Kien Nguyen-Trung | Monash University (original) (raw)

Papers by Kien Nguyen-Trung

The Qualitative Report , 2024

This article is an autoethnography of how engaging with my previous autoethnographic article faci... more This article is an autoethnography of how engaging with my previous autoethnographic article facilitated my recovery and self-growth. I wrote my previous piece (Nguyen-Trung, 2022) while stranded in Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented me from visiting my grandfather one last time before his passing in 2021. If my past autoethnography focused on the themes of death, grief, and loss, the current article's autoethnography revolves around awakening, healing, and self-transformation. In this current article, I reflexively look back on my autoethnographic journey and reflect on how it impacted me as a grandchild and a human being on the one hand, and a qualitative sociologist and a writer on the other. I tell stories of how, since writing my first autoethnography and sharing it with others, whether at an academic conference, a meeting, a social encounter, or via a social media post, I managed to overcome the darkest time of my life and gradually heal my personal crisis and somehow transform myself. There were three key lessons learned from such a journey: the emergence of self-awareness, the significance of empathy and humanity within research communities, and the therapeutic and transformative potential of writing.

Qualitative Research Journal, 2023

Purpose-This article argues the value of integrating pragmatism in applying behavioural science t... more Purpose-This article argues the value of integrating pragmatism in applying behavioural science to complex challenges. We describe a behaviour change-led knowledge co-production process in the specific context of climate change in Australia. This process was led by an interdisciplinary research team who struggled with the limitations of the prevailing deterministic behaviour change paradigms, such as the "test, learn, adapt" model, which often focuses narrowly on individual behaviours and fails to integrate multiple interpretations from diverse stakeholders into their knowledge co-production process. Design/methodology/approach-This article uses collaborative reflection as a method of inquiry. We document the team's experience of a recent challenge-led, programatic research initiative that applied behaviour change strategies to reduce climate vulnerabilities. We demonstrate the necessity of critical reflection and abductive reasoning in the face of the complexities inherent in knowledge co-production addressing complex problems. It underscores the importance of accommodating diverse perspectives and contextual nuances over a one-size-fits-all method. Findings-The article shares lessons learnt about integrating collaborative and critical reflection throughout a project cycle and demonstrates the capacity of abductive reasoning to ease the challenges arising from the tension between behaviour change paradigms and knowledge co-production principles. This approach allows for a more adaptable and context-sensitive application, acknowledging the multiplicity of understandings and the dynamic nature of behavioural change in relation to climate adaptation. Originality/value-This reflection contributes original insights into the fusion of pragmatism with behaviour change strategies, proposing a novel framework that prioritises flexibility, context-specificity and the recognition of various stakeholder perspectives in the co-production of knowledge.

