Introduction: Living Politics—Social Alternatives and the Crisis of Democracy

Morris-Suzuki, Teresa; Wei, Shuge

doi:10.1007/978-981-10-6337-4_1

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…4 Starting in the early 2010s, this contributed to the rapid proliferation of alternative cultural spaces run by locals and the holding of activities and events open to the public. Illustrating this, between 2014 and 2018, the number of creative spaces active in Hanoi more than doubled, rising from 22 to 60 (Truong Uyen Ly, 2014, 2018.…”

Section: Context: Hanoi's (Emerging) Civil Society and Creative Hubsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Core elements of informal life politics include networking, improvisation and alternative value creation (Morris-Suzuki and Wei, 2018). With regard to networking, life politics groups often bring together individuals from different socio-economic classes and with diverse skills and experiences.…”

Section: Conceptual Framing: Informal Politics From Belowmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our analysis draws upon a case study of 10 creative hubs active in Hanoi between 2009 and 2019. Based on recent mappings of Vietnam's creative spaces (Truong Uyen Ly, 2014, 2018, we selected a cross-cutting sample of spaces in terms of sizes, foci and periods of existence. Two of the 10 hubs studied are large, complex-type, multi-functional structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Creative hubs in Hanoi, Vietnam: Transgressive spaces in a socialist state?

2022

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Vietnam’s capital city has recently witnessed the emergence of a new type of cultural space akin to what have been labelled creative hubs in other contexts: that is, locales that foster creation, collaboration, community engagement and business development in the cultural sector. During the 2010s, Hanoi saw a proliferation of small-scale, art-oriented creative hubs, most of them community-led and developed without state funding. In a context marked by a government historically wary of contemporary and experimental arts, these spaces face various forms of state control ranging from the censorship of events, to stiff fines or even closure. Despite these barriers, creative hubs have become important sites for the gathering and formation of Hanoi’s contemporary arts scene and countercultures. Based on over 80 interviews conducted in 2019, this paper investigates the motives behind the rise of these spaces in Hanoi and the political engagement techniques their founders, operators and users employ to remain in operation. Drawing on the notion of ‘informal life politics’, we argue that creative hubs seek to provide spaces of (partial) autonomy from governmentality in Hanoi. We further find that artists, intellectuals and other creative individuals use these spaces to challenge state controls. They do so not by lobbying formal institutions for policy changes, but instead by enacting the more open and free socio-cultural milieu they seek, from the bottom up.

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Section: Context: Hanoi's (Emerging) Civil Society and Creative Hubsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Conceptual Framing: Informal Politics From Belowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Creative hubs in Hanoi, Vietnam: Transgressive spaces in a socialist state?

2022

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“…Morris‐Suzuki and Wei (2018, p. 8) outline five key aspects of informal life politics that the urban rooftop gardeners we interviewed appear to relate to. First, improvisation “allows groups of people, in responding to political and economic challenges, to ‘try, and see what happens’.” In the case of Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners, we find respondents readily embracing improvisation.…”

Section: Urban Rooftop Gardening As a Form Of Informal Life Politics?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rooftop gardening complexities in the Global South: Motivations, practices, and politics

Turner,

Pham,

Ngô

et al. 2023

Geographical Research

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An increasing number of urban residents in the Global South are turning to rooftop gardening, whether through soil or hydroponics, to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs. In Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, rooftop gardening serves as an important alternative to traditional wet markets and more recently established supermarkets. In this paper, we examine the motivations, practices, and constraints of Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners, along with the level of government support or disapproval for rooftop gardening. Our study is grounded in critical urban geography and urban political ecology and specific debates regarding informal life politics. Our findings reveal that Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners feel confronted by a critical food safety crisis, emphasising their need to access safe, fresh, and affordable produce through rooftop gardening. Simultaneously, they express scepticism about the capacity and willingness of formal political institutions at both the municipal and national levels to address and resolve these concerns. We explore whether Hanoi’s urban rooftop gardeners can be considered to be engaging in a form of everyday life politics and examine the dynamics emerging in this regard. We conclude by offering potential policy recommendations for Global South cities to support urban gardening communities.

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“…The region has consequently developed in a fragmentary manner, whereby liberal economic policies have been embraced to allow for market growth and competitiveness, whereas sociocultural and political rights amongst the populace remains limited. This has affected how political spaces and institutions in the region have taken shape, with a number of Asian nations assuming non-democratic or quasidemocratic forms of governance that closely monitors and regulates political space (Alagappa, 2004;Ogawa, 2018), curtailing overt displays of dissent and resistance movements against the state across their cities, yet also enabling the emergence of small-scale informal citizen networks seeking to resolve everyday urban problems (see Morris-Suzuki & Wei, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%