Subject: Thai studies

Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party

By Duncan McCargo and Anyarat Chattharakul Thai politics have been intensely polarized since demonstrations against the government of then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra began in 2005. Conservatives aligned with the military and monarchy are pitted against critics of the establishment supporting a more open political order. In the election of 24 March 2019, this pattern […]

Belittled Citizens: The Cultural Politics of Childhood on Bangkok’s Margins

by Giuseppe Bolotta What does childhood mean in contemporary Thailand? What constitutes childhood in a slum? How does childhood figure in the construction of national citizenships? Rich in ethnographic detail, this fascinating, engaging and illuminating study explores the daily lives, constraints, and social worlds of children born in the slums of Bangkok, and their ways […]

Darshika: Journal of Integrative and Innovative Humanities

The Thaksinization of Thailand

Duncan McCargo & Ukrist Pathmanand 2011 The 1997 economic crisis ended two decades of pluralism in Thai politics and helped create the conditions for the landslide election victory in January 2001 of Thaksin Shinawatra, a fabulously wealthy telecommunications magnate often compared with Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi. Prime minister Thaksin has since exercised an extra-ordinary degree […]

Reforming Thai Politics

Duncan McCargo (ed) 2002 Since 1932, Thai politics has undergone numerous political ‘reforms’, often accompanied by constitutional revisions and shifts in the location of power. Following the events of May 1992, there were strong pressures from certain groups in Thai society for a fundamental overhaul of the political order, culminating in the drafting and promulgation […]

Civil Society and Democratization: Social Movements in Northeast Thailand

Somchai Phatharathananunth 2011 This book is for anyone wondering whatever happened to Thailands vanished Marxist insurgents or interested in understanding the forces behind the mass demonstrations of peasants that periodically descend on Bangkok. Specifically, the book investigates the struggle of an important social movement in Thailand, the Small Scale Farmers’ Assembly of Isan (SSFAI), and […]

Childbirth and Tradition in Northeast Thailand: Forty Years of Development and Cultural Change

Anders Poulsen 2006 This beautifully illustrated volume offers a rare study of Isan-Thai customs and belief associated with pregnancy and birth and how they have changed over almost half a century. Using a psychological and socio-therapeutic framework, Anders Poulsen discusses the function of various birth rites while giving an unmatched description of all traditions specifically […]