Secondary cities are home to most of the world’s urban populations vulnerable to climate change, yet researchers and policymakers have devoted less attention to them than large and megacities. To help address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between incomplete decentralized governance, climate change, and urban resilience. It does through the case studies of secondary cities of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Secondary cities are of importance because they are the fastest growing cities in the Global South but also because they have weaker capacity to address climate risks. Through these case studies, the paper draws comparisons between the different cases to look at the linkages between decentralization and urban resilience in secondary cities. Overall, it argues that climate governance, due to the retention of power and resources by central bureaucrats along with fragmented governance structures, and misaligned incentive structures which prioritize economic growth over climate protection have undermined resilience building and contributed to the uneven distribution of climate risks in these cities.

Based on a qualitative study of Hanoi underprivileged households’ livelihoods, this article addresses the role of urban and periurban agriculture in the food securitization process. It begins by showing that the spatial dynamics occurring in the emerging metropolis induce strong competition for the various uses of land. The urbanization process is based on a tremendous land-seizure policy, and officials seem to regard farmland as a land reserve instead of as a source of food. However, as a source of cheap, diversified, and safe food, and as a component of households’ livelihoods, urban agriculture plays a specific role in food-securitization strategies, especially for low-income households by reducing their food vulnerability in both short- and long-term; hence, it is a factor of resilience. Because the urbanization process that jeopardizes access to land seems particularly damaging for those households, urban planning is reconsidered from a spatial justice perspective. The food securitization approach, focusing on actors’ strategies, indicates how urban planning generates rising inequalities in the emerging metropolis. This study proposes that the current pattern of urban development induces spatial injustice in access to urban resources and land, thereby increasing inequalities in urban dwellers’ ability to manage their food security situation.

The goal of this paper is to analyze the complex institutional landscape of adaptation finance in Vietnam, a middle-income country highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. While resources from international organizations and national authorities occupy a prominent position in adaptation funding, the use of local resources that directly or indirectly support adaptation practices is also an important factor to consider. We hypothesize that it is that interplay between official climate change finance on the one hand and local social dynamics on the other hand that shapes the structure of adaptation funding. These very particular financing circuits consequently determine the kind of adaptation actions that are actually implemented. The paper unfolds the adaptation finance flows at all scales by using qualitative field studies, technical and legal reports, and a wide-ranging literature on adaptation project financing, and thus identifies three types of dialectical tensions that might hinder Vietnamese institutional readiness for adaptation finance: the adaptation/development financing nexus, the adaptation/reaction financing behaviors, and the endogenous/exogenous financing dichotomy. Ultimately, the paper derives from these dialectical tensions within the architecture and functioning of adaptation finance key takeaway messages for a prospective analysis of adaptation funding that better informs adaptation finance policies.

Si la capitale vietnamienne profite au premier chef des transformations liées au décollage économique du Vietnam depuis les années 1990, l’analyse de la filière alimentaire permet de mettre au jour la façon dont les pratiques quotidiennes des habitants sont marquées par les mutations de cette ville émergente. Elle révèle une image contrastée de la ville : entre ouverture aux marchés internationaux et persistance d’une production agricole familiale, entre modernisation des marchés et persistance de la vente de rue, entre transition alimentaire et persistance de l’insécurité. L’exemple de l’alimentation donne à voir comment les mutations de Hanoi creusent les disparités entre les groupes sociaux.

<!--field: Resume-->Cet article analyse la façon dont la politique d’enregistrement résidentiel au Vietnam attribue l’étiquette de « migrants » à une « population flottante » aux pratiques migratoires variées, circulant entre Hanoï et son hinterland. Elle s’accompagne d’une différenciation des droits sociaux qui assigne ces « migrants » à un statut social infériorisé ; elle entérine les rapports sociaux de domination entre « résidents » et « migrants » et construit une minorité dominée. <!--field: -->