Driving Development? The Problems and Promises of the Car in Vietnam

The private car comes with promises of modernity and comfortable mobility for the growing middle class in Vietnam. Vietnam’s government has also targeted the domestic automobile industry as a “spearhead industry” in an attempt to achieve industrial upgrading. Paradoxically, the government is simultaneously restraining the market for this industry through imposing high taxes and fees on cars, making them available only to a limited number of people. This article discusses the promises and problems of the automobile in Vietnam. It analyses policies related to the development of the automobile industry, and discusses the reasons for the relative failure of the project. The article argues that the failure is linked to weaknesses in Vietnamese development strategies, but also to the potential problems an expansion in car ownership in Vietnam would lead to. The article contends that the car represents a development dilemma between industrialisation and urban mobility, and that environmental, energy and social concerns add to the rationale for limiting car ownership. Furthermore, although forces promoting car-driven industrialisation appear to be gaining ground, the requirements for regional economic integration may challenge the future of the infant automobile industry.     

Community participation and local government capacity in Vietnam: Conditions for coproduction

With Public Administration Reform in Vietnam comes more local government responsibility for policy making. Building on the results of a multiple case study research on housing and infrastructure upgrading projects in four cities of Vietnam, it has been confirmed that the community participation and local government capacity in urban housing and infrastructure upgrading projects are positively related. The level of community participation in urban housing and infrastructure upgrading projects is influenced by local government capacity, and in turn, it has effects on the outcomes. There are some important aspects for the enhancement of the level of community participation. These are effective leadership, the financial resources aspect, and communication/information exchange. Moreover, based on the patterns of community participation in urban upgrading projects, it has been found that participation is strongly supported by government actors in these four cases, and a process of coproduction between the local government and the affected communities has taken place.     

文学表征与族群想象——论加拿大新移民华文小说中的“华裔”形象

随着加拿大新移民文学在2000年以后的强劲崛起,加强对其的整体性研究,势在必行。由于时空阈限,20世纪70年代末“新移民”与“华裔”之间虽然在现实生活中共处于新居空间,但由于“历史”的缘故,令二者的新居体验不尽相同。就现有的创作而言,新移民作家们显然认识、体会到了这一“历史的距离”,且可贵的是,新移民作家并没有漠视自身与华裔之间的空间差异,反而通过文学的表征将二者之间的差异审美化,将现实的体验置放于历史与未来的更广阔时空之中去探索“差异”的可能性及其意义,毕竟二者共同面临着公共公开的多元文化与隐性深层的种族歧视之间不可调和的生存处境。新移民作家追求差异的统一,他们在文学想象中既表达了对华人群体间特殊性及其价值的承认,又在承认之中蕴含了对中华民族共同体的期待与渴望。