The Climate Adaptation Mission led by BehaviourWorks Australia explores how behaviour science and... more The Climate Adaptation Mission led by BehaviourWorks Australia explores how behaviour science and systems thinking can identify and test behaviour change interventions, with a goal to increase the adaptive capacity of communities most at risk of climate change impacts by 2030.
This report describes the design, delivery, and evaluation of a behaviour change intervention intended to help Victorian regional local government climate adaptation planners build adaptive capacity, improve adaptation planning and response through integration of Traditional Owner values and knowledge, and establish partnerships between local governments and Traditional Owners in working together to address impacts of climate change.
The intervention was an Adaptation Forum, led and delivered by the Dja Dja Wurrung Aboriginal Clans Corporation (DJAARA). Staff from 11 local governments in central Victoria, and other land governance bodies were brought together on Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Djandak) to build cultural awareness of Dja Dja Wurrung climate resilience strategies and promote the formation of partnerships for climate adaptation planning in the region.
We used quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate the Adaptation Forum. We asked five standard evaluation questions: did it meet participants’ needs (relevance); did it fit with existing priorities and activities in the region (coherence); did it change behavioural influences and behaviour (effectiveness); did it improve adaptive capacity and partnerships (impact); did any benefits last (sustainability).
The Adaptation Forum was found to successfully meet the attendees' needs and aligning with existing government strategies and the broader transformation in climate adaptation that emphasises regional, local government, and Traditional Owner perspectives. It increased attendees' cultural awareness, knowledge, and willingness to engage with DJAARA.
However, the forum's impact on local government adaptive capacity was limited, and fewer partnerships were formed than anticipated. Several barriers to greater impact were identified, including the need to address historical injustice and participate in processes of reconciliation between governments and Dja Dja Wurrung People; differences in how governments and DJAARA approach projects, partnerships, and collaboration; and a lack of resources / existing successful models to support meaningful engagement of Dja Dja Wurrung in adaptation planning.
To address these barriers, Adaptation Forum attendees recommended local governments and DJAARA (1) participating in ongoing processes of reconciliation (2) involving council key decision- makers in DJAARA-led activities; (3) highlighting successful projects or partnerships to demonstrate how collaboration can happen; (4) working with other governance bodies, like the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance, to pool resources and helping to create more consistent approaches for engagement across councils; (5) continuing to use experimental approaches or embedding evaluations in partnerships to support learning and demonstrating ‘what works’ to build adaptive capacity and meaningful partnerships between local governments and DJAARA in climate adaptation.
Attendees also suggested that future versions of the Adaptation Forum in new contexts should dedicate time to understanding and preparing for potential barriers, inviting key decision-makers, making specific asks for commitments to action, and providing ways for attendees to continue to communicate and work together.

osf preprint, 2024

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 heralded a new era in various professional fields, yet it... more The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 heralded a new era in various professional fields, yet its application in qualitative data analysis (QDA) remains underdeveloped. This article presents an experiment involving applying ChatGPT (Model GPT-4) to thematic analysis. By employing an adapted version of King et al.'s (2018) Template Analysis framework, this article aims to assess how ChatGPT can help with QDA in a full analytical process of a sample dataset provided by Lumivero. My experiment includes applying ChatGPT in four stages: data familiarization; preliminary coding and initial template formation; clustering and template modification and finalization; and theme development. Findings reveal GPT-4's capacity in efficiency and speed in grasping the data and generating codes, subcodes, clusters, and themes, alongside its learning and adapting capabilities. However, the current version of the model has limitations in terms of effectively handling detailed analysis of large databases and producing consistent results, as well as the need to move across workspaces and the lack of relevant training data for QDA purposes.

Natural Hazards, 2024

In disaster scholarship, there is limited understanding about how vulnerability is socially const... more In disaster scholarship, there is limited understanding about how vulnerability is socially constructed by a convergence of varying social structural and historical processes that predispose certain vulnerable groups to disasters even before a hazard event occurs. This article aims to fill this void by using Critical Disaster Studies perspectives to explore the root causes of why crop farmers in the coastal region of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta have been locked in a permanent position of vulnerability. In order to develop more sustainable food supply chains, this exploration aims to shed light on the socio-cultural interpretations, experiences, and needs of disaster-affected farmers-the most important but vulnerable actors in the crop production hierarchy in Vietnam. Following a historic disaster between late 2015 and early 2016, local governments deliberately organised farmers into an agricultural cooperative in an attempt to support farmers in enhancing economic resilience and disaster preparedness. However, this intervention has failed since farmers refused to participate in the organisation's activities. While this reaction may seem irrational, it reflects farmers' distrust in the government, which was largely a result of their collective trauma from the state's agricultural collectivisation policy implemented between 1976 and 1985. Farmers chose to cling to their individual working routines out of concern about government supervision, forcing them to take bigger risks and pay for the food supply chains' catastrophic damage. Our findings show that a strained relationship between farmers and the government can jeopardise disaster recovery and resilience building. Our paper adds to the Critical Disaster Studies literature by revisiting the concepts of vulnerability and resilience, emphasising the importance of addressing socio-cultural vulnerability before improving disaster resilience.

