The Reinvention of Distinction Modernity and the Middle Class in Urban Vietnam

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Synopsis

This pioneering collection brings together an international group of scholars to explore the Vietnamese middle class. From the leisure pursuits of the colonial middle class to the impact of the new urban rich on landscape of the countryside, this interdisciplinary volume explores the ways in which middle classness has been practiced in a wide range of contexts throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. In addition to offering insights into how middle classness was and is constituted and negotiated, this collection illuminates the cultural and social conditions of two distinctive periods in Vietnamese history. Three historical chapters consider how middle class status was experienced and displayed under French colonialism and in 1960s republican. These chapters offer examinations of middle classness through recreation, consumption, and associational life. Six contemporary studies examine the modes of experimentation and practice within middle class urban Vietnam. Still a sensitive topic politically, the contemporary middle class, nascent but increasingly powerful, is exerting a strong impact on the shape of contemporary society and culture, as well as on urban and rural landscapes. This volume offers a series of studies which critically interrogate the practices of those who engage in or aspire to urban middle-class lifestyles in Vietnam both in the past and in the present.

Book details

Edition:
2012
Series:
ARI - Springer Asia Series (Book 2)
Author:
Van Nguyen-Marshall, Lisa B. Welch Drummond and Danièle Bélanger
ISBN:
9789400723061
Related ISBNs:
9789400723054
Publisher:
Springer Netherlands
Pages:
N/A
Reading age:
Not specified
Includes images:
Yes
Date of addition:
2022-07-27
Usage restrictions:
Copyright
Copyright date:
2012
Copyright by:
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
Art and Architecture, Nonfiction, Politics and Government, Social Studies