and lists some typical characteristics of the Southeast in terms of cultural elements (focusing on the organizational culture) and the system of cultural personality characteristics of Vietnamese people in the Southeast. An analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) of the Southeast shows that this development is unbalanced and unsustainable. To achieve balance and sustainability, more investment must be made on the culture and the people; community-village type behaviors should be replaced by community-society type behaviors; and the urban way of living, the urban culture and good urban citizen character should be promoed while limiting the rural/agricultural lifestyle and characteristics.

Keywords

cultural zone, roles of culture-people, sustainable development, Southeast

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References

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