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SMALL METROPOLISES? CASE STUDIES OF CAO BẰNG AND VINH1 Rüdiger Korff, Hannah von Bloh, Tim Kaiser Introduction Although the largest percentage of the urban population resides in small and intermediate cities, these are seldom the focus of urban studies (Bunnell, Maringanti 2010; Montgomery 2008; Ofori-Amoah 2007) Research on and in urban settings has focused on “selected cities of the Global North”, thereby inhibiting “the development and impact of urban studies in the broadest sense What is lost as a consequence of the bias towards large cities is a full picture of urban form and function: the urban world is not made up of a handful of global metropolises, but characterized by heterogeneity” (Bell, Jayne, 2009: 683) Likewise, research on urbanism in Southeast Asia has suffered from “’metrocentricity’” (Goh, Bunnell, 2013: 826; citing Bunnell, Maringanti 2010) Especially in Vietnam, the focus on large urban centres has led to an unduly dominance of these on the general picture of urban dynamics For example, the edited volume “The Vietnamese City in Transition” focuses on Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City, acknowledging the critical need to balance this bias with research in “medium-sized or secondary cities” (Cusset et al 2010: 275; Gubry et al This paper draws on extended research by Hannah von Bloh and Tim Kaiser carried out in cooperation with the Institute of Vietnamese Studies & Development Sciences (IVIDES) The cooperation between IVIDES and the Chair for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Passau focuses on urban studies, especially research in small and medium-sized urban centres In July and December 2010 two conferences were jointly organized by both institutions in Passau and Hà Nội on these subjects, financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany On the occasion of IVIDES’ 25th anniversary we would like to thank IVIDES, its current and former directors as well as its staff for their support and cooperation and hope for continued cooperation in research, education and student exchange | 679 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH 2010) In addition to a mere diversification of research settings, studying small and medium-sized urban centres can reveal dynamics different from large urban areas (Korff et al.2013) In rural studies too, small and medium-sized urban centres are widely ignored Even though in many cases the small district towns go through rapid processes of change, and emerge into centers structuring and articulating the rural surroundings, rural studies tend to maintain their focus on villages We won’t bemoan the neglect of small and medium-sized urban centres here, but draw attention to a quite contradictory process, namely that big cities and metropolis develop features of communities usually associated with rural life, while within the district town urbanism in its classic sense is evolving Studies of global cities and metropolis note that within these distinct, often globally connected communities emerge Appadurai for example shows how closely connected migrant communities tend to be (Appadurai 1996) Similarly, studies on gated communities indicate the ghettoization of certain urban classes Looking at the peripheral regions of mega-cities, McGee notes a situation he refers to as “Kota-desa” or urban – rural (McGee et al 1991) These regions show many features of villages rather than of parts of a metropolis Several studies of slums within the metropolis indicate the high degree of social cohesion In Indonesia one still speaks of Kampung or village in the big cities For Wirth in his classic study of urbanism as a way of life, heterogeneity of the city allowed a degree of anonymity and shifting of roles depending on the social context (Wirth 1938) In his studies of Civitas and more so in “the fall of public man”, R Sennet criticizes the attempts to establish communities of intimacy within the cities (Sennett 1977, 1991) Processes of globalization favor such a growth of intimacy and ghettoization of “cosmopolitan” people The BoBo (Bohemian Bourgeois) have their own condominiums, they go to boutiques and coffee-shops where they are sure to find other BoBo, etc As result the city is increasingly fragmented into communities in terms of everyday life of its inhabitants The consequence is not dissolution of the city, but rather the transformation especially of the big and global cities into collections of villages, quite similar to what we find in remote rural areas inhabited by different ethnic minorities 680 | 