Understanding the concept of urban village in Hanoi city, Vietnam: Social - Spatial - Economic interactions with surrounding urban areas

Abstract

In cities throughout Asian countries, there is an increasingly ubiquitous presence of “urban villages” that reflects the transformation of traditional farming villages into urban places under the impact of rapid urbanization. Hanoi - one of the two biggest cities in Vietnam - has been witnessing the fast changes of rural settlements into urban built environments during the in-situ urbanization process since the 1990s. It is very important to have a comprehensive understanding of the urban village model in the urban development context of Hanoi city. Therefore, the major aims of this research are to examine the characters of the urban villages formed by the urban sprawl in peri-urban areas, to explore the interactions among urban villages and surrounding new urban areas in terms of socio-economic and spatial aspects, and to detect the gaps, if any, between the two models of development. Yen Xa urban village in Tan Trieu commune was chosen as a case study. Structured and semi-structured interviews with villagers and local authority’s representatives were conducted in the research. The first findings from research are expected to propose recommendations that will help bridge the gaps between the two urban settlement models in terms of legal, physical and psychological aspects towards sustainable development. Keywords: urban village; urbanization; socio-economic transformation; peri-urban; Hanoi city.