Discourse of Thainess and Social Contral

Abstract

This research aims to study the power of discourse of Thainess, which creates perception and leads to control in Thai society. The study addresses two main questions : 1) What are the steps in the formation of the discourse of Thainess that emerged amidst the Thai political conflicts during the years 2006-2016? 2) What are the impacts of the discourse (of Thainess) on people's perception and the exercising of power in Thai soceity? The data were collected from Thainess-related discourse rampant during the time of political conflicts and studied using the genealogical approach and discourse analysis to study discursive formation as conceived by Michael Foucault. The study reveals that Thainess has always been created and used by those in power as a controlling tool. At the time this study was conducted, Thainess had at its center loyalty to the monarchy and was enriched by other harmonious political discourses. The study also found that the Thainess discourse is a procedure of creating perception evolving into social mastery. This is exercise of power can be explained in terms of the biopower of Thainess discourse that has created identity to a social body exercising biopolitical power through normalization, also known as governmentality in which biopower is used to exercise control over people's lives.