Urban ecologies - Humans, Environment and Spirits in the City

最近关于全球城市化的报告的特点是对环境的灾难性影响，特别是在经济蓬勃发展的东南亚。随着当今世界上大多数人口居住在城市，要求将“城市”作为一个科学研究主题进行彻底反思的呼声越来越高，重新定义可持续和宜居城市的问题也变得越来越迫切。在人口增长、移民、气候变化、污染、城市更新和废弃建筑工地的背景下，该研究项目探讨了快速转型的东南亚社会中有关环境的各种不同和有争议的观点。该研究项目侧重于越南城市更新和环境问题（空气污染、水、垃圾）以及相应的“清洁和绿色”城市政策。随着河内社会主义城市规划初期建造的带有绿化带的社会住房建筑被拆除，内城地区的老树被砍伐，城市墓地被夷平，近年来公园的减少和传统市场的拆除，公司正在建造带有办公室和公寓的高层建筑。由于经济危机，这些建筑中的许多已经被侵蚀和崩溃。然而，社会主义政府的未来愿景是指向城市更新和社会主义进步。城市规划者、地方当局、建筑师、投资者和承包商、环境活动家、城市居民和农村城市移民都是这些进程的参与者。但精神、鬼魂和其他非人类实体也被认为是代理，因为根据越南和其他东南亚国家广泛流行的宗教观念，他们被认为是地球和领土的正当所有者。在特定情况下，它们会干扰人与环境之间的关系。在以权力关系极不对称为特征的充满政治色彩的情况下，居民、环境活动家和精神创造了颠覆性活动，直接反对投资者的资本主义逻辑和市场社会主义规划和建设项目。

Recent reports about global urbanization are characterized by disastrous effects on the environment, in particular in economically booming Southeast Asia. As the majority of the world’s population is nowadays living in cities, calls for a complete rethinking of “the urban” as a subject of scientific research are getting louder and questions about a redefinition of sustainable and livable cities are becoming more urgent. In light of population growth, migration, climate change, pollution, urban renewal and abandoned construction sites, the research project explores diverse and contested ideas about the environment in rapidly transforming Southeast Asian societies. The research project focuses on urban renewal and environmental problems (air pollution, water, garbage) and corresponding policies about “clean and green” cities in Vietnam. Following the demolition of social housing buildings with green zones constructed in the early period of socialist urban planning in Hanoi, the cutting of old trees in inner city areas and the leveling of urban cemeteries, the reduction of public parks and the demolition of traditional marketplaces in recent years, companies are constructing high-rise buildings with offices and condominiums. Many of these buildings, due to economic crises, have been left to erode and crumble. Nevertheless, the future visions of the socialist government are directed to urban renewal and socialist progress. Urban planners, local authorities, architects, investors and contractors, environmental activists, city residents and rural urban migrants are actors in these processes. But spirits, ghosts and other non-human entities are also ascribed agency because, according to wide spread popular religious ideas in Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia, they are considered to be the proper owners of the earth and the territory. In specific contexts they interfere into the relationships among humans and environment. In politically charged situations, characterized by largely asymmetric power relations, residents, environmental activists and spirits create subversive activities, directed against the capitalist logic of investors and market socialist planning and construction projects.