How people have engaged modernity in a northeastern thai village

Chapter 1
Introduction
Keeping up with the Joneses1
During the dry season, my mother has to order truckloads of soil from
the excavation service2 to fill our land. Fellow villagers are then employed to level
the soil. Each year, the expenditure is directly proportionate to the amount of soil that
is available. In 2009, my family paid in total 1,700 THB (51.21 USD) 3; 1,200 THB
(36.14 USD) for the soil and 500 THB (15.16 USD) for the labour.
This practice has been in full swing since our relocation to this piece of land in
1994. We had to expend a large sum of money for these annual landfills for practical
reasons - the annual landfills prevent flooding within the house yard during the rainy
season. Flooding within the perimeters of the house was not a natural occurrence
before the construction of an elevated4 inter-provincial highway near our house.
However, the high road dyke blocks our natural drainage, resulting in our house yard
to flood during the rainy season.
Traditionally, to prevent flooding, houses were constructed on elevated
grounds that were filled beforehand. The annual landfill method was an alteration of

1

This term is a 20th century American slang. It originated with Arthur (Pop) Momand's Keep Up with
the Joneses comic strip in the New York Globe. The strip was first published in 1913 and became
popular quite quickly. By September 1915, a cartoon film of the same name was touring US cinemas.
The 'Joneses' in the cartoon weren't based on anyone in particular, and they weren't portrayed in the
cartoon itself. Jones was a very common name and 'the Joneses' was merely a generic name for 'the
neighbours' ( retrieved 12 December 2009)
2

In the dry season, there are many soil-selling services. They offer to dig a pond for the land owner for
free and they earn from selling the soil. The bigger and deeper the pond is dug, the more soil they can
get. A truck load of soil costs 550 baht per truckload (as of May 2009).

3

All the exchange rate uses in this thesis is 1 USD = 33.25 THB ( retrieved 12
December 2009)
4

The highway was constructed to be elevated to prevent itself from flooding.

1


traditional methods of construction, and was employed only by people who wanted to
construct new houses in proximity to the roads. With the increasing movement of
homes to areas at the roads, more people adopted the annual landfill method in order
to adapt to the new challenges offered by their relocation.
The construction of the modern inter-provincial highway had started a trend.
It was part of a state-sponsored infrastructure development project that will have an
inevitable impact on village life. The state upgrades the highway by creating higher
ground for the road. As a result, the villagers started to adopt the same method in
order to fill up their backyards and housing grounds. One by one, villagers had to fill
up their land with truckloads of soil to prevent flooding. So did my parents. It is not
hard to observe that people in my village are copying one another in this trend. In fact,
this trend is fuelled by people‘s desire to be on par with one another economically and
socially. In their own way, they have kept up with Joneses, meaning they strive to
match one‘s neighbours in spending and social standing. This is a conscious pattern of
being active villagers in the contemporary Thai countryside.
My thesis engages the use of theoretical discourses of development and
modernity to uncover the contemporary situation of a village in rural Thailand.
I contextualised my thesis by locating my research in a village named Ban Nongyang.
The village is located at a natural waterway, running five kilometres from Phanom

Din hill. The main road which runs through the village, however, blocks the village‘s
waterway. Grandmother Tut, my neighbour from across the street, told me that she
inherited this piece of land from her parents. Before the road was built, this land,
being outside the village‘s area, was empty. Prior to the relocation of her house,
Grandmother Tut‘s old house was located close to the village dirt road once

2


considered ‗inside the village‘s area‘5. When the asphalted road was introduced, more
and more people moved to stay close to the road. She said that ‘I wanted to stay near
the main road (thanon yai)6 too. Hence, my husband and I decided to build a house
here‘. In mid 2007, Grandmother Tut hired Uncle Chai and his professional housemoving team to relocate her new home ten metres away from the main road. She said
that
Staying near the big road became too noisy; my house was too
close to the road. There are too many cars nowadays. The cars keep
running pass my house all day and all night. When the trucks run at
night, it is too noisy and it shakes my house.

