An Emergent Landscape of Inequality in Southeast Asia: Cementing Socio-Spatial Inequalities in Viet Nam

Abstract

Contemporary versions of globalization assume that market deregulation is the precursor to democratic development and the growth of livable cities. This paper examines the specific case of Viet Nam to describe how the creation and construction of cities in the developing world may be laying the foundations for future social inequality. Using a futuresoriented method, the paper reviews the development of urban poverty in North America during a period of rapid urban transition as a heuristic device for understanding some of the potentially unobservable, yet festering problems with the trajectory of development in Viet Nam. The paper uses the examples of new urban social institutions, residential and economic segregation, and the creation of 'new towns' to highlight the importance of new forms of local governance, as well the declining relevance of national authorities. The paper ends with a brief discussion of four 'ideological cages' that are likely to become increasingly constrictive to urban analysts as Vietnamese cities develop.Las versiones contemporáneas de la globalización asumen que la desregulación del mercado es el precursor al desarrollo democrático y al crecimiento de ciudades habitables. Este artículo examina el caso específico de Viet Nam para describir cómo la creación y construcción de ciudades en el mundo subdesarrollado pueden haber puesto las bases para las desigualdades sociales futuras. Mediante un método orientado a futuros, el artículo revisa el desarrollo de la pobreza urbana en Norteamérica durante un periodo de rápida transición urbana, como un componente heurístico para entender algunos de los problemas potencialmente inobservables, no obstante supurantes, con la trayectoria del desarrollo en Viet Nam. El artículo usa los ejemplos de nuevas instituciones sociales, la segregación económica y la creación de 'nuevas ciudades', para destacar la importancia de nuevas formas de gobierno local, como también la trascendencia decadente de las autoridades nacionales. El artículo termina con una breve discusión de cuatro 'jaulas ideológicas' que muy probablemente están por llegar a ser progresivamente constrictivas a los analistas urbanos, a medida que se desarrollan las ciudades vietnamitas.

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