A Narrative of Contested Views of Development in Thai Society: Voices of Villagers in Rural Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

This paper is a report of an ethnographic field research reflecting contested views of development on how to become modern in Thai society. It demonstrates how villagers in two rural Thai-Lao communities in the Northeast of Thailand utilized discourses of development after having been subjected to development programs and policies of the Thai state beginning in the 1960s. It also argues that development concepts and practices have become a political and cultural space where constant negotiation, integration, cooperation, contestation, and resistance are taking place. While the Thai state is responsible for initiating the concept of development, village discourses about the concept cannot be interpreted as reflecting unquestioned hegemony of a ruling elite. Development, thus, has become a political and cultural location that entails not only cooperation of villagers with state agencies, but also contestation of the authority of some of these agencies. The actual experiences of villagers with official development initiatives and their own pursuit of development have led to tensions not only between villagers and representatives of the state, but also within village society. In pursuit of interests that are differentiated by class, gender, and age, some villagers have also sought allies within and outside their villages. The contestation over development meanings and practices in these two villages reflects, thus, a more widespread debate in Thai society about what it means to be modern.