Study title

This project will investigate the changing ways in which Indonesian and Vietnamese individuals of divergent backgrounds and experience have understood the idea of 'achievement' over the course of their lives. What conceptualisations of achievement have been historically significant in both Vietnam and Indonesia? What conceptions of 'achievement' are emerging today, in a world which measures the attainment, capacities, and 'global competitiveness' of whole populations and nation-states? What is the significance of these shifts for the lived experience of 'achieving'? Based in Vietnam's capital city of Hanoi and Indonesia's borderland province of Kepri, the project will employ in-depth interviews and participant observation to focus on four particular groups: policy makers, who are devising strategies to increase achievement orientation and attainment within their populations; teachers and pupils at high-profile 'achievement schools' which have been indicated as the birthplace of a more globally competitive generation; export workers, who have historically contributed to each nation's economic growth but are now frequently being reclassified as 'unskilled'; and religious and ritual professionals, who are variously seen as operating in a domain that lies outside parameters of 'achievement' or touted as a valuable 'export commodity' sporting unique forms of human capital such as psychic abilities.