Kirjahaku

Given the overwhelming number of ineffective economic reform policies and programs, a central question for international development concerns how significant economic change happens. In the midst of this quandary, a puzzle has been growing quietly the last two decades. Vietnam has transitioned from a poor, centrally planned economy to one of the fastest growing, market economies in the world, despite ignoring conventional reform strategies. This book focuses on solving a specific puzzle of Vietnam's transition. Its fastest growing city, Ho Chi Minh City, has a real estate industry that ranks as the worst place in the world for private capital to invest . Nevertheless, entrepreneurs have emerged to form private firms within the first decade of transition. Where did these people come from? How could they conduct business in such an inhospitable economic environment? The book finds that the transition to capitalism is neither the natural propensity of individuals nor the decision of an all-powerful state nor necessarily requires a long, evolutionary process. The major, rapid, and discontinuous economic change that occurred in Vietnam was fundamentally enabled by a social reconstruction of cognitive paradigms. The new social cognition framework accounts for why some firms were more successful than others as well as why Vietnam's capitalism has surprising characteristics.

For most, the term "public space" conjures up images of large, open areas where people congregate, socialize, and exchange thoughts and goods: the ancient Greek agora; modern town community centers; vast, green parks for festivals, games, and meetings. In many of the world's major cities, however, public spaces like these are not woven into the urban fabric. In urban areas, business and social lives have always been conducted along main roads, and when vehicles overtook the roads, the essential public spaces were relegated to sidewalks-which has led to clashes over the hotly contested rights of pedestrians, street vendors, tourists, and governments to use sidewalks. Despite their important sociocultural role, sidewalks have been studied by remarkably few scholars. With Sidewalk City, Annette Miae Kim provides the first multilayered case study of sidewalks in a distinctive geographical area. She focuses on Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a rapidly growing and evolving city. Throughout its history, the city's sidewalks served as areas for community-talking, eating, playing, and selling. Today, however, thousands of street vendors trek continuously with their wares on shoulders or carts, struggling to eke out a living since police began enforcing laws that bar non-pedestrians from sidewalks for the sake of traffic flow, public health, and cosmopolitan appearance. In her fascinating study of how Ho Chi Minh City's society is re-negotiating sidewalk space, Kim shows how it is possible to successfully share the vital public space of sidewalks and meet the needs of diverse populations.