Vietnam's cities run on invisible workers—and planners are finally noticing
A new study of Hanoi's urban fringes reveals how street vendors, small shops, and informal businesses fill the gaps that state development plans leave behind. Understanding these "interstitial practices" matters for policymakers and investors: ignoring them means missing how cities actually function—and where real economic activity thrives.
Originaltitel: Beyond dualistic categories: interstitial practices in peri-urban Hanoi
<p>Although large urban areas in cities of the Global South are shaped by individuals, households and small entrepreneurs, these shapings are often dismissed or at best considered as temporary happenings that are tolerated in waiting for the implementation of ‘proper’ large-scale projects. In rapidly urbanizing Vietnam, tensions between the representations of space by the state and capitalist actors and the spatial practices of ordinary citizens are particularly complex in peri-urban areas. This article discusses findings from a study of interstitial practices on a street bordering a gated community and an urbanizing village at Hanoi’s urban periphery. Moving beyond the dualistic analysis based on binary categories of modern versus traditional, formal versus informal, permanent versus temporary, this article highlights emergent practices that emerge in the interstices between these existing categories. It also highlights the role of interstitial practices in filling in the gaps in the state’s development plan and connecting differences. It shows how the urban interstice is about selective seeing and that the construction of the modern Vietnamese city is dependent on interstitial practices. This article draws on interviews with business actors and village residents, and an inventory of the use of spaces along selected sections of the street.</p>