The construction of the inter-provincial highway plays an integral part in
influencing the development of the village and of its villagers‘ lives. The trend of
relocating houses in proximity to the road compels villagers, like Grandmother Tut, to
adopt the landfill method; landfill had to be performed in order to level their land
against the highway‘s height. Before conducting interior renovations to her home,
flooding was not a concern. In 1980, Grandmother Tut decided to pave her ground
with cement. This was part of another trend within the village; cement paved floors at
the ground level started to become popular amongst the villagers. During the mid
1990s, teacher Khempet, a school teacher, started building his house in the empty land
next to hers. To build the large, two-storey cement house and prevent the ground floor
from flooding in the rainy season, Mr.Khempet filled up his land and built his house

higher than Grandmother Tut‘s ground, by about 20 centimetres. With her house
being lower than her neighbour‘s land, Grandmother Tut needed to raise her land
5

This dirt road was the most important road connecting the inner village with main road. However, in
early 1980, the state cut a new road to connect the inner village with the inter-city road. The new road
became more popular, as it was bigger and more convenient. People ignored the old cart road and very
few people now use it as a short cut within the village only.
6

In Thailand, there are various kinds of roads ranging from cart roads, dirt roads and asphalt roads.
Previously, there was only the inter-city road paved by asphalt. It was bigger than the dirt road that
normally connected villages together. Thus, the word ‗thanon yai‘ or literally translate as big road
refers to the main road or inter-city asphalt road.

3


further to avoid flooding. This time, she determined to raise her land higher than her
neighbour.

Running after Development: Engaging Modernity in a Northeastern Thai village

In Thailand, development has been part of people‘s lives for more than half a
century. In order to gain a fuller understanding of the impact of development, we
cannot limit analysis to the institutional level. Instead, we must look at the actual
impact of development that has penetrated, re-defined and transformed individuals‘
lives at the village level. Evaluating the real-life impact of development is made
possible through the perceptions and actions of villagers. The process of rural
modernisation can be clearly understood through villagers‘ experiences and their

everyday life practices. The main research question is how the individual villager
defines the way to achieve development and modern life. In addition, the research
question extends to examine how the villager is transformed to become a modern
actor who acquires a new consciousness of their social position in the society.
Today, villagers are ready to reject being out of date, being old fashioned, and
ready to embrace the new experience of being up to date. Being modern became
associated with a luxurious lifestyle, better education, infrastructure, and a higher
standard of living. These ideas of modernity are introduced to their village through
various forms of development projects. In essence, everybody is running after
development in order to achieve a modern status. The processes of change and their
impacts emerge on individual and community levels.

4


In this thesis, three key words; development, modernity, and everyday life, will
be discussed. Phatthana7 is as an active verb which means ‗to develop‘, ‗to progress‘
or ‗to advance forward‘. In the Thai context, it is often used interchangeably with
modernisation. The Thai state officially set up the development policy based on the
‗paradigm of modernisation and growth‘ (Boonmathaya 2000: 15). More often than
not, development in Thailand means introducing physical infrastructure projects such
as roads, electricity, running water, irrigation and so on to the rural areas (Rigg 2003:
52). Hence, rural development (kanphatthana chonnabot) more accurately means
bringing advancement and modernisation to rural areas (ibid).
Modernity is popularly conceived and measured through Western-centered
standards and connotations of what is modern. Bruno Latour (1993) interprets the
modern as ‗the extension of scientific and intuitional networks defining themselves as
rational and true‘ (Latuor 1993 in Bunnell 2006: 16). Anthony Giddens defines
modernity as a mode of social life that emerged in Europe from the nineteenth century
onwards (Giddens 1990:1).

Modernisation is the process of exporting the (always-

already modern) Western institutions and formations to cultural setting of non-West
(Bunnell 2006: 16).
In my thesis, I endeavour to interrogate the Euro-American-centred
conceptions of modernity. In addition, I seek to discuss alternative perspectives that are
available outside the boundaries of the West. As Appadurai (1996) proposes,

Modernity now seems more practical and less pedagogic, more
experiential and less disciplinary than in the 1950s-1960s. The
megarhetoric of development modernisation such as economic growth,
high technology, agribusiness, schooling, and militarisation are still
with us. But it is often punctuated, interrogated and domesticated by the
micronarratives of film, television, music and other expressive form,
7

Development, or kanphatthana in Thai stresses the economic, social/ human development are more
exactly referred to by the word Watthana, but this is rarely used in the mainstream development studies
context – although it is popularly employed by grassroots activists Kanphatthana = modernisation and
is delivered by the state (Rigg 2003: 51).

