著者

櫻井 義秀

出版者

日本タイ学会

雑誌

年報タイ研究 (ISSN:18832121)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.11, pp.89-106, 2011

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This paper reviews research in rural sociology, sociology of regions and communities, and Thai studies which study the transition and reformation of rural-urban relations in Thailand, and then illustrates the agenda of modern Thai society from the perspective of social exclusion and inclusion. This concept has been widely used in Europe to integrate socially excluded people such as ethnic minorities, jobless persons, and disabled people into civil society through workfare rather than welfare. Even developing countries have recently begun to use this idea which has displaced the concept of poverty and underdevelopment and focused on inequality and unbalanced industrialization. As a society attains more developed country status with the maturation of democracy and communications media, people tend to feel relative deprivation rather than absolute deprivation and then demand social equity and social inclusion policy from the government through social and political movements. When we apply this social system methodology to Thai society, the relations between rural and urban areas could be considered not as a dichotomy but as a continuum. Migration from rural to urban areas strengthens their politico-economic relations and standardizes the consumerism of the urban lifestyle in rural areas. Moreover, progress in regional development by governments as well as NGOs/NPOs and the influx of foreign labor into the bottom layer of Thai society undermines rural communal and reciprocal human relations where class differentiation in rural areas and lack of social support occurs. Theories of social exclusion and inclusion policy are analytical and normative so that the scope of agenda and degree of responsiveness varies as a function of civil society and citizenship. How can we weigh the agenda of rural-urban relations in social science in Thailand? We should consider geographical space, the multicultural dimension, and mode value of socially excluded people from family and community who are human-trafficked laborers from neighboring countries, abandoned street children from dysfunctional families and child exploitation rings, and distressed people in society’s ultra bottom layer.