December 14: Workshop "Digital Anthropology in Vietnam: Trends, Potentials and Prospects"

Workshop Content:We have reached a critical moment for Anthropology, marked by digital integration in the 21st century. Permeating every corner of our lives, the combination of mobile computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) has created a multilayered interface between the individual and the world. We cannot continue to maintain the anthropological perspectives of earlier times. The medium in ethnography has been returned to the individual. Since the masterpiece Writing Culture, anthropologists have called for a more empowering and collaborative ethnography. Decolonizing Methodologies have called for more inclusive and empowering practices and more socially empowered works. And Digital Anthropology has pointed to diverse possibilities as we apply digital tools and methodologies to create more inclusive, participatory, and empowering community projects. An anthropology relevant to our time should be collaborative, dynamic, bottom-up, and empowering; “subjects” must transform into participants or more. The “anthropological subject” of the 21st century can no longer be confined to the subjective categories created by colonial projects.

Vietnam is one of the countries with strong digital connections in Southeast Asia. Vietnamese users in the digital age are also among the richest content creators, whether as individuals or members of many online “communities”. Has digital anthropology in Vietnam, as a discipline within anthropology in general, responded to this digital development? Does Vietnamese anthropology have the skills and capabilities to illustrate life in an ethnographic way in the 4.0 era? If we consider digital inclusion, broadly understood, as a fundamental transformation of the tripartite relationship between researcher, research site and research subject, it is important to note that we have reached a historical moment with the emergence of new opportunities that can radically change our mode of knowing. Perhaps we should ask a more reflexive question, has Anthropology in Vietnam transformed itself in the Digital Revolution, where powerful exchanges have penetrated every corner of Vietnam?