The book is compiled on the basic of research results of the two ministerial projects including “The impact of traditional elements on social administration at grass-roots level in areas of ethnic minorities in western Thanh Hoa - Nghe An” and “Some basic issues of the political system and grass-roots officials in the sustainable development of Vietnam’s border provinces” chaired by the author.
Social administration is one of the issues always concerned by researchers, administrators and policy-makers. Nowadays, social administration is posing new problems, conflicts between the traditional cultural values which had been reserved and preserved for many generations with the forward movement and development of the society in the context of modernization, integration and development. For areas of ethnic minorities, many traditional values have been reserved in the context of integration and modernization, that leads to many shortcomings occurring in the process of adaptation between tradition and modernity, especially differences in traditional social administration are deeply characters of ethnic culture with modern administration modality of some ethnic minorities in our country today. That is a gap in research on social sciences, in particular from an angle of Anthropology in many recent years. In our country, after the Renovation toward, with the State’s policies, areas of ethnic minorities have already prospered, especially changes in infrastructure, economic-social life of ethnic minorities has experienced remarkable development. However there is still persistence of shortcomings among preservation, promoting value of characters of ethnic culture in the context of new social values penetrating daily and developing quickly in areas of ethnic minorities, that fades the fine cultural values of the nation. That are major issues analysed by the author in the book.
Following the chapter on literature review, relevant definitions and research opinions (chapter 1); the author examined impact of traditional elements on social administration at grass-roots level in areas of ethnic minorities in the present (chapter 2); analysed strong points, limitations of grass-roots political system on social administration in areas of ethnic minorities (chapter 3); and searched operation of grass-roots officials in areas of ethnic minorities, in particular border regions (chapter 4).
Hopefully the book brings useful information to researchers, administrators and policy-makers and other people concerning issues of social administration in areas of ethnic minorities in the sustainable development in Vietnam.
Nguyen Vu
