Dr. Erik Harms (Yale University) will investigate the demolition and reconstruction of the urban landscape in two of Ho Chi Minh City's New Urban Zones. The first site, Saigon South, has been largely completed and is gradually becoming populated. The second site, Thu Thiêm, has not yet been built, but recently approved site clearance and construction will evict all of the current residents. Both sites propose to foster "civilized urban living," and offer a window into the symbolic, ideological, material, economic, and social forces that drive and emerge from urban development projects. The research will document the meaning different actors ascribe to the concept of "urban civilization," how ideas and plans for building urban civilization ultimately shape the built environment, how living in these sites ultimately transforms the ideas that first informed them, and how the construction of new urban spaces transforms what it means to be an urban Vietnamese citizen.
Working alongside Vietnamese anthropologists, the researcher will, (1) photograph, map, and archive spatial changes to the landscape; and (2) employ a mix of ethnographic research methods including spatial analysis of urban land-use, analysis of newspapers and other documentary materials, participant observation, and formal ethnographic interviews with a cross-section of residents, displaced households, officials, planners, developers and builders.
This research is important because it takes advantage of a timely opportunity to evaluate how dramatic urban transformations both respond to and transform official and popular conceptions currently driving rapid urban transformation in many parts of the developing world. By studying contested visions of urbanization and development at these sites, the research will illuminate how urban citizenship rights are negotiated in spaces where formal civic discourse is largely circumscribed. Data collected from a cross section of stakeholders will inform policymakers and planners, thus contributing to more sustainable and culturally sensitive urban development. Funding this research also builds international research collaborations and supports student training.
This three year ethnographic study investigated the transformation of the urban landscape in two urban development projects in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The first research site, at the Saigon South New Urban Zone in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 7, offered a window into new emerging lifestyles and perceptions about the concept of "Urban civilization" among residents living in master-planned communities in Ho Chi Minh City. The second site, the Th? Thiêm New Urban Zone in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2, provided a window into the contentious dynamics of site clearance, eviction, and the challenges of building a "civilized" New Urban Zone in a previously inhabited space. The project used ethnographic research techniques, formal interviews, photography, and the study of background documentation and formal legal documents to investigate the symbolic, ideological, material, economic, and social forces that drive and emerge from urban development projects. The research focused specifically on documenting the meaning different actors ascribe to the concept of "urban civilization," how ideas and plans for building urban civilization ultimately shape the built environment, how living in these sites ultimately transforms the ideas that first informed them, and how the construction of new urban spaces transforms what it means to be an urban Vietnamese citizen. Over the course of three fieldwork trips over three years, the PI spent a total of nine-months photographing and archiving spatial changes to the landscape; and employing a mix of ethnographic research methods including spatial analysis of urban land-use, analysis of newspapers and other documentary materials, participant observation, and formal ethnographic interviews with a cross-section of residents, displaced households, officials, planners, developers and builders. All of this research involved working alongside and training three Vietnamese anthropologists, and parts of the field research involved working with and mentoring two undergraduate students from Yale University. Analysis and background research conducted at Yale involved training and mentoring 11 students in ethnographic data analysis, and also employed and trained a recent anthropology graduate. Research in Phu My Hung showed that the standard analytic emphasis on "privatization" commonly used to describe New Towns and master-planned megaprojects, while not incorrect from an etic outsider’s perspective, misses the core reasons why Vietnamese are increasingly placing emphasis on building these kinds of peri-urban developments. In Vietnam’s late-socialist context, where large numbers of the adult property-owning population at one time experienced inefficient economic practices they have come to associate with socialism, privatization is not considered antithetical to the production of an urban "consciousness" (y thuc). Instead, residents commonly describe the master-planned urban developments as generally fostering a sense of the collective interest. In spaces of eviction, however, the emphasis on collectivity is less pronounced. For example, while the concept of building an urban "civilization" (van minh) is regularly used by developers to justify the displacement of local residents from Thu Thiem, it has not proven to be a focus for Thu Thiem residents in the way they articulate their struggles to improve their situation. Something of an inverse relationship thus exists between those in the displacement zone of Thu Thiem – who are told that they lack civility and have a responsibility to work toward achieving it – and those in the luxury New Urban Zone who claim civility as their own rightful possession. Instead of focusing on "civility" as a set of rights to which they might lay claim, residents in Thu Thiem have largely focused on (1) the financial terms of compensation, and (2) the fair and equitable application of the Law. In both field sites, several discursive frameworks were discovered as playing important roles in the logics driving urban development: the notion of building a "civilized urban space," the quest for beauty and breathability, and the conception of turning "wasteland" into productive land. However, while different social classes all considered notions of civilization, beauty and breathability, and clearing wastelands to be important, the way they assigned different spaces these various qualities differed dramatically. In the Phu My Hung (Saigon South) research site, it was also discovered that many of the stereotypes about the area being primarily a zone for foreigners were incorrect. Large numbers of Vietnamese proudly live in the area, and consider it to be "very Vietnamese". There is, however, some profound anxiety about the perception that others in the city hold that they are somehow losing their Vietnamese cultural roots. As a result, residents worry about the Vietnamese language and cultural skills of their children who study in international schools, and they actively try to construct spatial practices that imbue the area with what they consider more Vietnamese characteristics. In addition to the publication of a series of scientific articles, the results of this research have been publicly disseminated via a free and open access website: http://newurbanvietnam.commons.yale.edu/
