Recognizing Village Publics: Cultural Citizenship and the State in Northeastern Thailand
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Advisor
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Swarthmore College. Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
Type
Thesis (B.A.)
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
en_US
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Terms of Use
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
In the current political crisis of Thailand, particularly after the military takeover in May 2014, the question of who gets to belong is increasingly at stake. Taking up the category of "villagers" as second-class citizens, my ethnographic thesis explores the complex relationships between Lao-speaking rural villagers and the Thai state in contemporary northeastern Thailand. Advocating for the recognition of villagers' habits of democratic behavior, I argue against cultural constructions of "villagers" as politically deficient people in need of training and tutelage before they could legitimately participate in the country's democracy. As a participant-observer, I show how villagers develop their political subjectivity, becoming what I call "villager-citizens," through informal social gatherings I call "village publics." In so doing, I rethink and expand on the "new citizens" concept proposed by a group of Thai scholars. Discussions include alcohol and raw fish consumption, populist policies and sufficiency economy, unrecognized voices in village meetings, and police arrest of drug-using monks.