Traditional cultures for multiple values and enhanced sustainability : a case study of Vietnam

The achievement of sustainability requires changes within many institutions and at all levels of society. To date, required changes have not comprehensively and significantly addressed the ways in which we live, as most businesses and governments worldwide still work to increase consumption and economic turnover. This is problematic and extravagant living, on a planet with finite space and resources, where the meteorological, bio and individual-human systems are significantly stressed. In essence, responsible businesses and other institutions are taking very seriously the need for efficiency in resource use, but somehow this requirement does not apply to human populations as a whole. Extravagant use of resources – essentially as more or bigger goods and services – is not only tolerated but is praised, promoted and desired in popular cultures in both developed and developing countries.

In this paper we argue that to enhance resource use efficiency among populations, values need to change. This need for change in values is also evident in forums such as the Paris climate change agreement, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development goals, Benefit Corporations and movements such as Intrinsic Earth. In addition, widespread value change was explicitly requested in a recent call for research from the Dutch national funding institute (NWO), which identified a need for the recognition of ecological, social as well economic values in Dutch society. In all these examples, multiple values – not just economic ones – are required and this heralds a change of civilisation.

As an example of working towards a better understanding of how to engage, communicate and motivate societies to appreciate multiple values for sustainability, this study uses an emic perspective to review the values that are intrinsic to the culture and traditions of Vietnam. Vietnam has been chosen for this study since, as a developing Marxist society, it is judged to still have the potential for harbouring distinct - other than Western economic - values. Vietnamese culture in our argument is a syncretic amalgamation of a varieties of ideologies from different origins, from Vietnamese indigenous beliefs to Taoism and Buddhism, to form a unified system of values that can be indeed be considered compatible to sustainability. This paper uses analyses of Vietnam as follows: long-established water-rice agriculture and their difficult times during the war and subsequent hardships; feminist aspect of religious beliefs; the totality and holistic view of their man-nature relationship; and a philosophy of living that can lead to the sharing and circular economy.

In summary, this paper identifies existent Vietnamese values and considers whether and how Vietnamese values, traditions and beliefs may be utilised to promote resource use efficiency in that country and hence enhance national sustainability. This case is one example of a nation with traditions and values that link with pro-environmental attitudes and can be used as a reference point for countries of similar socio-cultural setting or those that have the wish to adopt or return to more sustainable values.