From Texts to Practices: The Development and Conservation Studies of Isan Silk in Pang Moddaeng Village, Phayao Province, Northern Thailand

Pipat Tanakit — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This paper is a part of a larger study of Isan women's negotiating for benefits from both development and conservation regimes in Pang Moddaeng village, Ang Thong sub-district, Phayao province, Northern Thailand. Two primary objectives include: 1) to study and analyse the distinguishable ideas, concepts, and schools of thought in current literature of silk, clothing, and other woven materials, and 2) to understand how these schools of thought’s ideas and concepts have spread into Pang Moddaeng village as a case study. To achieve these two objectives, this qualitative research employs three kinds of methodology. Firstly, it is the textual analysis by studying on 25 articles. Secondly, it employs an ethno-methodological approach for conducting participant observation. Lastly, the research was conducted in-depth interview and focus group interview.

The analysis of relevant literature discovered that there are three schools of thought that have led to the study of silk, garments, and other woven fabrics. Initially, it is the school of modernization, which is the mainstream of ideas for developing silk, clothing, and other woven materials to meet the needs of consumers and compete with the other woven fabrics in clothing market. Secondly, the anti-marketization school which is informed by the fundamental ideas of Marxism and political economics. This school of thought tried to counteract the first school of thought, which was concerned about the market undermining the essential value of silk, clothing, and other woven fabrics. Lastly, it is the conservation school of thought, which is influenced by localism and certain contributions from the second school of thought concerning the presence of essential values, and which could symbolize local wisdom, local knowledge, and local identity. Thus, this conservation school of thought has attempted to do research on the preservation of cultural items, which have those vital characteristics through preserving local silk, clothing, and other woven fabrics. While the latter was found that the numerous social actors in Pang Moddaeng, particularly the elderly and silk groups, were responsible for the structural production of these conceptions in the setting of the case study. It is vital to highlight that the communities have developed two distinct types of social units to cope with the two dominant ideas and concepts of Isan silk. As a result, on the one hand the village has run the silk group to manage with the silk production to follow the idea of modernization, while of the other hand the village has formed an elderly group to keep and create for the local knowledge/wisdom on Isan silk to follow the way to preserve Isan silk’s values.

Water Ontologies and Hydrosocial Perspective: New Approaches for Understanding Water Controversies of the Ing River Basin, Northern Thailand

Thianchai Surimas — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This research illustrates, through a hydrosocial perspective, how political contestation between different networks of actors reflected the meanings, values, and water ontologies. This research employs ethnography to study networks of actors involved in controversies over the hydraulic infrastructure project in the Ing River Basin. The network of project proponents, including a state-led hydraulic institution, experts, and other actors, see Water as merely a natural resource for economic development. The proponents reduce water to its materiality and physical dimensions. Water is tied with the idea of development that values large-scale infrastructure, and top-down bureaucratic management embodied scientific knowledge in controlling water, mainly for economic purposes. Meanwhile, project opponents, including civil society organizations, environmental NGOs, and some communities understand water as living. Living water is produced through Thai Baan research, ecological campaigns and ceremonial practices that show rivers as sacred. Living water is socially, environmentally, and culturally embedded and more than a resource for exploitation. This paper argues that water-related conflicts in the Ing River Basin not only reflect how water is managed but are also rooted in such ontological differences. Different networks produced different versions of water. Therefore, understanding water ontologies through a hydrosocial lens could provide a new perspective on water-related conflicts and controversies.

วารสารบัณฑิตแสงโคมคำ

From Texts to Practices: The Development and Conservation Studies of Isan Silk in Pang Moddaeng Village, Phayao Province, Northern Thailand

Water Ontologies and Hydrosocial Perspective: New Approaches for Understanding Water Controversies of the Ing River Basin, Northern Thailand