5


which allow modernity to be written more as vernacular globalisation
and less as a concession to large-scale national and international
policies (1996: 9).
Hence, I question how modernity and development contest and situate
themselves in people‘s everyday life? ‗Everyday life‘ refers to everyday actions done

by ordinary people and which happens in common places and events. ‗Everyday
practice‘, on the other hand, is a summation of the activities that are performed in
everyday spaces that have coherence in and of themselves. It constitutes or makes up
daily life in normal living (Rigg 2003). The everyday life can be seen and studied by
the anthropologist. I adopt Eric E. Thompson‘s (2007) work on ‗everyday‘ to help me
to examine how villagers ‗mediate‘ development and modernity. The contemporary
situation and the powerful institution such as education system, road networks, and
western medical practices permeate the practical in people everyday experience.
These are conveyers of the mediated modernity and development, ‗are a part of, not
apart from, the local condition and everyday life in the rural village‘ (Thompson
2007: 154)
In the quest of achieving something, rural people have to earn and invest more
to acquire it. Keyes (2002) sees it as the commitment to development to the pursuit of
the progress of the villagers. The stories of how people experience rural
modernisation are the focal point of my thesis. Instead of exploring institutional
arrangements or the re-organisation of development projects, my work focuses on the
human experience of development. My work sees a very close connection between
development and modernity. I take development as a form, or way, to achieve
modernity. Indeed, development is a process of planned change or directed
transformation. It is a guided transformation with some desirable expectation.
The term development signifies a process of improvement: a movement to a
better place. Modernisation and development have encouraged people to expect more
6


from life. Keyes comments that the pressure of needs is intensifying and expanding
time over time. However, in the process of many development projects, villagers have
both benefited from and become victims of development (Keyes 2002).
Development has shaped and transformed people‘s lives and perspectives like
never before. In my thesis, I opt to analyse how development came about and become

institutionalised through schools, roads and health clinics which are situated in the
village. Furthermore, I consider how the villagers define, interpret and respond to
development and modernity in their everyday lives. I concur with Ferguson‘s
statement on the failure of development projects that ‗failure does not mean doing
nothing; it means doing something‘ (Ferguson 1994: 276) and ‗even a ‗failed‘
development project can bring about important structural change‘ (ibid: 275).
My thesis aims to evaluate development at the micro-level; how it works and
operates. At the same time, I also place high emphasis on villagers‘ definition of
development. The villagers do not simply contest, resist, or reject the development
and modernity. But rather, they seek to adapt these notions of development and
modernity, and integrate these notions into their lives.

This reaffirms the role of

development and the way villagers perceive and live with development. Northeasterners have been influenced by the discourse on development through the state-led
development efforts (Boonmathaya 1997). However, they have their own ways to
rework top-down notions of development based on their own culture and tradition.
Just like the case of my parents and our neighbours having to catch up with the interprovincial highway improvement, the relationship and the interaction between
development and the villagers are not walking with or chasing up but it is the way
people run after development.

7


Thesis Organisation

Our prime objective is to strive to make the public aware and agree
with the fact that the nation must develop, people must progress, and
tomorrow must must be better today ( Sarit Thanarat speech in 1960
in Chaloemtiarana 1979: 148)

Back in 1960s, development was among the top priority of Thailand‘s national
policies. Development has transformed Thailand not only virtually butalso people‘s
mentality. In this thesis, I look at the impact of development in people‘s everyday life
and how villagers embrace development. Modernity based on development creates
new identity, modern Thai people. Thesis marks the development in everyday life by
explaining in 4 subject matters namely road, migration, education, changing in
kitchen landscape. Story about an educated man, who became the full-time famous
spirit medium, shows how people acquired the importance of modern education with
an old traditional belief. In the mode of experience; it is interesting to see how
villagers connect modern and traditional world together. Moreover, I discuss about a
new rarely-used gas stove, which can only become a symbol of modernity but cannot
replace an old often-used charcoal stove, as it fits more with local dietary.

The contents of this thesis are divided into several chapters. Chapter 1
Introduction provides an overview of the thesis. It draws the contemporary picture of
the villager and raises argument about how development and modernity encourage
villagers to participate. The form of participation is what I call running after
development. Chapter 2 starts with the review of the development, modernity and
development and modernisation theory. In the second half of the chapter, I discuss
methodological reflections with an aim to illustrate how fieldwork was carried out.