Nghiên cứu định tính này sử dụng tiếp cận lý thuyết từ cơ sở (grounded theory) để khảo sát và xây... more Nghiên cứu định tính này sử dụng tiếp cận lý thuyết từ cơ sở (grounded theory) để khảo sát và xây dựng mô hình lý thuyết về khả năng tham gia của phụ nữ H‟re và Kor trong chương trình 135 giai đoạn II và chương trình ISP tại các huyện miền núi tỉnh Quảng Ngãi. Bài viết cho thấy khả năng tham gia của phụ nữ H‟re và Kor dường như bị hạn chế từ phía môi trường khách quan (thể chế) và cũng như từ bản thân họ. Dựa trên kết quả nghiên cứu này, bài viết đưa ra các giả thuyết: (i) hệ thống cung cấp thông tin cho người dân trong các huyện miền núi Quảng Ngãi thiên về nam giới; (ii) khả năng tiếp cận thông tin của phụ nữ H‟re và Kor trong hai chương trình 135-II và ISP bị hạn chế và kém hơn nam giới cùng dân tộc; (iii) các chính quyền địa phương/ ban quản lý dự án chưa chú ý nhiều đến việc tham vấn ý kiến của người phụ nữ; và (iv) khả năng biểu hiện ý kiến của người phụ nữ thấp. Các dữ liệu được trình bày dưới dạng các câu chuyện, đối thoại, các ghi chép, các lược đồ và các bảng, nhằm mục đíc...

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

There is a scant literature discussing how risk-taking behaviour is influenced by the interplay o... more There is a scant literature discussing how risk-taking behaviour is influenced by the interplay of agency and social structures. This article seeks to fill this void by utilising Bourdieu's theory of practice to develop the Practice-Oriented Risk Habitus and Multiple-Capital Model (P-HAC) to account for Vietnamese farmers' risk-taking practice. Risk habitus is the durable organising principles of risk-relating practice. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a disaster-prone rural commune in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, we found that farmers have developed a risk habitus drawing on multiple capitals that are suitable to their agricultural production. Particularly, natural, built and cultural capitals combined to restructure farmers' risk perception, economic capital provided farmers with a compelling incentive to take risk, while social capital can act as a buffer against risk. Yet, capitals are not always positive. Social and cultural capital could impose negative community habitus on individual farmers' risk-taking practice.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have been used to improve the productivity of evidence review ... more Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools have been used to improve the productivity of evidence review and synthesis since at least 2016, with EPPI-Reviewer and Abstrackr being two prominent examples. However, since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022, a large language model with an intuitive chatbot interface, the use of AI-powered tools for research – especially those that deal with text-based data – has exploded. In this working paper, we describe how we used the AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, ChatGPT for Sheets and Docs, Casper AI, and ChatPDF to assist several stages of an evidence review. Our goal is to demonstrate how AI-powered tools can boost research productivity, identify their current weaknesses, and provide recommendations for researchers looking to utilize them.

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) has experienced a series of unprecedented disasters in the last... more The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) has experienced a series of unprecedented disasters in the last decade, resulting from a combination of drought and saline intrusion in the 2015-2016 and 2019-2020 dry seasons. These events have severely impacted the region's agricultural sustainability and people's livelihoods, prompting an urgent need to explore their root causes and derive lessons for future prevention. Despite a growing body of literature on disaster vulnerability, little has been done to address these questions in the Vietnamese context. This article seeks to bridge this gap by critically examining Vietnam's food politics and agricultural modernisation policies in relation to changes in water resource management, disaster risk management and farming practices. Through a case study of Tan Hung commune in Soc Trang province, the article argues that the current vulnerability to disasters, exemplified by the unsustainable system of triple rice cultivation, is an uninten...

