Current situation of theory and methodology of culture and people in Vietnam during the last few decades

Tóm tắt

Although there exist several theories which provide methodologies for the study of development of people and cultures, in fact in Vietnam there are only two popular theories which act as guidelines for this field. 1/ One emphasizes human beings’ social nature, judging humans primarily via their actions and considering humans as contextual products determined by society’s materialistic life. According to this theory, all interpretations about an individual must be derived from his/her society. 2/ The other views humans as the center of socio-economic development, and also as the goal and the impetus for social development. From this perspective, any socio-economic changes, including economic growth, must be considered in relation to humans’ development, that is, the value of all change and development must be measured in terms of the extent to which it serves human beings and brings them happiness.

Regarding cultural studies, there also exist two common theories guiding its research methods as well as cultural development. 1/ The first theory regards material production as the foundation of all of social life, including culture. Social existence determines social consciousness. In this way, culture is considerably influenced by infrastructure and will be changed as the society’s production system changes. Personal and individual culture, as well as personality, all depend upon and are reflected in actions and behaviors. 2/ The second theory views culture as the internal factor determining social development; it is the mental foundation of a society, both the goal of and the impetus for social development. Towards this end, every social change or advance is rooted in culture, especially in traditional culture. In fact, these theoretical frameworks, as well as the theoretical and methodological guidelines for social studies in Vietnam, are far from being strictly followed. Few researchers and writers adhere absolutely to the theoretical framework or methodologies which they support. Sometimes the theoretical framework presented in a study is only included for purposes of completeness, and in fact the research topic has been developed in some other way. Therefore, compromises, concessions, harmonizing, and incompleteness is frequently in scientific documents. This situation is acceptable to some extent, as sometimes valuable scientific work is still done, but in many other cases it is not acceptable.