Journal of Social Sciences Naresuan University

Editorial Note

Chaipong Samnieng — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

None

Local Government Amalgamation in Thailand: A Review of Progress, Strength, Weakness, and Knowledge Gaps

Weerasak Krueathep — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This paper explores the body of knowledge, the meaning, the benefits, and the drawbacks of local government amalgamation based on Thai and international experiences. Successful and failure cases of local amalgamation in Thailand are also briefly reviewed. These comprise Wang-Namyen Town Municipality and the past attempt at merging with Kham-Yai City Municipality. The findings show that knowledge and understanding of political dynamics in local amalgamation are very limited, particularly regarding the allocation of seats for executives and councilmen, and the distribution of present and future political benefits after amalgamation. These political factors have been overlooked in the previous design of local institution reform policy and should be explored in greater detail in future research. The author suggests that careful, evidence-based policy design helps articulate local amalgamation plans and measures that better fit the Thai local government context so that Thailand’s local amalgamation efforts shall be successful on a wider scale in the near future.

Renewed Authoritarianism as West Africa’s Hybrid Regime: The Politics of Presidential Term Limits

Varisara Impithuksa — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This article aims to address two pivotal questions concerning the political regimes in West Africa. The first question explores the factors contributing to the emergence of hybrid political regimes in the region. The second seeks to identify the specific type of hybrid regime that best explains the prevailing political dynamics in West Africa. The initial hypothesis posits that those two interrelated challenges—namely, the contentious pursuit of third-term mandates by executive leaders and the persistent absence of effective checks and balances—serve as key justifications for military coups. These coups, in turn, continue to be perceived as viable solutions to political crises within the region. The second hypothesis suggests that the most appropriate framework for understanding the West African context is the model of “Renewed Authoritarianism.” This model is characterized by: (1) the exploitation of electoral majoritarianism to legitimize the extension of presidential terms beyond constitutional limits, and (2) the erosion of civil liberty protections, which leads to the weakening or absence of institutional oversight mechanisms. These two vulnerabilities are mutually reinforcing, creating a cycle in which coups are repeatedly employed as instruments to break the deadlock. This pattern has become increasingly prominent in the region since the onset of the 21st century.

Power over Body: Governing Women’s Sexuality and Reproduction in Thailand and Vietnam

Thouchanok Sattayavinit — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

In the history of sexuality, women have been subjected to control through patriarchal state ideologies and social moralities that seek to discipline their bodies into docility through techniques of power. In Thailand, the disciplining of women’s bodies has been governed by state population policies that promote childbirth, encouraging women to conform to normative ideals of femininity within a Buddhist moral society. These ideals have discouraged abortion and aligned with the development of medical technologies that support reproduction. In contrast, in Vietnam, the control of women’s bodies has been exercised through family planning and population policies aimed at limiting births. Women’s bodies have thus been rendered docile under Confucian social norms of ideal womanhood, supported by medical technologies that restrict reproduction. Despite differences in social contexts and patriarchal ideologies, women in both contexts bear the burden of nation-building through the regulation of sexuality within the state. This article seeks to reveal and compare the power structures governing women’s sexuality in Thailand and Vietnam by examining how disciplinary techniques render women’s bodies docile. The analysis is framed through Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, which elucidates how modern state power operates by regulating and infiltrating individual bodies in everyday life.

Exploring Edible Flowers: Sensory, Cultural, and Multispecies Dimensions of Edibility

Piyarat Panlee — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This article situates itself within the plant turn and proposes an interdisciplinary framework that brings together sensory anthropology, food studies, and multispecies ethnography to examine edible flowers not merely as ingredients but as sensory-cultural agents embedded within ecological relationships. Drawing on diverse case studies, the article reconceptualises edibility as a contingent phenomenon shaped by cultural ontologies, landscape ecologies, and multisensory perception rather than as a fixed biological or nutritional quality. It argues that the edibility of flowers emerges through the interplay between human perception (smell, taste, appearance), cultural memory, and interspecies relations, including pollinators, microbes, and traditional agricultural systems. In certain contexts, a flower may be considered edible and desirable, while in others it may be taboo, sacred, or symbolically charged. Through rituals, local knowledge, and culinary practices, communities define the boundaries of what counts as food. As edible flowers increasingly circulate as commodities in global markets, this shift disrupts earlier meanings and invites renewed attention to how food systems are entangled with nonhuman lives. The article calls for moving beyond anthropocentric frameworks and instead examining food systems as dynamic multispecies assemblages. In doing so, it contributes to expanding the scope of contemporary food studies to include ecological, cultural, and affective dimensions of eating in a more-than-human world.

