Sense of Community in Collective Living Quarters in Hanoi: Changes and Restructuring
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The term “collective living quarters” (KTT) in Hanoi refers to the architectural structures built in the city with support from Soviet and North Korean experts after the end of the war against the French in 1954. These quarters provided living space for thousands of people working in the government sector. While historical and architectural approaches have been discussed in relation to the historical expansion of the city and technologies/materials, the literature shows a lack of understanding of the community from an insider’s perspective. The present article, using an anthropological approach, analyzes the sense of community among the members of KTTs in Hanoi. The research was based on ethnographic data and materials gathered from 2020 to 2022 in several KTTs in Hanoi. The article questions whether there is a sense of community and how it has changed through different periods of time. By analyzing the changes in socio-economic situations in Vietnam, this article argues that while the sense of community has been established by the daily interactions of local residents, it is very dynamic and has changed constantly with the alternation of the stakeholders.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Bauman, Z. (2001). Community: Seeking safety in an insecure world. Cambridge: Polity.
Buchli, V. (1998). Moisei Ginzburg’s Narkomfin Communal House in Moscow: Contesting the social and material world. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 52(2), 160-181.
Đặng Phong. (2013). Tư duy kinh te Viet Nam 1975-1989: Nhat ky thoi bao cap. (In Vietnamese) [Vietnamese economic thinking 1975-1989]. Hanoi: Tri thuc Publishing House.
Dinh Quoc Phuong. (2019). (Re)developing old apartment blocks in Hanoi: Government vision, local resistance and spatial routines. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 18(4), 311-323.
Dinnie, E. and Fischer, A. (2019). The trouble with community: How ‘sense of community’ influences participation in formal, community-led organisations and rural governance. Sociologia Ruralis, 60(1), 243-259.
Drummond, L. and Nguyen Thanh Binh. (2020). The rise and fall of collective housing: Hanoi between vision and decision. In L. Drummond and D. Young (Eds.). Socialist and post-socialist urbanisms: Critical reflections from a global perspective. (pp. 69-88). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Fujita, T. (2021). Hanoi’s built materiality and the scales of anthropology: Toward a theory of ‘Architectural Facts.’ Social Analysis: The International Journal of Anthropology, 66(1), 1-25.
Government of Vietnam. (1994). Ngi đinh 61-CP cua Chinh phu ve mua ban va kinh doanh nha. (In Vietnamese) [Decree No. 61-CP on buying and doing business on houses], Hanoi.
Hong, N. and Kim, S. (2021). Persistence of the socialist collective housing areas (KTTs): The evolution and contemporary transformation of mass housing in Hanoi, Vietnam. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 36, 601-625.
Humphrey, C. (2005). Ideology in infrastructure: Architecture and Soviet imagination. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 11(1), 39-58.
Huynh Kim Khanh. (1989). Revolution at an impasse: Impressions of Vietnamese communism circa 1990. In R. Stubbs (Ed.). Vietnam: Facing the 1990s. (pp.2-20), Toronto: Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies.
Koh, D. (2006). Wards of Hanoi. Singapore: ISEAS Publishing.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford, Cambridge: Blackwell.
Logan, W. S. (2000). Hanoi: Biography of a city. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.
N. C. (1965). Phong trao phat trien manh me, toan dien va vung chac. (In Vietnamese) [A strong, comprehensive, and sustainable development movement]. Hanoi Capital News, (1973), 04.
Nguyen Van Huy and Nguyen Vu Hoang. (2023). Soviet-style apartment blocks in Hanoi: Architecture and intellectual exchange. In J. Copeman, N. J. Long, Lam Minh Chau, J. Cook, and M. Marsden (Eds.). An anthropology of intellectual exchange: Interactions, transactions and ethics in Asia and beyond. (pp. 89-112), Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Nguyen Van Canh. (1983). Vietnam under communism, 1975-1982. Stanford: Hoover Institution.
Nguyen Vu Hoang and Tran Thi Quynh Trang (2024). Qua trinh kien tao khong gian tu trong khu tap the cu o Ha Noi. (In Vietnamese) [The production of private space in Soviet-style collective apartments in Hanoi]. Tap chi Dan toc hoc (Vietnam Anthropology Review), 2(242), 74-87.
Rapport, N. and Overing, J. (2003). Social and cultural anthropology: The key concepts. New York: Routledge.
Schwenkel, C. (2020). Building socialism: The afterlife of East German architecture in urban Vietnam. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Tat Thanh Duong. (2019). Gia trị lịch su-van hoa cua cac khu tap the cu o Ha Noi: Nghien cuu truong hop khu tap the Trung Tu. (In Vietnamese) [Historical and cultural values of old apartment buildings in Hanoi: A case study of Trung Tu apartment building]. Khoa hoc xa hoi va Nhan van (Hanoi) (VNU Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities), 5(1), 128-140.
Tat Thanh Duong. (2022). A symbol of socialist society: The collective living quarters in Hanoi 1954-2000. Journal of Mekong Societies, 18(2), 46-75.
Vu Cong Chien. (2019). Kim Lien mot thuo. (In Vietnamese) [Once Upon a Time in Kim Lien]. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers.
Interviews
Mr. An. (Pseudonym). (2022, April, 15). Interview. A resident of Kim Lien KTT from the early period. Hanoi.
Mr. Hanh. (Pseudonym). (2022, March, 17). Interview. A renter of Kim Lien KTT. Hanoi.
Mr. Tung. (Pseudonym). (2022, February, 17). Interview. A resident of Kim Lien KTT from the early period, moved out 10 years ago. Hanoi.
Mrs. Ha. (Pseudonym). (2022, March, 19). Interview. A resident of Kim Lien KTT from the early period. Hanoi.
Mrs. Hoa. (Pseudonym). (2022, April, 21). Interview. A resident of Kim Lien KTT from the early period. Hanoi.
Mrs. Ngoc. (Pseudonym.) (2022, February, 26). Interview. A resident of Kim Lien KTT from the early period. Hanoi.
