Hai Hong Dinh

HAI DINH, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam, received funding to assist engaged research on “‘Forever Marginalized’: Engaged Research on Katuic’s Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam.” After more than two decades of researching the Katuic group in central Vietnam and witnessing the struggles faced by the indigenous people, this project reexamines what hardships remain. Funding helped the grantee reassess their anthropological approach in a new setting. In just one year, the current state of affairs regarding the marginalization of Katuic groups in Vietnam’s Central Economic Zone was examined. The findings changed the grantee’s perspective on economic development, particularly unsustainable development in ethnic minority regions like those inhabited by Katuic. Believing economic development must not destroy natural habitats — as failure to do so will lead to the marginalization of indigenous people and national and international policies will fail — using the Marginal Development Index (MDI) can become crucial development indicator. Deployed with accurate anthropological data, this approach will enable suitable solutions for the situation today to better solve the problems faced by indigenous communities deeply affected by unsustainable development projects.