Sounding the Viscous Porosity of Dwelling: A Noisescape of Shophouse Dwelling in Talad Noi

Piyathep Tanmahasmut — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

Noise pollution has long been a critical issue affecting the well-being of urban dwellers in Bangkok. This article presents a noisescape study of the Talat Noi neighborhood in Bangkok, exploring the experiences of Mei, a 28-year-old screenwriter and lifelong resident. Existing studies in Thailand lack the depth to capture lived experiences, focusing instead on technical analysis. This research fills that gap by using the concept of viscous porosity to understand the noisescape not merely as sound, but as the flow of objects and conditions across scales, from the body and home to the neighborhood. With an ethnography of noise, I conducted home visits and interviews to document how sounds from metal workshops and dogs form permeate and bind these different scales. This study reveals that the neighborhood’s identity is not simply a source of “positive cultural heritage”; it also has tangible impacts on local liveability. This research proposes that the development of historic neighborhoods must integrate dimensions of sensory experience and well-being, moving beyond a narrow focus on architectural preservation or creative economics.

Mushroom, Forest, and Human: The Politics of Multi-species Interdependence

Pinkaew Laungaramsri, Neeranooch Malangpoo, Sathapond Chantade — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This research investigates the symbiotic ecological relationships between Astraeus hygrometricus, or locally known as "hed thob", dipterocarp forest ecosystems, and forest-dwelling communities in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. The study examines how these interspecies dependencies have intensified significantly over the previous decade, coinciding with the mushroom's emergence as a coveted commodity among urban middle-class consumers. The analysis demonstrates that hed thob harvesting practices, rather than representing traditional cultural heritage, have gained prominence within contemporary capitalist frameworks—particularly as marginalized peri-urban communities increasingly rely on forest resources following the systemic failures of agricultural sectors to provide sustainable livelihoods. The commodification process of hed thob correlates directly with the accelerated urbanization of tourism-centric municipalities such as Chiang Mai, alongside revolutionary developments in physical infrastructure and telecommunications that facilitate novel market connections between metropolitan middle-class consumers and agrarian communities, thereby transforming the wild mushroom into a commercial asset. However, the biological resistance of hed thob to artificial cultivation has prevented its monopolization by capital interests, thereby preserving a socioeconomic exchange sphere in which forest communities maintain relative autonomy and negotiating capacity. Nevertheless, this tripartite relationship between communities, mycological resources, and dipterocarp ecosystems encounters significant contestation from state authorities and middle-class constituencies, who have predominantly framed forest-dwelling communities as primary contributors to regional forest fire incidents and the consequent air pollution affecting urban centers over the past decade.

World of Roses: Plants, People, Relationships

Thitirat Kittiwiwat, Waratchaya Chalee , Saipin Suputtamongkol — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This study examines the relationship between humans and ornamental flowering plants—specifically roses—in a context where climate variability has affected societies worldwide, including Thai society. This context has prompted scholars from various disciplines to question the agency of humans, while also increasingly recognizing the significance of “things,” both living and non-living, in the survival of humans and the physical world. This article poses the question: If we do not view rose cultivation as a form of luxury consumption within modern capitalism—meant to imitate, display taste, or add refreshing beauty to repetitive urban life—can we understand rose cultivation from another perspective? Could this shift in perspective affect how humans coexist with plants and other living beings? If so, how? The research employed documentary research methods, collecting data from primary sources (research reports, funeral books, archives) and secondary sources (academic articles, books). The document analysis was conducted within the socio-cultural context of Bangkok from the 1930s (B.E. 2470s) onward, using Michel Serres’ concepts of “mingling body” and “global intuition.” The findings reveal that the agency of the rose arises from its status as a “quasi-object” that has inspired rose growers, rose-growing communities, and economic activities worldwide. By restoring the state of mingling body—which refers to the body's receptivity to the external world—humans can engage in global intuition as an alternative way of perceiving and understanding the world. This may open up space for peaceful coexistence between humans and other living beings. The article proposes viewing rose gardening as a hobby and a form of practice aimed at “returning to the world in a time of uncertainty,” by acknowledging that both humans and plants possess agency.

