New Mandala

A review of Yos Santasombat (2008), Flexible Peasants: Reconceptualizing the Third World’s Rural Types. RCSD, Chiang Mai University.

[This review appeared recently in Chiang Mai University's Sangkhomsat, 20 (2).]
Like many scholars who study contemporary rural society, Yos Santasombat is seeking to define a new type of peasantry. The challenge appears formidable, not the least because, as [...]

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Political Prisoners in Thailand has a neat little story about a new district in Chiang Mai province that will be named in honour of Princess Galyani Vadhana.  The ever-reliable Tambon has more details, as does this Thai-language report.
I am fascinated by this administrative change, and not least because I know the area (in the far [...]

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I recently wrote a post about the diversification of livelihoods that has taken place in rural Thailand. From the informed comments received there appears to be general agreement that the move away from agriculture is strong throughout rural Thailand, though the extent and timing of this shift has varied from place to place.
In this post [...]

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In Thailand’s modern rural economy, rural livelihoods are no longer predominantly agricultural livelihoods. A new type of “rural” has emerged characterised by a process of “de-agrarianisation” whereby on-farm pursuits are an increasingly modest part of the household economy. According to Thailand’s national agriculture survey, the number of farming households who derived all of their income [...]

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We rarely post job advertisements on New Mandala but given the very specific nature of this position, and our niche in mainland Southeast Asian Studies, I thought it best to make an exception.  I expect that for the right candidate this would be an amazing opportunity.
The advertisement sets out all of the details:
The University of [...]

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There have been a few recent reviews of Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyers: The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand, which I wrote with Tim Forsyth of the London School of Economics. Here are some of the critical highlights …
… from Phil Hirsch’s review:
There is much that is exciting and refreshing in this book. Any [...]

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[This post is an introductory comment to Doug Miles' detailed review of Hjorleifur Jonsson's Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. The full review is available here.]
“Now where did I leave my jolly pith helmet?”
I commend this book for initiating a shift of paradigm in research concerning the Yao of southern China and the [...]

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Wei Yu Hua sits on the floor of his bamboo hut in the hilly Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand. The hut looks back over the steep fields he worked in after fleeing from nearby Myanmar, the culmination of a journey that began at the age of 13. At a time when awareness of the [...]

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Last week I wrote about the relatively long-term fluctuations in the price of garlic. In response to a couple of the comments I have re-calculated the graph using prices adjusted for CPI (with 1984 prices as the base). I am not sure if I have used the best CPI figures available – I used a set [...]

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I’ve been doing some more work on garlic production and marketing in Thailand. Yesterday I compiled price data for dried garlic from 1984 to the present (the data is available from the Office of Agricultural Economics). I have plotted the price in this graph (click for a larger version). I have also included a long-term [...]

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