As part of an ongoing agenda by Vietnamese lawmakers and local state officials to
accelerate market integration in the northern mountains, rural marketplaces are being
physically and managerially restructured according to standard state-approved
models. Moreover, these market directives are coherent with the ‘distance
demolishing technologies’ that James Scott (2009) suggests the state has implemented
to bring these uplands more directly under its panoptic gaze. This integration strategy
seldom meshes well with upland livelihood needs. In this paper we examine a
number of power contestations currently unfolding as upland market traders – both
Vietnamese and ethnic minorities – negotiate or resist these developments while
striving to maintain meaningful livelihoods.