Research Report, 2023

Evidence is increasing that a substantial proportion of people who are incarcerated in youth and ... more Evidence is increasing that a substantial proportion of people who are incarcerated in youth and adult correctional facilities have a disability. The high rate of people with disability in the criminal justice system is likely to be the effect of complex interactions between systemic, structural and individual factors. These include a lack of awareness and inappropriate management of challenging behaviours among service providers, and a compromised ability to understand and navigate the judicial system or access needed services. Detention in the criminal justice system is associated with a range of poor outcomes, one of which is homelessness. Homelessness includes experiences of sleeping rough on the street, staying in temporary or insecure accommodation, or in housing that is inadequate for privacy and social relations. Homelessness, and related experiences of housing instability, can affect a person’s wellbeing and become part of a cycle of health problems, justice system involvement and institutional care. Given the high proportion of people with disability involved with the justice system and the vulnerability for homelessness created by being incarcerated, the objectives for this project were to review the evidence on: 1. the factors that contribute to homelessness post-release for people with disability 2. the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent or reduce homelessness post-release for people with disability 3. the policies, strategies, initiatives, and programs of corrective services in each Australian jurisdiction that address the housing needs of people with disability leaving their facilities.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2023

OSF Preprints, 2023

Qeios, 2023

Asia-Pacific journal of regional science, Feb 7, 2023

Based on a revised multiple capital framework called the Funnel of Multiple Capital Deployment (F... more Based on a revised multiple capital framework called the Funnel of Multiple Capital Deployment (FMAD), this article provides a critical reflection on how local communities in Vietnam respond to disasters and climate change. This framework depicts communities' dispositions to mobilize and allocate various community capitals to relevant collective actions in order to successfully adapt to external threats such as disaster risks and climate change. The deployment of this capital is heavily influenced by the state's institutional capacity for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. This article demonstrates this framework by reviewing recent research on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in Vietnamese scholarship. The article demonstrates that local practices of using various capital in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation are informed by a wealth of evidence from the current literature, even though the reviewed studies did no...

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal

PurposeThis article examines how farmers' assignment of responsibility for the disaster in la... more PurposeThis article examines how farmers' assignment of responsibility for the disaster in late 2015 – early 2016 connects with reflexivity, habitus and local vulnerability.Design/methodology/approachThis article uses semi-structured interviews with 28 disaster-affected households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta to answer the question.FindingsThis article finds out that Vietnamese farmers actively accepted their responsibility for the disaster. In their explanation, they link their action with the root causes of vulnerability embedded in their socio-cultural traditions and collective identity.Research limitations/implicationsThis article makes a case for the importance of local culture and epistemologies in understanding disaster vulnerability and responsibility attribution.Originality/valueThis article is original in researching Vietnamese farmers' responsibility attribution, their aesthetic reflexivity, collective habitus and the socio-cultural root causes of disaster.

Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 2023

In Vietnam, it is commonly believed that gender norms, sex labour segregation, and structural org... more In Vietnam, it is commonly believed that gender norms, sex labour segregation, and structural organization of social institutions often favour male dominance while restricting women's roles in domestic spheres. However, there is a scant literature of Vietnamese scholarship on the determinants of gender role attitudes, especially geographical disparities. This paper aims to fill this void by using a nationally representative survey with 8288 respondents. Our findings suggested that age, marital status, religion, education, living area, region, ethnicity, and personal monthly income are the factors that predicted gender attitudes. In terms of regional disparities, we found that Northerners were more permissive in their gender attitudes than Southerners, which may be explained by distinct historical and political trajectories in Northern and Southern Vietnam during the last century. There were, however, inconsistent patterns among different age cohorts whereby region significantly impacted the attitudes of women born before the end of the French War in 1954, men born after the Reunification in 1975, as well as both men and women born between 1954 and 1975.

