Books by Arve Hansen
Cars, Automobility and Development in Asia explores the nexus between automobility and developmen... more Cars, Automobility and Development in Asia explores the nexus between automobility and development in a pan-Asian comparative perspective. The book seeks to integrate the policies, production forms, consumption preferences and symbolism implicated in emerging Asian automobilities. Using empirically rich and grounded analyses of both comparative and single-country case studies, the authors chart new approaches to studying automobility and development in emerging Asia.
The rise of emerging economies represents a challenge to traditional global power balances and ra... more The rise of emerging economies represents a challenge to traditional global power balances and raises the question of how we can combine sustainability with continued economic growth. Understanding this global shift and its impact on the environment is the paramount contemporary challenge for development-oriented researchers and policy makers alike. This book breaks new ground by combining scholarship on the role of emerging economies with research on sustainable development.
The book investigates how the development strategies of emerging economies challenge traditional development theory and sustainability discourses. With regional introductions and original case studies from South Asia, East Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, it discusses how to conceptualise sustainable development in the global race for economic prosperity. What characterises the development strategies of emerging economies, and what challenges are these posing for global sustainable development? How can emerging economies shed light on the global challenges, dilemmas and paradoxes of the relationship between socio-economic improvements and environmental degradation?
PhD Thesis by Arve Hansen
Since Vietnam embarked on the economic reforms known as doi moi in 1986 the country has transform... more Since Vietnam embarked on the economic reforms known as doi moi in 1986 the country has transformed from being one of the poorest countries in the world to being regarded by the World Bank as a ‘development success story’. The most visible manifestation of the changes Vietnam has gone through is found in the streets, particularly in cities. In less than 20 years motorbike ownership in Vietnam increased ten-fold, and there are now 4 million motorbikes in Hanoi alone. Furthermore, in the recent decade a new kind of transport transition is increasingly visible in the streets as cars are rapidly increasing in numbers.
This PhD thesis in human geography asks why and how the consumption of cars and motorbikes increased so rapidly in Hanoi over the past decades. Based on ‘motorbike ethnography’ in Hanoi, it approaches consumption through everyday mobility practices and economic development processes. It analyses the development of the motorcycle industry as well as the attempts to develop a domestic auto industry in Vietnam, but mainly focuses on the many meanings and practices of motorised mobility in contemporary Hanoi. The thesis finds that a range of material, social and cultural factors are necessary to explain the escalation of consumption of private vehicles, and based on the findings suggests ways in which consumption theory can engage with the multi-scalar processes of rapid economic development.
The thesis consists of an introductory section and the following four academic articles (only introductory section included here):
1. Hansen, Arve (in press): ‘Driving development? The problems and promises of the car in Vietnam’, accepted for publication in Journal of Contemporary Asia. Date of acceptance: March 26, 2015.
2. Hansen, Arve (2015) ‘Transport in transition: Doi moi and the consumption of cars and motorbikes in Hanoi’, Journal of Consumer Culture. Published online before print August 25, 2015, doi: 10.1177/1469540515602301
3. Hansen, Arve: ‘Hanoi on wheels: Emerging automobility in the land of the motorbike’, revised and resubmitted to Mobilities, resubmission date: December 1, 2015.
4. Hansen, Arve, Nielsen, Kenneth B. and Wilhite, Harold (in press): ‘Staying Cool, Looking Good, Moving Around: Consumption, Sustainability and the “Rise of the South”’, accepted for publication in Forum for Development Studies. Date of acceptance: December 17, 2015.
Papers by Arve Hansen
Come governare il COVID-19: le politiche di controllo della pandemia in Viet Nam
Food Transformations, Food Cultures and Food Practices in the Socialist Market Economy
Springer eBooks, 2022
Springer eBooks, 2023
Only minor revisions have been made to the text.
