• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.378-398
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• 2016

This paper aims to clarify the process of institutionalization of customary land ownership along with the expansion of coffee plantation in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Vietnam is the second-largest coffee exporter in the world. Most of the coffee areas are concentrated in Dak Lak-a province of commercial agricultural production. The expansion of coffee plantation in Dak Lak have brought a severe competition of land resources, and resulted in the transition of land ownership scheme from customary commons by ethnic minorities to those of exculsive private assets which is secured by the state. Institutionalization of customary land ownership in Dak Lak, however, was differently happened according to the geography from the center of state power as well as the value of land resources. In this paper, the authors argue that institutionalization of customary land ownership in Dak Lak was a result of compromising between statemaking process in the frontiers and "everyday resistance" of ethnic minorities, comparing 3 geographically different ethnic minorities' communities.