14/12: 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 the past. The medium in ethnography has been restored to the individual. Since Writing Culture, anthropologists have called for a more empowering and collaborative ethnography. Decolonising Methodologies have called for more inclusive and empowering practices and more socially engaged work. And Digital Anthropology has turned to the diverse possibilities as we apply digital tools and methodologies to create more inclusive, participatory, and empowering community projects. An anthropology relevant to our times 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 framed within the subjective categories created by colonial projects.

Vietnam is one of the most digitally connected countries in Southeast Asia. Vietnamese users in the digital age are also among the most prolific content creators, whether as individuals or members of numerous 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 manner in the 4.0 era? If we consider digital inclusion, broadly understood, as a fundamental transformation of the tripartite relationship between the researcher, the research site, and the 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 strong exchanges have penetrated every corner of Vietnam?