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH Just as in northern Thailand we have the village of the Akha, close to the Lisu village and the villages of the Shan and Karen, with some villages of Hmong and Lahu in between, it seems that we have in the global cities the village of the migrant maids close to the BoBo village and the gated village of the rich etc One might argue that the differences between the villages in the uplands of the Mekong River and the global cities are mainly architectural The first living in wooden huts, while the others life in duplex houses, high-rises etc In contrast, the population in small and medium-sized towns is too limited to allow for the rise of distinct communities The inhabitants have to communicate with each other and integrate the different groups as neighbors into their everyday life Thereby heterogeneity of communication and of relations to persons of diverse life styles becomes a main feature In another terminology one can say that especially in the small cities the weak ties gain in relevance As Granovetter notes on the “strength of weak ties”, it allows the rapid spread of innovations among different groups and cultures (Granovetter 1973) As a consequence, the district towns become ever more urban in the sense of urbanism, while the metropolis is ruralising In the following we would like to present some preliminary findings from research we have been conducting in intermediate towns in Vietnam during the past few years Although Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City are by far most prominently featured in urban studies in Vietnam, these cities are only two of 731 settlements (as of 2009) classified as urban by the Government of Vietnam (World Bank 2011) In fact, according to the General Census of 2009, 725 of the urban settlements in Vietnam had less than 500,000 inhabitants, the benchmark of the UNFPA for “smaller cities” (UNFPA 2007: 9) Studying the dynamics of and in these smaller settlements is thus crucial for understanding the factors which determine everyday life in a large part of the country Cao Bằng Cao Bằng town lies 275 km from Hà Nội at the National Highway in the mountainous Northeast of Vietnam The settlement is the | 681 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH provincial capital of the rural province Cao Bằng bordering to China In 2012, with an official population of 84,421 inhabitants, Cao Bằng town was promoted to a Level III urban center, thus obtaining the title “thành phố” or city (Nghị 60/NQ-CP 2012) Although still a small town by all standards, the town is home to approximately 11 percent of the province’s population and has by far the highest population density of the province - 988 inhabitants/ km² as oppose to an average 76 inhabitants/ km² in the other districts (Cục thống kê tỉnh Cao Bằng 2008) What also sets Cao Bằng town apart from the rest of the province is the composition of the town’s population The last census of Cao Bằng which included the ethnic composition of the population (1999) stated that the largest ethnic groups in the town were the Tay (47 percent), followed by the Kinh (32 percent) and the Nung (20 percent) (Tỉnh Ủy - UBND Tỉnh Cao Bằng 2000) In the past years the percentage of Kinh in Cao Bằng town certainly has increased further In contrast, a later census at province-level (2005) still only counted 4,3 percent Kinh overall in the province (Công ty cổ phần thông tin kinh tế đối ngoại 2007) Cao Bằng town has long been integrated in the superregional flow of people and resources Its location in a border region made it both a node for cross-border trade, as well as a site for cultural exchange and political negotiations Over time the town was shaped through the interaction of the various groups - chieftains and traders from the Chinese territories to the North; traders, envoys and members of the ruling class from the Red River Delta; representatives of the local communities such as the Tày etc (Taylor 1998, Chapuis 1995, Woodside 1988) After falling under the French military administration, Cao Bằng town became seat of the highest county administration within the military French administrative system, the “chef-lieu du cercle” in 1891 The town developed into a hub for regional and cross-border trade with China via Longzhou (Quangxi) upstream of the Bằng Giang River At the turn of the 20th century, Cao Bằng was a destination for not only the regional ethnic groups, but also for Kinh traders from the Red River Delta, Chinese traders and soldiers as well as for French bureaucrats and soldiers (Billet 1898) Cao Bằng town is located in