ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1980s, the pavements of Hanoi have become keen spaces of contest between state and society. This contest was very visible, even pronounced in many places. Many people, including many former state employees, staked claims to pavement space where they had before respected the government’s regulations by a much larger measure. The key change occurred after 1990, when the market economy came into full play. Before economic freedom, the pavement had been relatively free of civil activity; by the late 1980s, such activity became a daily sight in Hanoi City, and a painful daily issue for Hanoi’s urban administrators.