8


Chapter 3 deals with the historical context of the region. Topics discussed
include the creation of Northeastern Thailand and state and development. The thesis
starts the discussion from the administrative reform in nineteenth century in the reign
of King Chulalongkorn (reign 1868 -1910). To show how Thai state has integrated the
Northeastern region into the geo-body of the Thai state. This chapter also highlights
the process how development has become a tool of the state to involve the

northeastern region in the global economy.
Chapter 4 begins with the background of Ban Nongyang as a community in
the context of village settlement and the creation of the Thai political unit. It unveils
the history of state-sponsored development in the village and discusses the village in
transition chronologically.
In the second part of the chapter, I look at the arrival of the development at the
village level, using roads as a case study, and demonstrate how roads have become
very important symbols of development and modernity. I use a cartographic map as
the tool to reaffirm the notion of the road, which is the most distinctive feature in
every villager‘s map. Sample of maps are read as signs of the development and
modernity in Ban Nongyang. The meaning of the maps show what people want to
highlight and what people want to omit in the imagination of their village.
Chapter 5 discusses how villagers experience the world outside the village
through rural-urban migration. Urban migration became popular among village men
and women, especially during Thailand‘s economic miracle in 1980s. Villagers
migrated to work in the big cities. Migration in itself is about seeking new
opportunities. It is a phenomenon that allows people to engage themselves in the
modern world. It had consequences when they returned home and reproduced the
modern ideas in the village.

9


Chapter 6 focuses on emerging ideas of the ‗secure life‘. The discussion
focuses on how people struggle and chase a better life and better status, a new social
status created by the bureaucratic system and capitalism. This desire can be achieved
through education, which paves one‘s path to a secure job and better life in the rural
areas comes from not only an individual but from the entire the family.
Chapter 7 describes the consequences when the traditional kitchen was
supplanted by the modern kitchen. Using the kitchen landscape and its politics as a

metaphoric case study, this chapter shows how conspicuous consumption and
positional economics could explain changing village consumption behaviour.
and how it reflects understandings of being ―modern‖ and its incorporation into the
villagers‘ daily life.
The key theme in Chapter 8 is the villagers‘ experiences with development.
With this focus, this chapter illustrates the conversation between the villagers and
development through private narratives. I present the life stories of three informants
from three generations and discuss what development means to them.
In the concluding chapter, the big picture of the social transformation and
changes in the Ban Nongyang could arguably represent thousands of villages across
the Thai countryside as a result from state-sponsored development since 1960s.
This aims to conclude and show the way the villagers have transformed and adapted
themselves through state-led development and how people have negotiated with
development and modernity, viewing the process of such transformation from below.

10


Chapter 2
Theoretical Frameworks and Research Methodology Reflections

The theoretical framework is aim to examine development as a form of
modernity. The development and modernity theories are adopted to explain the
development era in the Thai context. The theory helps to understand the (EuroAmerican centric) development; how does development as a process of modernisation
work in the Third World.
My thesis adopted the anthropological approach to examine the everyday
situation in the rural village in Northeastern Thailand. The participation approach was
employed to investigate the engaging with development and modernity of villagers.
In addition, informal talks and loosely-structured interviews with the informants were
carried out.

Towards the end of the chapter, I also penned my methodology reflection.
The bulk of my reflection is centered on my complex positionality as a researcher
studying her own village. After critically assessing my own reflections, I suggest
some learning curves for a local-born researcher interacting with villagers who are
both informants and observers, simultaneously.

Theoretical Foci

The theoretical assumptions about ‗modernity‘ and ‗development‘ have been
discussed for a long time in academia. In fact, ‗modernity‘ and ‗development‘ are the
two main theories that I use in my paper. Both theories are important tools that will
aid the understanding of transformation and current phenomena in the village in
Northeastern Thailand.
11


Development Theory

‗Development‘ can be understood as an idea, an objective and an activity
(Kothari and Minogue 2000, Nederveen Pieterse 2001). As an idea, discourses on
development have been introduced by the Western countries. Subsequently, these
paradigms are increasingly adopted and practiced by the rest of the world. The idea
then becomes an objective, where development became the Western-led agenda for
the Third World. It was drawn up to fit the new ‗rising expectations‘ during the era of
post-colonial independence. Thus, development can be understood as the
reconstruction of the world based on Western norms and institutions. The central idea
of economic development is progress as determined according to the market forces of
supply and demand (Mehmet 1999: 2). Western sciences, especially social sciences,
idealise Western institutions and perceive the other as inferior and constantly
struggling to catch up with the superior West by imitating it (Ibid: 10-11).