a peninsular valley formed by the confluence of the Bằng Giang and Hiến rivers The city centre has since 682 | 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH earliest times been located on the semi-island formed by this confluence The other administrative units of Cao Bằng are grouped around this semiisland On the semi-island itself, the streets are laid out in North-South/ East-West alignment with the town’s small park as their centre The urban architecture further demarcates this centre, as it is surrounded by the town’s largest and most important government buildings: The provincial people’s committee, the culture hall, the post office, and the community centre The town’s inhabitants organize their everyday life around this centre It is in close proximity to the central market, a popular site for public events and provides recreational activities in the evening Cafés surrounding the park are visited by people of all strata As the spatial organization of the town indicates, Cao Bằng is not only an administrative entity but is also a social entity in which the population shares certain modes of organization In this sense, Cao Bằng as spatial entity is then the expression and result of the social interaction of its inhabitants The features of social space indicate the level of local cohesion and conformity regarding everyday practices, i.e questions of style, location, time, actors, procedures etc In this way, the town as social space is a vehicle which facilitates communication and cooperation in the sense that it provides the town’s inhabitants with a common understanding regarding the structure of everyday life and the status role/ position of each actor within it As such, the town‘s inhabitants form a network of everyday life of sorts This is evident, for example, in the modes of organization of the local entrepreneurs Besides state employment, small and medium enterprises (both formal and informal) are the most important source of income in Cao Bằng The SME sector is also an important pull-factor for migrants Besides regular commuters and migrants from the surrounding rural districts, Cao Bằng attracts a considerable number of migrants from other provinces Many of these migrants come from rural regions in the lowlands, ranging from the Red River Delta 200 km away to the Mekong Delta more than 1000 km away.1 Maintaining contacts outside the settlement is an essential livelihood strategy for both migrants and long-term residents employed in the local Data based on own interviews conducted on site in 2009/2010 | 683 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH SME sector A high mobility and flexibility secures access to resources not readily available in their place of residence, Cao Bằng A large number of entrepreneurs leave Cao Bằng at least once a week in order to stock up on goods in the city, to supervise business activities in the countryside, to meet business partners, gather information or attend a training course Also, a surprising number of people own a second house in Hà Nội to facilitate business trips or to provide accommodation for offspring studying in the city – although the city is almost eight hours drive away from their place of residence The formation of informal networks within town, too, can be seen as a way to cope with the specific challenges entrepreneurs face in Cao Bằng By exchanging information, lending each other equipment or organizing supply chains together the entrepreneurs secure access to resources which are hard to come by in Cao Bằng Scarcity of resources, spatial proximity and small population size facilitate the interaction and co-operation among local entrepreneurs The population of Cao Bằng in general and the number of local entrepreneurs in particular are so small that all members are forced to interact with each other on a daily basis Immigrants thus integrate themselves rapidly, enter local networks and to a certain extent also share the new knowledge or ideas they bring into the town Knowledge can hereby be transformed from an individual into a collective resource A nice example is Mr Bùi from Thai Binh Province He trained as a pastry cook and worked in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City before moving to Cao Bằng During the time of his arrival in Cao Bằng, pastries were sought-after by locals and brought up from the lowlands as special treats for friends Since then, a range of bakeries have been established in Cao Bằng as other residents study the business and pick up the know-how In sum, each newly arriving or returning individual contributes to minute changes in the