ABSTRACT
To understand how Vietnamese society responds to the challenge of environmental change, it is important to develop a conceptual framework for examining the process of impact, reaction and adaptation. Implicitly or explicitly, this framework is made use of throughout the chapters of this book. The basis of the framework is that the adaptive options open to any social grouping are constrained by the resilience of the human and natural systems that comprise or define that grouping. A high level of resilience implies greater opportunities for absorbing external shocks and successful adaptation to both social and environmental change. Low resilience means the vulnerability to externally imposed change is greater, i.e. adaptive options are limited. But resilience and vulnerability are not pre-determined. Nor are individuals or institutions passive in these processes. Social vulnerability and resilience are determined by a host of complex social processes and economic factors, from access to resources through to informal and formal social security, insurance and social capital. In essence, these determinants are related to the concept of entitlements and access of individuals or groups to resources. Resilience and vulnerability can be observed at different scales, but they are essentially relative concepts.
