Premium
Enacting nationalism through youthful mobilities? Youth, mobile phones and digital capitalism in a L ao‐ V ietnamese borderland
Author(s) -
Huijsmans Roy,
Lan Trần Thị Hà
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/nana.12095
Subject(s) - capitalism , appropriation , nationalism , ethnic group , mobile phone , sociology , context (archaeology) , everyday life , mobilities , gender studies , political science , anthropology , history , computer science , law , telecommunications , politics , archaeology , philosophy , linguistics
Mobile phone use has become a defining feature of what it means to be young, and the relatively remote L ao‐ V ietnamese borderland area that is the focus of this study is no exception. Drawing on B enedict A nderson's I magined C ommunities , this article investigates the interplay between the everyday styles of being young, the forces of digital capitalism and the enactment of nationalism. We do this with a focus on ethnic minority youth's appropriation of the mobile services offered by V iettel , the most popular mobile services provider in the study area and owned by the V ietnamese M inistry of D efence. We suggest that the everyday performances of being young, revolving around the mobile phone, are affected by the forces of digital capitalism. We further suggest that the cultural context of V iettel 's digital capitalism is embedded in a fabric of V ietnamese nationalism, leading ethnic minority youth, consciously and unconsciously, to enact nationalism through their everyday styles of being young.