Western theorists defined development as ‗modernity‘, which itself was
defined as ‗the passing of traditional society‘ (Lerner 1958 in Mehmet 1999) or
becoming modern (Inkeles and Smith 1974 in Mehmet 1999). This concept embraces
the Western political institutions and norms as a universal reference (Mehmet 1999:
60-61). Economic development generally refers to capitalistic growth through
industrialisation which depends on Western technology and equipment. Western
Multinational Corporations (MNCs) were encouraged to enter the developing
countries as agents of economic development that would bring prosperity to all
(Mehmet 1999: 88). In fact, to read the development theories is to read a history of
hegemony and political Eurocentrism (Pieterse, 2001: 8).

12


Development as a Discourse

In the 1950s, the mainstream development discourse outlined science,
technology and capital as the main components required to bring about industrial
revolutions to Third World countries. The discourse of underdeveloped societies was
totally reconstructed. Underdeveloped subjectivity is considered as powerlessness,
passivity, poverty and ignorance. The advanced societies of that time aimed to
achieve a high level of industrialisation and urbanisation, technical aptitude,
modernised agriculture, rapid growth of material production and living standards, and
widespread modern education and cultural values. This development discourse was
sold to the people in the Third World countries as the new way to achieve developed–
world status. Escobar, a well-known developmentalist (1995), redefined development
as the new form of colonialism in terms of discourse. He employed Foucault‘s
conceptualisation of knowledge and power to examine the representation of social
reality and how it created the representation of the Third World. In essence, the
development discourse speaks of economic growth as a tool; economic growth, as a

tool, is used to transform poorer parts of the world.
The critique of the development discourse began in the mid 1980s.
After almost 30 years of practice, Third World countries became increasingly modern
and developed. Yet, it brings us to the new dependency. The anthropologist in Latin
America questions that ‗(in Latin America) have to stop being what we have not been,
what we will never be, and what we not have to be‘ (Escobar 1995: 221).

13


Modernity and Development

In the nineteenth century, following the Enlightenment, ‗modernity‘ emerged
as a concept within European society. This logic of modernity rejected anything
irrational. Hence, previously-held views on religion became increasingly challenged
with rationality. The Occidental rationalism transformed societies which were
dependent on religion to the modern societies which exist today. Thus modernity has
become the popularly accepted standard and worldview through which people
evaluate their and other people‘s degrees of progress or backwardness (Masquelier
2002: 847). Escobar (1995: 11) contextualises the era of development within the
overall space of modernity. The functional conception of development was conceived
of as the transformation of traditional into a modern society. Fagerlind and Saha
(1995) emphasise that
The process of modernisation can be charecterised as
revolutionary (dramatic shift from traditional to modern), complex
(multiple causes), systematic, global (affecting all societies), phased
(advance through stages), homogenising (convergence), irreversible and
progressive (Fagerlind and Saha 1995: 16).
Modernity can be examined by looking at the practices and symbols that
produce and regulate social life (Escobar 1995).

The conceptualisation of

‗development‘, which engages with modernisation, was introduced to the Third World
countries aggressively by the developed Western countries. The indigenous
population had to be modernised. And, in this light, modernisation meant the adoption
of the right values. These were embodied in the ideal of the cultivated European as
well as in programmes for industrialisation and agricultural development (ibid: 43).
Arce and Long (2000) pointed out that the drive to develop these countries is a legacy
of colonisation as it exemplifies ‗the spread of ‗civilised standards‘ of modernity and

14


the way that local people blended the influence of modernity into their own
‗traditional‘ idiom‘ (Arce and Long 2000: 10).
Hence, development is inherently tied to the western paradigm of modernity.
Positivist thought in development reduces development into a linear progression,
encouraging developing countries to follow the developed economic model; by
shifting from a society based on agriculture to one based on industry. The growth of
economic scale would lead the country to become developed and modern. Rostow‘s
universal stage theory of economic growth is one of such theories that exemplify
positivism. Development is conceptualized and assumed to be laying on the linear
stage of five basic stages of economic growth, from a traditional society to a society
of mass-consumption. Thus, if a country seeks development and modernity,
development projects have to be implemented to restructure the traditional agrarian
societies. Less-developed countries then have to follow the universal stage while the
developed countries play the role of the mentor. As a result, the aid industry emerges
for the global North to help the global South to be modern and developed by using
their development models.