Wheels of Change: Motorbikes, Cars and Capitalism
Springer eBooks, 2022
Consumption and Vietnam’s New Middle Classes
Springer eBooks, 2022
Governing Covid-19 in Vietnam: the Politics of Pandemic Control
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific r... more HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Consumption and shifting temporalities of daily life in times of disruption: undoing and reassembling household practices during the COVID-19 pandemic
Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 2022
The way in which time is produced and consumed during everyday life has crucial implications for ... more The way in which time is produced and consumed during everyday life has crucial implications for sustainable consumption. Social practice approaches in particular have directed attention to the intersection of personal and collective temporalities as important for the patterning of everyday consumption. This article examines the temporal dynamics of daily practice-arrangement bundles experienced in "locked down" households in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, and the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on 97 in-depth interviews with participants in all five countries, we investigate quotidian experiences of the breaking and (re-)making of daily routines in response to the pandemic. In doing so, we explore and document the temporal processes by which daily practice-arrangement bundles become undone, reassembled, and reconfigured. Our analysis reveals the institutional ordering of temporal relations between practices in terms of how they hang together, synchronize, or compete for householders' time. Giving particular attention to socially differentiated lockdown experiences, we analyze how disruption-induced changes to social institutions and systems of provision impact the hanging together of daily practice-arrangement bundles and the strategies employed to restructure and rebundle them in unequal ways. We further consider varied experiences in temporal reorganizations of daily life that support sustainable consumption of food and mobility and reflect on the implications of the analysis for sustainability governance.
Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2015
Springer eBooks, 2023
The task of simultaneously tackling underconsumption and overconsumption of resources represents ... more The task of simultaneously tackling underconsumption and overconsumption of resources represents the world's main global sustainability challenge. 1 While large parts of the global population survive on a bare minimum, the resource intensive everyday practices of rich societiesincluding car dependency, frequent flying and high levels of meat consumption-and the fact that there is seemingly no endpoint to the increasing consumption of, for example, clothing and technological appliances are at the core of the unsustainabilities embedded in the 'Capitalocene . Although in variegated ways, similar consumption patterns develop alongside increasing affluence in otherwise highly different contexts. As the 'global consumer class' expands, understanding how to confront unsustainable consumption patterns is more urgent than ever.
Swamped in dinosaurs with LED lights: negotiating sustainability in a high-consumption society
Consumption and society, Feb 19, 2024
Emerging economies and challenges to sustainability
Part 1: Introduction 1. Emerging Economies and Challenges to Sustainability Arve Hansen &... more Part 1: Introduction 1. Emerging Economies and Challenges to Sustainability Arve Hansen &Ulrikke Wethal 2.The 'Rise of the Rest' and the Revenge of 'Development': The emerging economies and shifts in development theory Benedicte Bull 3. Making Sense of Sustainable Development in a Changing World Desmond McNeill & Harold Wilhite Part 2: Asia 4. Miracles or Uneven Development? Asia in the contemporary world economy Pietro Masina 5. Ecological Modernisation and Dilemmas of Sustainable Development in China Hege Merete Knutsen & Xiaoxi Ou 6. Between Peasant Utopia and Neoliberal Dreams: Industrialisation and its discontents in emerging India Kenneth Bo Nielsen 7. Best of Both Worlds? The power and pitfalls of Vietnam's development model Arve Hansen 8. Indonesia: Neoliberal development in the context of decentralised patronage politics Gyda Maras Sindre Part 3: Latin America 9. Latin America's Decade of Growth: Progress and challenges for a sustainable development Benedicte Bull 10. Brazil, Land of the Future? Conservative development strategy and the urban challenges Einar Braathen & Yuri Kasahara 11. Agricultural change in Argentina: Impacts of the gene modified soybean revolution Kristi Anne Stolen 12. The Paradoxes of Chilean Economic Development: Growth, inequality, deindustrialisation and sustainability risks Andres Solimano and Marianne Schaper 13. Mining, Development and Environmental Sustainabilty in Peru Jemima Garcia-Godos & Henrik Wiig Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa 14. Between Emerging Economies and Protracted Conflict: Challenges to sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa Morten Boas 15. Pro-Growth Challenges to Sustainability in South Africa Dianne Scott, Catherine Sutherland, Vicky Sim and Glen Robbins 16. Searching for Sustainability in Mozambique's Development Strategy Ulrikke Wethal 17. Botswana's Developmental State: Sustainability under threat? Ian Taylor 18. Ethiopia - Rapid and Green Growth for All? Axel Borchgrevink Part 5: Conclusion 19. Conclusion Arve Hansen & Ulrikke Wethal
