Urban Demolition, Reconstruction, and the Culture of "Civilized Living" in Ho Chi Minh City's New Urban Zones

埃里克·哈姆斯博士（耶鲁大学）将调查胡志明市两个新城区的城市景观的拆除和重建。第一个地点，西贡南部，已经基本完成，并逐渐成为人口。第2个用地“图Thiêm”虽然还没有动工，但最近得到批准的用地清理和施工将把现有居民全部赶走。这两个场地都提出了“文明的城市生活”，并提供了一个窗口，让人们了解城市发展项目中驱动和产生的象征、意识形态、物质、经济和社会力量。研究将记录不同参与者赋予“城市文明”概念的意义，建设城市文明的想法和计划如何最终塑造建筑环境，生活在这些地点如何最终改变最初告知他们的想法，以及新城市空间的建设如何改变作为越南城市公民的意义。研究人员将与越南人类学家一起工作，(1)拍摄、绘制地图并存档景观的空间变化；(2)采用多种民族志研究方法，包括城市土地利用空间分析、报纸和其他文献资料分析、参与式观察，以及对居民、流离失所家庭、官员、规划者、开发商和建筑商的正式民族志访谈。这项研究很重要，因为它利用了一个及时的机会来评估戏剧性的城市转型是如何回应和改变目前在许多发展中国家推动快速城市转型的官方和流行观念的。通过研究这些地区有争议的城市化和发展愿景，该研究将阐明在正式公民话语受到很大限制的空间中，城市公民权是如何谈判的。从各利益攸关方收集的数据将为政策制定者和规划者提供信息，从而有助于实现更可持续、更具文化敏感性的城市发展。资助这项研究还可以建立国际研究合作并支持学生培训。

Dr. Erik Harms (Yale University) will investigate the demolition and reconstruction of the urban landscape in two of Ho Chi Minh City's New Urban Zones. The first site, Saigon South, has been largely completed and is gradually becoming populated. The second site, Thu Thiêm, has not yet been built, but recently approved site clearance and construction will evict all of the current residents. Both sites propose to foster "civilized urban living," and offer a window into the symbolic, ideological, material, economic, and social forces that drive and emerge from urban development projects. The research will document the meaning different actors ascribe to the concept of "urban civilization," how ideas and plans for building urban civilization ultimately shape the built environment, how living in these sites ultimately transforms the ideas that first informed them, and how the construction of new urban spaces transforms what it means to be an urban Vietnamese citizen. Working alongside Vietnamese anthropologists, the researcher will, (1) photograph, map, and archive spatial changes to the landscape; and (2) employ a mix of ethnographic research methods including spatial analysis of urban land-use, analysis of newspapers and other documentary materials, participant observation, and formal ethnographic interviews with a cross-section of residents, displaced households, officials, planners, developers and builders. This research is important because it takes advantage of a timely opportunity to evaluate how dramatic urban transformations both respond to and transform official and popular conceptions currently driving rapid urban transformation in many parts of the developing world. By studying contested visions of urbanization and development at these sites, the research will illuminate how urban citizenship rights are negotiated in spaces where formal civic discourse is largely circumscribed. Data collected from a cross section of stakeholders will inform policymakers and planners, thus contributing to more sustainable and culturally sensitive urban development. Funding this research also builds international research collaborations and supports student training.