Modernity is the ultimate goal, while development is the process. In addition,
modernity is an age of standardisation and reproduction. Thus in the twentieth century
concept, modernity is the process of the Third World catching up with the West.
At the same time, the West as the leader does not need to catch up to anyone.
Hence, in this thesis, the main argument is how the Third world borrowed and
reinvented modernity through the process of development. My central focus is on the
ground level: how the village articulates modernity and development that was given to
them by the exodus (external factor/agent). Thai villages experienced (Western)
modernity through the Thai state. Schools, roads, teachers and civil servants are
agencies of modernity introduced by the state.
15


Modernisation Theory

The process of modernity could be measured by the spread of modern
institutions, like schools or (modern, Western) medical facilities, and maps as a
modernisation surface. The modernisation theory has encouraged backward countries
to only copy the already-proven example of the West in order to develop their
societies (Fotsyth 2005: 454). Modernisation theory not only stresses the process of
change, but also the response to that change. It also looks at internal dynamics related
to the social and cultural structures and the adaptation of new technologies.
Furthermore, it demonstrates the relationship between knowledge and power in the
creation of development theory; the western countries have authority to create the set
of discourse that makes the Third world countries become the other (Scott 1995: 127).
However, modernisation is not a singular process (Rigg 2003: 14).
The modernisation process is to create commodity markets and transfer technology,
knowledge, resources and organisational forms from the more developed world to the
less developed world. Norman Long noted that in this way, traditional society is
paralleled into modern world and the transformation of the economic and social

patterns to be modern (Long 2001: 10).

Modernisation and Development in the Anti-mainstream Development

The development of superstructures serves two key purposes; to enhance the
‗hardware‘ (infrastructure) of the society and to develop the ‗software‘ (its people) of
the society. For the latter, the construction of superstructures is a catalytic process
used to inculcate its society with notions of ‗development‘ and ‗modernity‘.

16


However, in it is an irony in the developing world that modernity is the state
and village paradox. Villagers have committed themselves to the pursuit of the
progress. Hence, they try their best to cope with the existence of their daily life. In
Thailand there are many alternative forms of resistance. We do not need to do what
other people want us to do. This leads to the negotiation between the state and
development. The most prominent and well-known example of a new form of
resistance to the modernity of Thai society is the emergence and popularity of the
Sufficiency Economy theory. Much like how Singapore and Malaysia had promoted
―Asian values‖ as a rejection of ―decadent‖ Western values that is seen to be tied with
modernity; these phenomena help us to understand that partial resistance is the way to
confirm the existence of modernity. Development is seen as the negotiation of the
linear step of the economic and social development with the possible resistance .

Post-development: the Encountering of Mainstream Development

There are many critics of the singular (Western) modernity (Bunnell 2006: 19)
model of development. Herbamas (1980) sees modernity is an unfinished project.
Max Weber argues on the sociology of religion about the problem of universal

history. Weber quested that
Why, outside Europe, ‗the scientific, the artistic, the political or
economic development….did not enter upon that path of rationalisation
which is particular to the occidental (Habermas 2000: 1).
The post-development school believes that development is the new form of
colonialism. In other words, development is alternative word used to justify the right
for northern countries to come and exploit southern countries, much like during the
colonial era. In addition, the discourse of development serves the western political
purpose to expand beliefs of democracy which would allow them to control the so17


called Third world countries more easily. Development does not provide the
sustainable way to solve the problems in the underdeveloped world.
The idea of post-development goes along with the idea of anti-development
and beyond development. This school argues that development fails to allow the
Third world countries to achieve the development form framed by the Western world.
According to Nederveen Pieterse, ‗post-development overlaps with Western Critique
of modernity and techno-scientific progress‘ (2001: 99). Post-development parallels
dependency theory in seeking autonomy from external dependency, but is taken
further to describe development as a power/knowledge regime (ibid: 104). Moreover,
post-developmentalists see
Development as a system of knowledge, technologies, practices
and power relationships that serve to order and regulate the object of
development‘ (Lewis et al. 2003: 545 in Lie 2007: 53).
Post-development emerged after the ‗mainstream‘ development seemed to fail.
Arturo Escobar (1995) argues that the studies of development are often taken as
‗telling the story of the (development) dream and how it progressively turned into
nightmare‘ (Escobar 1995: 4). The post-development scholars situate themselves
outside the institutional structure of development (Lie 2007: 53). In this case, the
anti-politics machine is the emerging and strengthening of bureaucratic power like

never before instead of limiting their role as facilitator of the development process.
Post-development considers development as a hegemonic discourse.
Post-development tried to find the alternative to development. The post-development
school highlights the study on people is the emergence of counter-discourses from
‗below‘, affecting actions and outcomes from people who have to encounter the
development.

