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Knowing into oblivion: Clearing wastelands and imagining emptiness in V ietnamese N ew U rban Z ones
Author(s) -
Harms Erik
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
singapore journal of tropical geography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9493
pISSN - 0129-7619
DOI - 10.1111/sjtg.12075
Subject(s) - clearing , scholarship , emptiness , narrative , ethnography , clearance , colonialism , sociology , political science , archaeology , geography , epistemology , art , anthropology , business , law , philosophy , medicine , literature , finance , urology
Lands cleared for V ietnamese N ew U rban Z ones are commonly described as ‘wastelands’ ( đất hoang ) in need of development. But clearing these lands in V ietnam's densely populated urban areas requires evicting large numbers of urban residents. How is it possible to render populated spaces as empty wastelands? This paper juxtaposes new ethnographic research in H o C hi M inh C ity against historical scholarship on V ietnamese concepts of ‘clearing the wasteland’ and colonial civilizing projects of mise en valeur . In doing so, the article describes these concepts as parallel legitimizing strategies that effectively enable developers and planners to render previously occupied and utilized lands as empty, uninhabited wastelands. The article shows that the same narrative structure used in these earlier contexts is used to justify current urban development projects.