"Making of community" in a commercialized community in Northern Thailand

Abstract

The community-based development approach has been applied to development projects for a long time. Recently the Thai government launched the "sufficiency economy" policy, which promotes subsistence agricultural production and claims to strengthen rural communities. However, on the ground implementation of this policy does not necessarily result in the strengthening of rural communities as the government claims it does. A strong sense of community can be built among farmers even if they practice commercial agriculture. Strengthening a community, however, is dependent neither on subsistence farming nor commercial farming. Rather, as I argue in this paper, the idea of "community making" involves collective actions in relation to political and economic conditions. I will illustrate this point by examining the process of strengthening an upland community in Northern Thailand through agricultural practices of farmers in relation to their political and economic conditions.