18


The Critique of Post-development: Tradition is Not always Pretty or Comfortable

The argument of the post-developmentalist is post-development is only
critique but no construction (Nederveen Pieterse in Ziai 2007: 116).

Jonahthan

Rigg(2003) also argued that post-developmental has played a ‗discursive trick, a
rhetorical ploy of equating development with Development‘ (Rigg 2003). It sees
development is as a monolithic discourse (Ziai 2007: 112). Post-development only see
development as a passage to modernisation, modernisation with Westernisation and
Westernisation with the unthinking application of (bad) Science and Technology
(Rigg 2003:327).
Moreover, the main device to debunk development is the development
promise of universal prosperity which post-developmentalist calls it as a ‗deceitful
mirage or malignant myth‘ (Ziai 2007: 113). Post-development also ignores the fact
that modernity and development do bring in numerous positive changes into peoples‘
lives (Rigg 2003, Corbridge 1998 in Ziai 2007: 115). A critic of Escobar on the
failure of development such as the debt crisis, famine, increasing of poverty,
malnutrition and violence that Escobar does not acknowledge that all these incidents

have existed since the past (Ziai 2007: 117). Finally, post-development is another
blueprint that based on reverse; anti-Western values but still, post- development also
practice the same way as the mainstream development that to tell people what the
villagers should do or follow. (ibid: 115).

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Methodological Reflections

My thesis is contextualised in Ban Nongyang, a village in Isan. With these
problems on development in mind, I embark on my fieldwork in a place where people
speak a different language and have a different culture from their counterparts in
central Thailand. I carried out four months worth of fieldwork. From December 2008
to March 2009, I resided in Ban Nongyang as a researcher.
Writing ethnography involves establishing trust and intimacy between parties
involved. The ethnographer must establish a long-term relationship between himself
or herself and the informant. The most important thing in writing ethnography is to
stick to the words and terms that the informants used and perceptions they expressed
as much as possible (Boonmathya 1997: 7). With my linguistic mastery and social
embeddedness as the member of the community, it was easy for me to build up
relationships with the informants. I personally knew the most of the people whom
I interviewed prior to research. Some of them are my relatives, my parents‘
colleagues, and my friends. In short, everyone I interviewed can be linked to my
personal life. It was easy for me to immerse myself within the local context and
access community documents. Still, my conversations with people are full of
malleable opinions, gossips, and conflicts of interest.
The stories discussed in the thesis come from my four months of fieldwork
and life-long experience as a member of the community. However, I have struggled
with a conflicting stance between the role of a researcher and an insider. I sometimes

sensed that informants were afraid to speak their minds, as they probably thought that
it would affect them if I reported what I wrote to a state authority. For example, one
afternoon, I was interviewing the food stall owner about his level of satisfaction of
development in the village compared to that of Bangkok. My uncle-in-law, who is a
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government teacher, walked into the stall. I greeted him by ‗wai‘ and said hello to
him. He knew that I was in the middle of an interview, and he reminded the stall
owner to ‗give good answers‘ (top di di). Thus, I realised that, at times, the barrier
does not come from my status but from people around me.
There are several limitations to insiderism as well. Knowing the background
of villagers did not mean that I automatically gained their trust and obtained accurate
data. After spending time in the village, I realised that my experience was limited. I
looked at things only in one side, the middle class point of view. Most of the stories
about the village‘s current affairs were recounted to me by my mother. Her picture of
the village, through the stories conveyed, is shaped by her experiences and her
middle-class social standing. This thesis represents an overview of everyday life of
villagers and state-sponsored development. However, it will convey my (biased)
reflection of development and the community though my own lens as a member of the
community.

Encountering and Engaging with Villagers

As a member of the community, it seems like I share the village problems with
other members of the village. Once I was asked by Aunty Tan, my distant relative,
‗how I would help the villagers to get out from debt and become rich?‘. My answer
was that I would improve the irrigation system to be more efficient by deepening and
broadening the irrigation canal. As a result, farmers would have enough water to
farm. Aunty Tan laughed loudly at my answer. She said that the canal is useless. The