Traps and the Ontology of Coexistence

Bundit Grivijitr — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This article explores human–animal–object relations through the lens of “animal traps” employed by the Pwo Karen in the western forests of Thailand, working within a posthumanist ontological framework. Rather than presenting a purely descriptive ethnography, it moves from field to theory: brief, situated scenes of trap-making and use serve as starting points for analysis in dialogue with Descola, Viveiros de Castro, Bryant, Corsín Jiménez, Haraway, and related contemporary thinkers. Methodologically, the study takes the form of analytic, reflexive writing grounded in extensive field engagement. It describes several trap forms—fish weirs (Pwo), bird snares, monkey cages, and bamboo field traps for barking deer—and then interprets these devices through questions of ontology and the ethics of hunting in contemporary anthropology and philosophy. The analysis advances three main arguments. First, animal traps are not merely technical devices but “hybrid” formations that emerge at the intersection of humans, animals, and material forces, condensing gravity, water flow, animal behavior, and the hunter’s imagination into a single mechanism. Second, Pwo Karen cosmology situates humans, animals, and the environment as nonhuman kin within a “cosmological society,” in which sacred powers and the rule of chance govern the legitimate bounds of hunting. Trap-setting is therefore filtered through ethical commitments to sharing, limiting pain, and avoiding the killing of entire groups or animals revered by the forest spirits. Third, episodes of moral distress—such as the use of a monkey cage that led to the death of an entire family of monkeys—are transformed into local moral rules, revealing traps as sites where humans are also “caught” within their own regimes of responsibility. The article’s theoretical contribution is to conceptualize Pwo Karen animal traps as technologies with their own ontological status and as ethical mediators between humans and nonhumans. This case extends current debates on technological design and artificial intelligence (AI) by foregrounding an “ethics of consumption” and responsibility toward other beings in the Anthropocene, seen from the standpoint of a community that still lives concretely with forests, animals, and sacred powers in everyday life.

Carceral Practices Through Environmental History: A Case Study of Tarutao Vocational Settlement, 1936–1948

Jeehan Dueanden — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

In 1938, the Department of Corrections established the Tarutao Vocational Settlement to rehabilitate prisoners through labor and vocational training, utilizing the island's environmental features for both punishment and skill development. The transformation of Tarutao's environment into a vocational settlement thus reveals how the environment was integrated into carceral practices. This article examines the history of Tarutao Vocational Settlement through the lens of environmental history. It will apply the concepts of carceral ecology and workscape to explain perceptions and changes of Tarutao's environment in response to the Department of Corrections' policies. While most historical studies of penal institutions in Thailand have primarily focused on the development of the Department of Corrections, they have overlooked how the environment surrounding each place shapes an ecology of punishment in each prison. This article argues that carceral practices constituted not merely an instrument of state power but also new ecological relations. Natural environments, built environments, the actions of wardens, and the labor of prisoners were interconnected, forming an ecology of punishment.

Young Activists: Strategies for Mobilizing Support in the Smog Movement in Chiang Mai Province

Sirisopa Suntitissadeekorn — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

The smog crisis in Chiang Mai represents a complex environmental problem with widespread impacts, leading to various forms of social movements, particularly among young activists who have played a prominent role in driving this issue through the utilization of digital technology and collaborative network building. This research aims to study the roles and support mobilization strategies of young activists in driving the smog movement, under the concept of resource mobilization, political opportunity structures, framing processes, new social movement theory, and youth movements serve as the main focus of this study. This research employed a qualitative research methodology, collecting data through in-depth interviews with both young and pioneering activists, along with documentary research and non-participant observation. The findings reflect a significant transition in Thai social movements. Young activists have developed diverse roles under the “CLARITY” framework, ranging from creating new participatory spaces to transforming discourse. Meanwhile, support mobilization strategies under the “OWNERSHIP” framework focus on fostering public ownership of the problem through integration of empirical data and creative communication. Additionally, the study reveals interesting dynamics between activists of different generations who, despite differences in thinking and working methods, have developed cross-generational learning mechanisms that enable the integration of each group’s strengths, resulting in movements that effectively respond to challenges in contemporary Thai society.

