Strengthening Thai Social Value with the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy

Abstract

It is the empirical truth that Thai social value has been changed since the emergence of technology advancement. This study aims to (1) evaluate the level of sufficiency economy practice of the populace in urban and rural communities (2) compare the practical use of sufficiency economy between urban society and rural community and (3) to investigate opinions the cultivation of sufficiency economy-based social values. The three cities considered in the study were Ubon Ratchathani, Si Sa Ket, and Surin. 350 people living in both urban and rural communities in those cities were the population analyzed in the 12 month study. The tools employed were questionnaires and interviews that were analyzed through descriptive statistics: mean, standard deviation, and t-Test. The study reveals that (1) the practical use of sufficiency economy in the aspects of the three core elements and two special conditions were as follows: doing the right job (x̄ = 4.41); maintaining Thai being (x̄ = 4.29); effort into useful things (x̄ = 3.99);opening mind to globalization with careful consideration; (x̄ = 3.88), and being honest (x̄ = 4.37) (2) The practical use of sufficiency economy between urban society and rural community was compared, regarding the hypothesis stated that an application of SE between urban society and rural community is not different, and the sub hypothesis that an application of sufficiency economy between urban society and rural community is different. The finding revealed that the SE on the aspects of moderation and moral integrity are statistically different at 0.05 resulting rejection of main hypothesis and accepting sub hypothesis and (3) the most important factor of cultivating social value that based on sufficiency economy is being a role model.