Neoliberal Urbanism Meets Socialist Modernism: Vietnam’s Post-Reform Housing Policies and the New Urban Zones of Hanoi

Abstract

Since the introduction of the economic reform, Doi Moi, in 1986, Vietnam has been advancing, at least on the surface, into market economy in most social and economic arenas. In the housing sector, while the retreat of the state and fast expansion of new urban exclusive enclaves for the growing middle-class have been taken as signifying evidence of the triumphing neoliberalization, this chapter argues against such an oversimplification. Using data on relevant policies and in-depth case studies of four new urban zones in Hanoi, the chapter examines the complex interaction of the emerging new market imperatives amidst the adaptive socialist legacy, which results in the evolvement of a hybrid system in amalgamating neoliberal urbanism and socialist modernism.