Global Climate Change Knowledge and the Production of Climate Subjects in Vietnam

Critical scholarship on climate change knowledge has largely overlooked
the latter’s influence on the formation of political subjects. This article
addresses this gap; it draws on literature of political and environmental subjects
to examine how political authorities use global climate change knowledge to
form ‘climate subjects.’ It argues that through formation of climate subjects, political authorities can steer the climate change response and simultaneously reproduce structures of political authority. The article takes Vietnam as a case. Vietnam is projected to be one of the countries most affected by climate change, and political authorities have been active in responding, with policies emphasizing knowledge dissemination. The article traces the influence of global climate change knowledge in Vietnamese climate change policy through analysis of national policymaking. It then examines policy implementation and subject formation in sub-national levels of government, as sub-national officials’ climate subjectivities are a potent political tool. Such ‘street-level bureaucrats’ translate policy to practice and shape local climate change responses, livelihoods and lives. The article draws on interviews with sub-national officials and document review of sub-national climate change policies and training documents. The article finds that climate subject formation in Vietnam reflects and contributes to the reproduction of existing political and economic structures. It thereby limits alternative visions of climate change response. This indicates the importance of diverse forms of knowledge – ontologies, epistemologies and conceptualizations of climate change – to support transformational responses rather than functional persistence.