Doctoral Dissertation Research: Causes and Consequences of Urban Spatial Patterns of Transitional Land-Market Development in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Remarkable changes in national governments over recent decades have had profound impacts on a wide range of institutions. Although much attention has focused on economic and political systems, nations in transition also have experienced significant changes in human geography, as the factors that influenced the spatial behavior of individuals and groups have been dramatically transformed. These changes are evident even in nations like Vietnam, where communist regimes retain political control, but major economic reforms unleashed a flurry of land-development activity during the 1990s. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore how the Vietnamese government's legal and planning efforts to promote development have impacted the practices of private land developers and the spatial patterns of activity in the urban fringe of Ho Chi Minh City. A combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques will be used to analyze satellite images of land-use change over the last decade and to survey land developers to determine how and why their land-development practices have changed. Special attention will be given to identifying and analyzing the impact of state policies on land-development processes. Because development patterns have been far more scattered and irregular than planners had anticipated, it is anticipated that the direct role of state action will be less significant than intended, but the role of state-sanctioned property rights may still be found to be important in creating a framework within which individuals and groups can operate independently with greater confidence. This project will provide valuable new insights and information about the contemporary spatial dynamics of Vietnam, a nation that receives relatively little scholarly attention. The project will contribute empirical evidence to ongoing debates in the scholarly literature regarding the impacts of property rights and land titles on land development in developing nations, and it will shed new insights about the motivations and actions of private entrepreneurs in transitional societies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.