Disaster Prevention and Management, 2023

Purpose This article examines how farmers' assignment of responsibility for the disaster in late ... more Purpose This article examines how farmers' assignment of responsibility for the disaster in late 2015 – early 2016 connects with reflexivity, habitus and local vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach This article uses semi-structured interviews with 28 disaster-affected households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta to answer the question. Findings This article finds out that Vietnamese farmers actively accepted their responsibility for the disaster. In their explanation, they link their action with the root causes of vulnerability embedded in their socio-cultural traditions and collective identity. Research limitations/implications This article makes a case for the importance of local culture and epistemologies in understanding disaster vulnerability and responsibility attribution. Originality/value This article is original in researching Vietnamese farmers' responsibility attribution, their aesthetic reflexivity, collective habitus and the socio-cultural root causes of disaster.

The Qualitative Report , 2024

Qualitative Research Journal, 2023

osf preprint, 2024

Natural Hazards, 2024

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Research Report, 2023

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2023

OSF Preprints, 2023

Qeios, 2023

Asia-Pacific journal of regional science, Feb 7, 2023

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal

Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 2023

Disaster Prevention and Management, 2023

Understanding Disaster Vulnerability in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, Aug 27, 2021

This thesis explores the contribution of agency and social structures to the evolution of the soc... more This thesis explores the contribution of agency and social structures to the evolution of the social vulnerability in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD), following a historic drought and saline intrusion in late 2015 – early 2016. Based on qualitative case study research, I conducted 28 farm household interviews, 21 key informant interviews with stakeholders, documentary and archival records analysis, and direct observation. I employ secondary quantitative data analysis, quantitative analysis of household data, and thematic analysis of qualitative data to provide a comprehensive assessment of the topic. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, I consider farmers as the agents, who have capacities to make decisions and take actions under the enabling and constraining conditions of the field of agriculture. In the present timeframe, I examine how they form their perception of risks and natural hazards in everyday life. Positioning crop production at the centre of their lives, farmers ranked natural hazard risks as the most fearsome threat, ahead of rice pests, pathogens, and market instability. Farmers described the 2015-2016 disaster as a crop failure, identifying physical happenings, financial effects, crop damages and psychological burdens. They were able to identify the contributing factors leading to the event. While some criticised government officials for the occurrence of the disaster, farmers actively accepted their responsibility for contributing to the event. This reflects their collective habitus that is formed upon the use of cultural capital (belief in rice and land values, normalising risks), economic capital (land, money, assets), and social capital (bonding, bridging and linking relationships). The habitus shown in the use of these capitals for risk management strategies have been connected to deeply buried social structures, which can be dated back to the transformation of the agricultural field in the post-reunification of Vietnam context. The Vietnamese state, the dominant agent of the political field, pursued a food politics that turned the VMD into a ‘rice bowl’, took on agricultural modernisation with an emphasis on agricultural intensification and large-scale irrigation work construction. As a result, farmers were motivated to transform their habitus and cropping practice, which has seen them transitioning from a single cropping to a triple cropping system, putting themselves in a position of planting a risky crop 3 that was vulnerable to the present conditions of natural hazards (i.e., saline intrusion). In short, I argue that the current disaster vulnerability is a product of historical interplay between social structures and farmers’ agency.

Vulnerability in a Mobile World, 2019

Since the late 1980s, social theorists championed for the birth of a new era, in which societies ... more Since the late 1980s, social theorists championed for the birth of a new era, in which societies were increasingly exposed to growing global risks. The presence of increasing risks including natural disasters, technological errors, terrorist attacks, nuclear wars and environmental degradation suggests that human beings are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Therefore, an understanding of vulnerability is crucial. Vulnerability is often considered as the potential to suffer from physical attacks. This approach, however, has limited capacity to explain many forms of suffering including not only physical aspects, but also mental, social, economic, political and social dimensions. This chapter draws on the vulnerability literature to present an overarching framework for the book. It starts with an outline of the concept origins, then discusses its relationship with the risk society thesis before forming conceptualisation. The chapter then points out the key similarities and differences between vulnerability and other concepts such as risk, disaster, poverty, security and resilience. The authors rework an existing “security” framework to develop a new definition of the concept of vulnerability. Finally, the authors look into the root causes and the formation of vulnerability within social systems.