earth bank is broken so it cannot retain water in the rainy season. When it rains, the
canal bank will collapse as a result of there being too much water. The water flow will
erode the canal‘s bank. Furthermore, the canal has no water in the dry season and
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floods in the rainy season. Hence the canal sometime causes more problems than it is
worth. I listened and agreed with Aunty Tan. I started to re-think about what I have
heard from the government and the development at the ground by the villagers for the
villagers could make sense.
Being an anthropologist in the village was neither easy nor hard. It was one of
the most memorable times in my life. At first, everyone probed about my presence in
the village. When I responded that I am a researcher, they had different reactions.
Some of the villagers volunteered to be interviewed. Some villagers asked me what
would be changed after I finish this project. I upset some villagers answering that
‗well, this thesis would pave my way to come back home and develop our village‘.
The villagers are always offered themselves to be interviewed and they hope that with
their opinion, the state would have something to help them. It made me feel even
more frustrated when I had to repeat my answer again and again. Sometimes, I felt
guilty. The truth is my thesis cannot help them to get out of the debt or help them
about anything.
Even though the villagers knew that my thesis might not help them, they were
still very friendly to me. I talked to people as much as I could, hope to gain some
insight into their thoughts. I also roamed around with several groups of people each
afternoon. In the afternoon, the villagers from the same hamlet always go to
someone‘s house to roam there. I sat there and listened to the villagers‘ opinions,
comments and gossips about happenings both within and beyond the village
boundaries. Sometimes, the villagers laughed at me when I quickly wrote down what
they said in my field notes. I have gained a lot of useful information and opinions
from my village folks during fieldwork and I also have a better relationship with

them.

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With my extended family, I gained a whole new experience. It was harder
to interview my close relatives than the other informants. It took me a longer time
to open my close relatives‘ minds, and to accept their opinions about the village.
I asked my relatives and cousins for their opinions on some events within the village.
I only ever got typical well-constructed and middle-class style answers, which always
came from other people.
Every Friday or Saturday night, I would be at my grandmother house.
Pam, my cousin, always came back home during the weekend. In some occasions,
Nuk, my cousin, also came back. We would always come together for family dinner
and stay around to chat. My two aunts would update what ‗happened in the past week‘
to us. I found it interesting, boring and annoying at the same time. My two aunts are
teachers in the primary schools. Interestingly, they always manage to get updates on
happenings within the village, even when they had to work in school all day. The
update is what my sister calls gossip.

Ae, my sister, always goes back home

straightaway after dinner with her (unspoken) reason that ‗it wastes my time to sit and
listen to aunties gossip about people and even any passerby‘. In the conversation,
aunties always added some spice to make the story interesting and encouraged the
audience to get involved. These are very crucial factors in sharpening my cousin‘s
middle class opinion toward other villagers and the village.

This makes me

understand my position and opinion before I came back to do the fieldwork in the
village, as I had mentioned earlier.
I did not expect to hear the truth or to find out the truth from any informant.
My main concern is the interpretation of villager‘s response of their opinion.
Although I am a member of the village, I had to accept the fact that I will never be
able to know the village inside out. I had to constantly be updated with happenings in

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the village while penning my drafts back in Singapore. But I suppose this is an issue
faced by every social scientist.

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Chapter 3
Transforming the Fringe; State and State-sponsored Development
in Northeastern Thailand

Northeast Thailand, commonly known as Isan, is northeast of Bangkok.
It is the largest region in Thailand; it covers one third of the total land area of the
kingdom. Isan is notable for its high incidence of poverty (Phromphakping 2008:15).
Apart from the difficult physical environment, including poor soil quality, water
scarcity, etc. that has impoverished the region, Charles Keyes (1967) also discusses its
geographical isolation from Bangkok. Further, the Mekong River serves to isolate the
region from Laos. On the other hand, the Phanom Dong Rak Mountains divide
southern Isan from the Kingdom of Cambodia. This geographical character has
crafted Isan into a culturally rich region. Also, with ethical, cultural and linguistic
differences from Bangkok, Isan inevitably became a fringe region.

This chapter discusses the process of state integration of the fringe region from
before the arrival of the Thai state bureaucracy until it became a part of the state in the
early nineteenth century. During the early nineteenth century, the state‘s power was
not really visible to the lay citizen. However, all of these changed during the age of
development.

The

early

National

Economic

Development

Plans

brought

infrastructural development to the Northeastern region of Thailand (Phongphit and
Hewison 2001:109). With this visible development approach, the state became
increasingly prominent. The nation-wide state-sponsored infrastructure improvements
have become a symbol of the state in lay citizens‘ eyes and rural people‘s minds.
These infrastructural improvements helped to expand the virtual power of the state

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