Creating global citizenship in the cafés of Saigon: Fulfilling aspirations via community led educational opportunities

Abstract

This work has been conducted to contribute to the gap in the existing literature. Although there are many papers that look at the themes and ideas of globalisation, aspirations, tourism and education, there is not a paper that groups these themes together and looks at the way that globalisation has engendered aspirations which are fulfilled by community led educational opportunities. Furthermore, a lot of the work in regards to the anthropology of aspiration focuses on the aspirations of the poor or underserved in society. This paper focuses on the aspirations of citizens who have experienced vast opportunity in life such as higher education, financial security and those who have their basic needs met. Focusing on this group allows us to see how this demographic in particular are affected by globalisation and the way in which new opportunities have determined their future aspirations. This paper is also important as it looks at the intersection between local citizens in one part of the world, in this instance Saigon, Vietnam, and discusses how international tourists utilise globalisation to fulfil their own aspirations by interacting with one another. This paper will present various different groups that are utilising the process of community led educational opportunities to fulfil their own aspirations. This thesis which can be read in order to develop an understanding of such activities and behaviours.