Multiple Publics in the Global South – a Lefebvrian Perspective on the Production of Public Space in Vietnam

Abstract

Departing from calls for a Southern perspective in urban studies (Patel 2014), this paper discusses the social production of public spaces in Hanoi, the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Vietnam is on the threshold of becoming an urbanized society, with 36 % of the population living in urban areas and 1.2 million people moving to the city each year (Thanh Nien News 2016). Until recently, the state has always been predominant in any definition of urban landscapes (Thomas 2002, 1621; Ho Tai 1995, 273). However, with the introduction of economic reforms in 1986, urban dwellers have increasingly begun to challenge the state’s defining power. Drawing on Lefebvre’s (1991) tripartite system of space, this paper shows how urbanites continuously transform former spaces of officialdom into public spaces through their everyday practices. Based on ethnographic research in Vietnam, academic exchange and collaboration with Vietnamese scholars, and an analysis of Vietnamese secondary literature, this article questions long-established concepts of public space and the public sphere developed with reference to Northern cities. Finally, it proposes a model of public space in Hanoi comprising the three dimensions of the state, the private sphere, and the sacred.