Out of Control:emergent cultural landscapes and political change in urban Vietnam
Date
2002
Authors
Thomas, Mandy
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Publisher
Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
This paper plots the recent changes in the uses of public space in Hanoi, Vietnam. It is argued that the economic and social changes in contemporary Vietnam have paved the way for a dramatic transformation in the ways in which streets, pavements and markets are experienced and imagined by the populace. The efflorescence of individual mobility, street-trading and public crowding around certain popular events has led to the emergence of a distinct public sphere, one which is not immune from state control and censure but which is a flagrant rebuttal of the state's appeal. The immediate struggles over space herald a new discursive arena for the contest over Vietnamese national imagery as represented in cultural heritage and public space, memorials and state-controlled events which the public are rapidly deserting. The paper concludes by suggesting that the everyday cultural practices that have created a bustling streetlife in urban Vietnam will inevitably provide the vitality and spectacle for the destabilisation of state control in a struggle for meanings in public space.
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Keywords
Keywords: cultural landscape; political change; public space; urban politics; Viet Nam; Arena; Hanoi, Vietnam; Political Change; Public Space; Public Sphere; State Power; Urban Areas; Urbanism; Hanoi, Vietnam; Political Change; Public Space; Public Sphere; State Po
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Source
Urban Studies
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Journal article
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Restricted until
2037-12-31
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