The new middle classes: consumption, development and sustainability
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Jun 8, 2023
Consumption and Society
Current meat consumption trends are associated with extensive resource use, environmental degrada... more Current meat consumption trends are associated with extensive resource use, environmental degradation, and detrimental effects on animal and human health, making meat reduction a core sustainability target. The experiences of meat reducers, often conceptualised as flexitarians, have gradually attracted more academic attention. This literature has shown that in many cases meat reducers do not radically reduce their meat intake and have untangled a complex web of factors contributing to meat consumption, reduction and avoidance. This article contributes to a nuanced understanding of the experiences, approaches and challenges faced by meat reducers. The data was collected through in-depth interviews with 26 self-declared meat reducers in Norway. By framing consumption as embedded in social practices, this article highlights how broader cultural, social and material conditions structure eating and hence meat consumption. A central finding is that through processes of socialisation and h...
‘It's just pølse’: Convenient meat consumption and reduction in Norway
Appetite
Reworking boundaries in the home-as-office: boundary traffic during COVID-19 lockdown and the future of working from home
Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy
Global sustainability and the rise of the South: development patterns and emerging challenges
Routledge, Oct 10, 2014
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Books by Arve Hansen
The book investigates how the development strategies of emerging economies challenge traditional development theory and sustainability discourses. With regional introductions and original case studies from South Asia, East Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, it discusses how to conceptualise sustainable development in the global race for economic prosperity. What characterises the development strategies of emerging economies, and what challenges are these posing for global sustainable development? How can emerging economies shed light on the global challenges, dilemmas and paradoxes of the relationship between socio-economic improvements and environmental degradation?
PhD Thesis by Arve Hansen
This PhD thesis in human geography asks why and how the consumption of cars and motorbikes increased so rapidly in Hanoi over the past decades. Based on ‘motorbike ethnography’ in Hanoi, it approaches consumption through everyday mobility practices and economic development processes. It analyses the development of the motorcycle industry as well as the attempts to develop a domestic auto industry in Vietnam, but mainly focuses on the many meanings and practices of motorised mobility in contemporary Hanoi. The thesis finds that a range of material, social and cultural factors are necessary to explain the escalation of consumption of private vehicles, and based on the findings suggests ways in which consumption theory can engage with the multi-scalar processes of rapid economic development.
The thesis consists of an introductory section and the following four academic articles (only introductory section included here):
1. Hansen, Arve (in press): ‘Driving development? The problems and promises of the car in Vietnam’, accepted for publication in Journal of Contemporary Asia. Date of acceptance: March 26, 2015.
2. Hansen, Arve (2015) ‘Transport in transition: Doi moi and the consumption of cars and motorbikes in Hanoi’, Journal of Consumer Culture. Published online before print August 25, 2015, doi: 10.1177/1469540515602301
3. Hansen, Arve: ‘Hanoi on wheels: Emerging automobility in the land of the motorbike’, revised and resubmitted to Mobilities, resubmission date: December 1, 2015.
4. Hansen, Arve, Nielsen, Kenneth B. and Wilhite, Harold (in press): ‘Staying Cool, Looking Good, Moving Around: Consumption, Sustainability and the “Rise of the South”’, accepted for publication in Forum for Development Studies. Date of acceptance: December 17, 2015.
Papers by Arve Hansen