In health care, we come across daily promises of miraculous cures for various ailments. However, in the digital era, the dynamics of experiencing and practicing these remedies have changed.

This book explores the intersection of miracle cures and technology, showcasing their transformation into hybrid forms, such as handwritten recipes captured in photos or tutorials streamed through videos. Combining computational social media data with ethnographic insights from Vietnam and the US, the book captures the interconnected lives of these cures in the digital realm with a unique methodology.

Unravelling the intricate connections between social, technological, biomedical and non-biomedical spheres, this is a significant contribution to how social scientists study online media.

“In this fascinating tour through the global Vietnamese world of internet cures, Dang Nguyen combines rigorous analysis of online discourse with ethnographic descriptions that reveal healing communities who both transcend geographic boundaries and leap into worlds of miracle and magic.” Erik Harms, Yale University

Dang Nguyen is Research Fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at RMIT University.

1. Introduction: Of internet cures and digital miracles

Part I: Contextualizing internet cures and digital miracles

2. Miracle cures in context: Vietnam as research site

3. Miracle cures as non-biomedical practices

Part II: Written networks of digital miracles

4. Crowd digitization of miracle cures and the digitality of writing

5. Mapping transnational networks of written miracles

Part III: Digital miracles as digital play

6. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing live: livestreaming miracles

7. Curing as play: the internet as miraculous milieu

Epilogue: Curing at the digital edge

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