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Grass roots and political systems at grass roots levels for our country's stability and socialist-oriented development

Starting from renovated knowledge of the role of grass roots (including communes and wards in the administrative management system) the author emphasizes stability, first of all political stability, as an important premise for performing renovation tasks and development purposes. Economic growth is central of development. The article has placed special emphasis on the role of common people in the grass roots political systems and emphasizes that the grass roots political systems should rely on people, know people's abilities and forces, benefit people and strive for people's happiness. In this way, political systems, which are really for people, free of corruption and red tape, and true democracy are achievable.

Labourers with collective labour agreements in current Hanoi enterprises

Making progress and achieving social justice in a socialist-oriented market economy

It is the aims of sustainable development to promote economic growth, to make progress and to achieve social justice. Many countries around the world have so far been eager to achieve these aims, but not every country is able to find a satisfactory slolution to this difficult problem. To achieve this, there must be a series of subjective and objective conditions, one has to resolve the relations between the economy and the society in accordance with the requirements of the national development and general trends of our times. From such approach the article has dealt in more detailed with the following main points: 1. Overview of typical economic development patterns in the world with regard to progress and social justice; 2. The actual state (achievements and problems) in Vietnam with regard to economic growth, progress and social justice during the doi moi process; 3. Concrete views and some recommendations concerning sololutions to making progress and achieving social justice in socialist- orientated market economy in the coming.

Marxist theory and sociology

The article introduces the development of Marxist thought and'its role in the development of sociology. It mentions two periods in the growth of Marxist thought. The first period, in 1845, Marxism attained the basic principles of historical materialism that then disordered the traditional position and content of philosophy and historical sciences. The second period, in 1858, political economics was upset and reconstructed on a new foundation. Marx's analysis of social forms, of class and class struggle are a progress that he brought in sociology and in contemporary political science. On methodology, by putting forward a great many ideas about totality and applying dialectics on' social analysis, Marxist theory significantly contributes to the development of sociological methods. Therefore, Marxist theory, together with positivism and anti-positivism (interpretive sociology), are three great origins of modern sociology.

Social stratification in present Vietnam: A reexamination of some methodological aspects from a sociological viewpoint

Social stratification is a new concept, and it starts to be examined during the doi moi process. Diversified research approaches and' indicator sets have been developed. Studies based on official statistical data analysis have also caught scholarly attention. Thanks to this, one can preliminary identify the stratification's state of affairs and tendencies in Vietnam during the last decade. However, due to the concept's nature and changing practice, social scientists still face many methodological difficulties and methodology challenges when conducting field research about this topic. As a result, most of the existing studies of social stratification have in fact dealt with social stratification in terms of living standards or income. Two other important aspects of social stratification are power and cultural aspect (prestige) which have almost not addressed. To overcome these weaknesses, studies of social stratification in the coming period should go further in two directions: statistical data analysis and field studies using sociological methods. Especially the two unstudied aspects (power and cultural aspect) of social stratification need deeper research. Sociological studies also should point out emerging social groups that are developing quickly and typical of the country's intensified industrialization and modernization period. Those groups have prospects to become the new social groups and strata in social structure and play an active role in the country's development processes in the coming decades.

Urban poverty studies in Vietnam in the 1990s: results and suggestions for further research

In this paper, the authors review the main studies on urban poverty in Viet Nam during last decade. Types of studies as well as major findings on socio-economic characteristics of urban poverty are presented. The authors highlight an importance of paying due attention to the multi-facetedness of urban poverty. Therefore, it is necessary to have a holistic approach in the study of this subject. The authors suggeste some aspects of further studies in order to have more comprehensive understanding of urban poverty in Viet Nam. For example, relationship between the social network of the poor and their opportunities for upward mobility; strategies for social economic upward mobility of family members in the context of household demographic changes; the relationship between age and sex of household head and poverty; the way to further enhance the activism of the poor and to make the strategy "giving a fishing rod instead of a string of fish" more efficient ot this group of household, etc.

Urbanization, social stratification and poverty: A case study of Hanoi suburban area