From crisis to governmental fix: platformisation-as-negotiation in authoritarian Vietnam

This article examines how ride-hailing platforms reshape urban governance in authoritarian contexts through the case of Grab in Vietnam. Drawing on a narrative analysis of policy debates, taxation disputes, and the platform’s subsequent official incorporation into transport policy in Ho Chi Minh City, I conceptualize this trajectory as “platformisation-as-negotiation”. Rather than a linear progression from disruption to regulation, platformisation unfolded as a series of crises that became productive moments for the state to recalibrate its authority and integrate digital platforms into developmental agendas. The Vietnamese case highlights the political dimensions of the crisis–fix dynamic, the emergence of hybrid governance strategies that neither prohibit nor nationalize platforms, and the extension of “negotiated authoritarianism” in the digital age. By provincialising accounts of platform urbanism originating from the Global North, this article illustrates how the Vietnamese trajectory contributes new insights into the entanglement of platformisation, fix-thinking in urban governance, and negotiated authoritarian statecraft.