town’s economic landscape and social structure Thus changes within the local population spark innovation and provide impulses for change, which the town is unable to generate from within but quick to pick up when given an impulse 684 | 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH Vinh Vinh in Vietnam’s Nghệ An Province is the provincial capital and the regional centre; it is a second tier urban centre In 2010, its inhabitants numbered 305,000 (Cục Thống kê Nghệ An 2011; Bộ Xây dựng, Viện Kiến trúc – Quy hoạch đô thị nông thôn August 2008) The city is thus a city “in-between”, neither one of the large urban agglomerations like Hồ Chí Minh City or Hà Nội, nor among the small cities like Cao Bằng Despite population growth of nearly 33% from 2005 to 2010, phenomena of rapid urbanization and differentiation are still in their early stages (Cục Thống kê Nghệ An 2011 However, a retreat into privacy and the formation of distinct local communities is showing Two major causes can be identified: international cooperation in the production of urban space on one hand and the city’s authority’s aspirations for the development of a large “modern and civilized” city on the other After the city had been nearly totally destroyed by US bombing raids, it was reconstructed with the help of the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s This resulted in the creation of the Quang Trung Housing Complex, consisting of 22 apartment blocks While the goal was to build a socialist city as a symbol of a bright future, economic difficulties increasingly detached the project from local realities (Verwaltungskomitee Nghe An 1975) In the end, large amounts of steel, concrete and other building materials had to be imported, as reliance on local and national resources was impossible (Hansen 1981; Purtak 1980) Not only was the project reliant on the application of international resources, skills and knowledge Living conditions in the apartments differed significantly from the lifestyles people were used to, a fact that would later on contribute much to the fast deterioration of the building’s quality and surroundings (Schwenkel 2013; Interview Ngô Văn Yêm 9.10.2010) While the application of the walk-up multi-story apartment building style was planned to contribute up to 80% of the city’s housing stock in the 1970s and 80s, the model was not replicated and Quang Trung’s apartment blocks stand in stark contrast to the prevalent way of building in the city (Verwaltungskomitee Nghe An 1975) With economic growth accelerating in the 1990s and especially in the last 10 years, differences in income and consumption possibilities become | 685 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH more pronounced At the same time, strategies for access to resources also diversify Consider the case of the Cửa Nam ward upgrading project: With the help of two international Non Governmental Organisations and the Association of Cities of Vietnam, the inhabitants of Hữu Nghị housing area were able to upgrade their houses in a participatory way (Kaiser 2012) Tools employed were saving groups, community architects and self-help In the end, the project was able to convince the provincial authorities to adjust building regulations, so no members of the neighbourhood had to move away (Lê Như Ngà et al.2012) To achieve this, the inhabitants had to rely on overseas funds (partly donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), experts from Thailand and Cambodia as well as the national organisation Association of Cities of Vietnam(ACHR November 2012, Lê Viết Hùng 2011, Lê Quang Thông 2011) Despite the project’s explicit aim to connect the urban poor and their savings groups, the inhabitants did draw much more on resources and networks outside their city Furthermore, decisions on the application of this model were firmly in the hands of the administrative apparatus and the Women’s Union (ACHR February 2009; ACCA 20.4.2009) The inhabitants of Hữu Nghị were thus not encouraged to participate in city wide networks At the same time, with growing numbers of nouveau rich and middle-class consumers, international and national corporations start to eye the market in Vinh City This is most visibly expressed in the presence of car-showrooms, shopping centres and high-rise apartment buildings Among the first to arrive were French Casino group and German Metro group These showcases of consumer culture not only provide shopping opportunities but also stages for new choices in lifestyle and consumption They attract customers from as far away as Laos, while at the same time many of the people living