What is it about?
Urbanization is an inevitable process which often changes agricultural land use to residential and industrial one. Hanoi in Vietnam is no exception. This process takes place on a large scale. This land use change is however also affecting the social and economic life of those who were previously only relying on farming. Nearly 400 former farmers explain how this has changed their daily life. Many of them are still struggling to make ends meet and find a new avenues for daily activities. Compensation in money terms is either not enough or sometimes even not appropriate.
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Why is it important?
Whilst research and projects of urbanization tend to focus on addressing the needs of the urban population, it neglects to sufficiently understand and help the converted rural. Focusing on how these people are coping with the changes sheds a new light on urbanization processes and should resort in improved and more comprehensive urbanization development, control and monitoring. Adding a particular social dimension in the conversion process can complete the overall picture.
Perspectives
Providing more housing and residential space within the city boundaries is obviously not bad. However, paying attention to the people’s daily lives in the moving urban fringes remains important. Farmers do not just stop being farmers if they are absorbed by the cities. Their social and economic activities are often historically and culturally rooted. It is not so easy to change this at the same pace as the urbanization rate.
Professor Walter Timo de Vries
Technical University of Munich
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Socio-economic effects of agricultural land conversion for urban development: Case study of Hanoi, Vietnam, Land Use Policy, July 2016, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.02.032.
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