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History Southeast Asia

Land Politics and Livelihoods on the Margins of Hanoi, 1920-2010

by (author) Danielle Labbé

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Dec 2013
Category
Southeast Asia, Regional Planning, City Planning & Urban Development
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774826693
    Publish Date
    Dec 2013
    List Price
    $125.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774826679
    Publish Date
    Dec 2013
    List Price
    $95.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774826686
    Publish Date
    Jul 2014
    List Price
    $29.95

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Description

In the late 1990s, planning authorities in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi pushed the imaginary line between city and country several kilometres westward, engulfing dozens of rural settlements. As state policies forced rapid urbanization, villagers whose families had farmed the land for generations saw rice fields levelled, irrigation canals filled, and large avenues flanked by residential towers, big-box stores, and office buildings spring up. Danielle Labbé considers a century of change to the settlement of Hoa Muc – a community that underwent a rapid transition from rural village to urban neighbourhood. Through extensive research in the community, Labbé studies not only the changing lives of villagers, but also the state regulations and territorialization projects that drove these changes on the outskirts of Hanoi, and the early urban changes in the decades that preceded the reforms and continue to influence the area’s urbanization. Despite the new buildings, the end of farming activities, and the arrival of a large new population, the former villagers still consider Hoa Muc their homeland. The compelling story of this single village is both a portrait of a population that has endured despite drastic upheavals and a new analytical window onto Vietnam’s ongoing urban transition.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Danielle Labbé is a professor of urban planning at the Université de Montréal.