next door only participate as non-buying spectators This creation of internationalised economic centres follows the city administration’s strategy to generate tax-income and job-opportunities by attracting (where possible international) investment, while at the same time setting these areas spatially apart from administrative zones where the revolutionary role of the city as HồChí Minh’s homeland is celebrated (Schwenkel 2013, 2012; Sở Kế Hoạch Và Đầu Tư Nghệ An, October 2010; UBND Vinh July 2010; Shannon, Loeckx 2004) 686 | 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH Conclusion The size of a city matters as a variable for social relations A small city like Cao Bằng is too large to be a community but too small to be an assemblage of distinct communities In Vinh, a much larger city, where heterogeneity is more pronounced, we also notice processes of differentiation accompanied by communal ties and forms of exclusion With regards to urbanism we have thus to distinguish between heterogeneity as coexisting, more or less separated communities within a given space of a city, and heterogeneity as experienced in everyday life REFERENCES ACCA (Asian Coalition for Community Action) (20.4.2009): Các nội dung tổng hợp thông tin thành phố Vinh Online available at http://achr.vn.free.fr/Pageshtml/ ACCAtrang%20thong%20tin%20cap%20nhat/ACCA%20Lang%20Son-%20 V-25.04.09.pdf [accessed 18.9.2013] ACHR (Asian Coalition for Housing Rights) (February 2009): Notes on the Nepal visit and ACHR/ACCA Meeting: February 25-28, 2009 Online available at http:// www.achr.net/achrdownloads.htm [accessed 09.01.2013] ACHR 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(2007): Beyond the metropolis: Urban geography as if small cities mattered.Lanham, Md: University Press of America Purtak, U (31.12.1980): Jahresabschlußbericht 1980 der DDR-Spezialistengruppe Vinh/ SR Vietnam und Information über die Erfüllung des Regierungsabkommens zur Hilfe und Unterstützung bei der Projektierung und dem Aufbau der Stadt Vinh/ SR Vietnam Bundesarchiv Berlin, BArch DH 1/29712 Schwenkel, C (2012): Civilizing the City: Socialist Ruins and Urban Renewal in Central Vietnam In: Positions: East Asia cultures critique 20 (2), p.436–470 Schwenkel, C (2013): POST/SOCIALIST AFFECT: Ruination and Reconstruction of the Nation in Urban Vietnam In: Cultural Anthropology 28 (2), p.252–277 Sennett, R (1977): The Fall of Public Man Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Sennett, R (1991): The Conscience of the Eye New York: Knopf Shannon, K.; Loeckx, A (2004): Rising from the Ashes: Vinh In: Localising Agenda 21: Action Planning for Sustainable Urban Development; United Nations Human Settlements Programme (eds.): Urban trialogues: Visions, projects, coproductions, p.122–155 Sở Kế Hoạch Và Đầu Tư Nghệ An (October 2010): Kế Hoạch Xúc Tiến Đầu Tư Và Phát Triển Kinh Tế Đối Ngoại Giai Đoạn 2011-2015 Taylor, K W (1998): The birth of Vietnam Berkeley: University of California Press Tỉnh Ủy - Ủy Ban Nhân Dân Tỉnh Cao Bằng (2000): Địa Chí Cao Bằng Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Chính Trị Quốc Gia UBND (Uỷ ban Nhân dân) Vinh (July 2010): Kế hoạch phát triển kinh tế - xã hội năm 2011-2015 thành phố Vinh Verwaltungskomitee Nghe An (30.5.1975): Bericht über die Generalbebauungsplanung der Stadt Vinh und über die Vorbereitung einiger ausgewählter Vorhaben Bundesarchiv Berlin, BArch DH 1/29709 Wirth, L Urbanism as a Way of Life In: The American Journal of Sociology, Vol 44, No (July 1938), pp 1-24 Woodside A (1988): Vietnam and the Chinese model A comparative study of Vietnamese and Chinese government in the Half of the 19 Century Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies Harvard University World Bank (2011): Vietnam Urbanization Review Technical Assistance Report | 689 25 NĂM VIỆT NAM HỌC THEO ĐỊNH HƯỚNG LIÊN NGÀNH Prof Dr Rüdiger Korff, holds the Chair of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Passau Contact: Dr.-Hans-Kapfinger-Strasse 14b, Room 301, 94032 Passau, Germany +49(0)851/509-2940 ruediger.korff@uni-passau.de Tim Kaiser, M.A in Cultural Studies and Economics, is researcher at the Institute for Education, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen Contact: Karl-GlöcknerStrasse 21b, Room 215, 35394 Giessen, Germany +49 160 687 627 Kaiser tim@erziehung.uni-giessen.de Hannah von Bloh, M.A in Cultural Studies and Economics, is researcher and lecturer at the Chair of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Passau Contact: Dr.-Hans-Kapfinger-Strasse 14b, Room 310, 94032 Passau, Germany +49(0)851/509-2945 hannah.bloh@uni-passau.de 690 |