Land Politics and Livelihoods on the Margins of Hanoi, 1920-2010In the late 1990s, planning authorities in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi pushed the imaginary line between city and country several kilometres westward, engulfing dozens of rural settlements. As state policies forced rapid urbanization, villagers whose families had farmed the land for generations saw rice fields levelled, irrigation canals filled, and large avenues flanked by residential towers, big box stores, and office buildings spring up.