Fighting Memory History of the Hmong in the Communist War

Prasit Leepreecha — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

The Cold War, which occurred at the global and regional levels, directly impacted the Hmong ethnic group in northern Thailand. Ideological conflict of the Cold War entailed armed fighting along the Thai-Lao border, known as the Communist War. The Hmong were one ethnic group that played important roles in fighting side-by-side with both the Communist Party of Thailand and the Thai government. However, only the voices of the Thai government and media were disseminated to the public. Out of that were voices of former students who joined the Communist Party of Thailand in the jungle and had written their direct experiences of fighting and relations with the Hmong. This article, therefore, presents the voices of the Hmong who joined the fighting of both sides, which had rarely been disseminated to the public. The contents of this article answer the question: why did the leaders of the Hmong decide to side with the other side in those days? What were the roles of Hmong soldiers who fought side-by-side with both sides and those who were lost? How have they reconciled in the post-war conflict? Information for this research was gathered from interviews with former Hmong leaders, villagers, and soldiers from both sides, as well as relevant archives. The author argues that the oral history of the Hmong represents the social memory of fighting during the Cold War that they wish to present to the public, despite it being a minor discourse.

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

Kanokwan Manorom, Thawat Maneephong — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

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.

When Charity Became a Profession: Exploring Its Professional Evolution During the Foundation of Social Work Education in Thailand

Kritsada Theerakosonphong — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This research article examines the historical context to understand the emergence of social work as an academic discipline and profession. The roots of social work education in the shifting political landscape under Phibun’s government are studied through historical documents and cross-verification of data. Social work education was launched in 1952 by Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram (Phibun) and his wife La-iat Phibunsongkhram. Results are that the United Nations significantly influenced social work training program development of the National Institute of Culture after the Second World War. Simultaneously, the Thai government introduced the social welfare policy to indicate progress for its societal goals and align policies with Western nations, where social work was synonymous with human rights and democracy. These findings on academic and professional social work context, as well as other social sciences, clarify the contributions of intellectual elites who helped establish social work education, define ambiguous terms, and explain the discrepancy between the official English name and the Thai name of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Social Administration.

Local Administrative Organizations in Pattani Province in Fostering Relations between Religious Leaders for Peace in the Southern Border Provinces

Punyawan Jitprakong — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0700

This research aims to study local administrative organizations in Pattani Province and their fostering relationships with religious leaders to promote peace in Thailand’s Southern border provinces. Employing a qualitative research methodology, the study conducted in-depth interviews with personnel from selected local administrative organizations in Pattani Province, namely the Pattani Provincial Administrative Organization, Pattani Municipality, and Na Ket Subdistrict Administrative Organization. The findings reveal that religious leaders play a pivotal role as intermediaries between the state and citizens, with their contributions categorized into four distinct dimensions: 1) facilitating policy communication and articulating community needs between government and citizens, 2) establishing safe spaces for dialogue and mediation, 3) contextualizing religious principles within contemporary social frameworks, and 4) serving as social role models. The study demonstrates that local administrative organizations can effectively cultivate relationships with religious leaders through several strategic approaches: integrating traditional mechanisms with modern governance structures, creating inclusive spaces for meaningful participation, harmonizing public policies with religious and cultural contexts, leveraging the unique capacity of religious leaders to transcend cultural boundaries, and establishing institutional frameworks that support participatory decentralization. These findings underscore that developing locally rooted peace processes through collaborative partnerships between local administrative organizations and religious leaders represents a crucial strategy for addressing conflicts in Thailand’s Southern border provinces.