Vulnerability in a Mobile World, 2019

In late 2015, the El Nĩno phenomenon induced Vietnam’s worst drought in 60 years, which lasted un... more In late 2015, the El Nĩno phenomenon induced Vietnam’s worst drought in 60 years, which lasted until mid-2016 and intensified the most expansive saline intrusion in 90 years. The combination of the two hazards resulted in a large-scale disaster, which has led 18 provinces of Vietnam, most of them from the Mekong Delta, to water shortage, insanitation, human and animal diseases, food emergency need and a considerable disruption in local communities’ livelihoods. These devastating effects raise the question of what makes local households vulnerable to drought and saline intrusion. The chapter argues that vulnerability to the natural disaster is not something resulted from external threats, but rather, is derived from the interplay between social structures residing deeply inside the socio-economic systems and agency’s conditions presenting at the household level. Social structures are rules and procedures that constrain and/or enable human actions in agricultural production, risk taking and adaptation. Agency refers to the capacities of disaster-affected households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta who cultivated third rice crop and suffered heavily from the 2015–2016 disaster. In addition to households’ lack of planning and coping capacities, the constitution of vulnerability to drought and saline intrusion can be attributed to the interaction between farmers’ choice of extra rice crops and the state’s policies and directions in agricultural and irrigation development since 1990s to date.

Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical framework the authors used to research and analyze Vietnam’s s... more Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical framework the authors used to research and analyze Vietnam’s social capital. This chapter explores the origins of the concept “social capital” in Western scholarly history since the work of Lyda J. Hanifan (1916), and discusses the development of social capital theories thorough various studies conducted scholars such as Pierre Bourdieu (1986), James Coleman (1988), Robert Putnam (1993, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002), Francis Fukuyama (1995, 2001), Alejandro Portes (1998, 2000), Nan Lin (1999, 2001). Furthermore, the chapter also points out the debate around the advantages/disadvantages of applying social capital theories to solving development issues including the works by Narayan (1997), Narayan and Cassidy (2001), Rose (1999, 2000), Woolcock (1998), Woolcock and Narayan (2000). The chapter provides discussion on different forms of social capital including the distinction between bonding social capital and bridging social capital from social network perspective and identifies how this perspective has been employed in actual research. Finally, the chapter divides social capital’s functions into two groups, positive and negative. Regarding positive function, it discusses how social capital can be utilized in boosting household’s livelihood activities, promoting civil society’s growth, advancing economic development, and building social trust. Concerning negative function, the chapter analyses how social capital could exclude outsiders, demand high responsibility from while limiting personal freedom and the development of group insiders.

As a long, narrow country featuring varying climate conditions, Vietnam suffers heavily from vari... more As a long, narrow country featuring varying climate conditions, Vietnam suffers heavily from various natural hazards and climatic extremes such as storm, typhoon, flood, earthquake, landslides every year. Therefore, building disaster and climate change resilience has been central to Vietnam’s national strategy for disaster prevention, response and mitigation since 2007. Following that national direction, building disaster and climate change resilience has been practiced throughout the country. Literature on such the topic, conducted at different levels (from local to central) and from different approaches and disciplines, have revealed that local communities of Vietnam have their unique mechanisms for mitigating and recovering from adverse events like natural hazards. One of the mechanisms is the use of social capital as a crucial resource assisting community members in tackling disaster risks and climatic extremes and effectively bouncing back from suffering. This presentation aims to provide a review of Vietnamese scholarship carried out in the last decade (2007-2017) on the relation between social capital and disaster and climate change resilience. The presentation offers insights into social and cultural patterns in the use of social capital in building resilience to natural disasters and climate change in varying communities studied. The presentation also contributes to debates on the same topic at regional and global levels.