Through the micro-scope: Globalization and new media technology as empowering tools for Vietnamese civil society

Vietnam, among other developing nations, is trying to find its stance and stability in economic and political development. As the wave of democratization is spreading around the world, Vietnam is one of those few countries left with a highly authoritarian regime where the state and government hold great power and have virtually complete impact on decision-making process. In other word, since the regain of its independence in 1945, the civil society has been having a less than a say and a influential position in the political participation. However, it is the case of globalization and new media technology that the table is turning.

The impact of globalization on the social structure has been briefly pointed out by Castells (2008) in his article The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance:


"Globalization is the process that constitutes a social system with the capacity to work as a unit on a planetary scale in real or chosen time. Capacity refers to technological capacity, institutional capacity, and organizational capacity. New information and communication technologies, including rapid long-distance transportation and computer networks, allow global networks to selectively connect anyone and anything throughout the world. Institutional capacity refers to deregulation, liberalization, and privatization of the rules and procedures used by a nation-state to keep control over the activities within its territory."

More attention is to be drawn to the notion of technological capacity and institutional capacity. As the worldwide wave of globalization hits Vietnam, the civil society finds themselves with a powerful tool that open them to an ever connected and open knowledge resources. It is due to the fact that, right at citizens' fingertips, information can be easily searched and looked up. Even with the state's control, the fact that it is getting more accessible for citizens to travel and go abroad, getting more access to an increasing globalized pool of information puts the state's power in checks and balances, whether the state wants it or not. Thus, together with the advent of new information and communication technologies, Vietnamese civil society finds themselves a more liberating new public sphere where they have more negotiating power and exercise their abilities right up to what is described as:


“[...] a network for communicating information and points of view” (Habermas 1996, 360). The public sphere is an essential component of sociopolitical organization because it is the space where people come together as citizens and articulate their autonomous views to influence the political institutions of society. "

Despite the control and surveillance of the state with the internet censoring or the imprisonment of several bloggers, Vietnamese civil society has been struggling at its best capability to exercise its basic rights and utilize the powerful weapon at hand to express themselves. This can be seen to belong to the fourth type of expression of global civil society: "the movement of public opinion, made up of turbulences of information in a diversified media system, and of the emergence of spontaneous, ad hoc mobilizations using horizontal, autonomous networks of communication." There have been more non-state actors providing information from different perspectives through online platform and uncensored news stations, and followed is an increasing population of followers. Even with the more integrated force of global civil society, this has been seen as an empowerment and significant shift for Vietnamese civil society to gain a better negotiating tool for their own rights and with regard to the state, bringing more political and social change, especially the democratization process. Even though the transformation is not as rapid and intense as that which has been happening in Egypt, there is definitely a gradual process taking place . However, due to the the lack of space and content limit, this aspect will not be explored further.


This is all attributed to the new public sphere given by the force of globalization and the advancement of the new information and communication technology. Information are getting more fluid, transparent and decentralized.


More information can be found here:  http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/10/11/vietnamese-civil-society-bringing-political-change/