Slow Violence: Land Access and Intergenerational Poverty in the Red Zone of Dong Bak-Ee Forest Area, Amnat Charoen Province

Abstract

This qualitative research aims to explore how land access among the rural poor in Dong Bak Yi, Amnat Charoen Province—an area once accused of harboring “communists”—is deeply entangled with the Thai state’s Cold War-era counterinsurgency policies. Drawing on Rob Nixon’s concept of Slow Violence and Ribot and Peluso’s Theory of Access, this article analyzes how state actions—particularly forced relocation, national forest reserve declarations, and land tenure exclusion—have generated long-term structural inequalities. These policies not only curtailed access to vital resources but also entrenched intergenerational cycles of poverty and marginalization. The study builds on previous scholarship on rural transformation in Northeast Thailand, which has often emphasized political negotiation and grassroots resistance. In contrast, this research highlights the limits of such negotiation in areas where historical trauma has silenced communities and where political memory is not a source of empowerment but a lingering burden. Based on in-depth interviews with 25 households directly affected by past counterinsurgency campaigns, the study demonstrates how being labeled “communist” led to systematic land dispossession, economic displacement, and enduring socio-political exclusion. The findings reveal that counterinsurgency violence, though no longer overt, continues to manifest through structural mechanisms that deprive rural people of land, voice, and political recognition. This persistent exclusion from state-sanctioned systems of property and development has pushed many residents further to the margins of the modern economy. Ultimately, the article emphasizes the importance of acknowledging historical violence and addressing long-standing structural injustices in land access and rural livelihoods.