Development Dilemmas in Rural Thailand

In recent years, rural Thailand has experienced rapid changes of which some have resulted from local processes such as land settlement and deforestation, while others are a consequence of processes affecting national economic and political development. This study is concerned in particular with the link between local change and incorporation in the wider system as experienced by 2 communities of Uthaithani Province. Within the incorporative aspect of development, key themes such as spontaneous land settlement and associated deforestation as an important backdrop for the lowland and upland settlements of the Central Plains, are addressed. Also considered are the changing control over local and wider societal resources, cooperation as an ideal in development programmes, participation which relates to the terms of incorporation as well as power, and changing locations as local communities become part of a wider society. An underlying set of dilemmas is identified and investigated: the difficulty of maintaining or increasing control over local resources on the part of the rural poor, while at the same time gaining access to wider societal resources as a basic aim of participatory rural development.

Thailand