A Look at the Studies of the Urban Culture and the Cultural Change

Abstract

The author presents an overview on the studies of the urban culture and the cultural change in Vietnam and introduces some approaches used in the studies of the urban culture, focusing particularly on process of cultural change. This article is divided into two main parts: 1) Studies of the urban culture in the world in the first half of the 20th century; and 2) Studies of the urban culture in the latter half of the 20th century. Most of the researchers in the first half of the 20th century did not study the urban culture in a holistic way and they had preconceptions about the rural/urban divide and rural organization patterns, but not on the impacts of social processes. In the latter half of the 20th century, the researchers recognized the importance between economic development and linking it to processes of cultural change.