Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

3 Social changes and lifestyle in Hanoi
Social change and lifestyle are two main aspects that influence the activities of people in
parks. Every society is constantly changing, but change can be a very discontinuous
process. At times change is very fast leading to dramatic dislocations while sometimes a
society seems to stand still for many decades. Social change is the comprehensive term
which covers all “norms (rules of conduct), values, and cultural products and symbols”
(MOORE 1986: n.p.). That “shifts in the attitudes and behavior that characterize a society.”
(GREENWOOD 2008: 1).
Social change is a development within the entire society, while lifestyle an individual habit.
Social change is considered as to encompass all phenomena which occur in a society, while
lifestyle is concerned with the individual aspects which impact on people’s activities.
While discussing changes in culture and lifestyle, MAI/PHAM (2010: 24) argued that
“changes in cultural and life-style are the transition from traditional culture to modern
culture, characterized by the transiting logic from single-style culture to multi-style culture.
Diversified and individualized tendencies are not only specific characteristics of Vietnam,
but also common phenomena in all countries which are industrializing and modernizing”
(see also OECD 2001: 113-140). An illustrative description of this development is the
wording “surprising leap of mobile society” and it is supposed that the leap “creates much
difficulty for defining individual identity” (MAI/PHAM 2010: 24).
3.1 Social change in Hanoi
Relevant for this thesis are the following social changes in Hanoi:
growing economy,
policies and institutions,
development of science & new technology,
impact of human factors,
impact of globalization.
The importance, development and nature of these impacts are considered below.
3.1.1 A rapidly growing economy
Within the period of 1954-1975, North Vietnam became independent and pursued a
collective economy (subsidized economy). Under the political and historical circumstance,
it provided a large amount of material for regional demand and also supported the South’s
struggle to reunite the country. The inflation rate in the late 1970s and early 1980s reached
three digits. These forced decision-makers to shift their economic strategies to a market
economy with socialist orientation (see SCHWENKEL 2006; MARSHEL-NGUYEN 2012;
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