Kampanart Benjanavee. From the hinterland to backyard of EEC: land relations changing of agrarian in Eastern Thailand. Doctoral Degree(Sociology and Anthopology). Chiang Mai University. Library. : Chiang Mai University, 2025.
From the hinterland to backyard of EEC: land relations changing of agrarian in Eastern Thailand
Abstract:
This dissertation is a qualitative research study utilizing a critical agrarian studies approach to examine the changing land relations of farmers in the eastern hinterland regions of Thailand, as well as to analyze the conditions and consequences related to these dynamics over the past three decades. The study focuses on groups of farmers and individuals with experiences regarding agrarian changes in this area, with interview participants representing diverse social characteristics including differences in age, gender, income sources, livelihood strategies, past development experiences, and land relations. The main argument of this study challenges the essentialist perspectives on farmers' land relations that have dominated previous studies, particularly the viewpoint from economists who regard land as a factor of production and an asset for farmers while emphasizing the importance of developing private land ownership systems and land-capitalization policy to enhance farmers' livelihood security. It also contests perspectives from political economists who conceptualize land as capital and commodity in reflecting exploitation processes and accumulation within capitalism. However, the examination of livelihoods and land relations among farmers in the eastern hinterland area reveals that despite the increasing number of land title documents, farmers face uncertainties in land tenure and experience varying trends of land loss. This occurs because farmers' relationships to land have changed across multiple levels: at the meaning level connected to development landscapes; at the rights level where access, allocation, exchange, and exclusion rights increasingly overlap; and at the institutional level of local land governance. Considering land merely as a factor of production, asset, commodity, or capital as in previous studies may result in overlooking these multifaceted changes. This study is divided into three main parts, with the first section focusing on understanding the historical land-capitalization situation. It emphasizes identifying the 'new enclosure process' as a mechanism of dispossession of local land and resources, transforming them into capital and commodities for the market. This process serves to reproduce capitalist relations and open new terrains of accumulation in areas where capitalist development penetration remains less intensive. The conditions facilitating this process include economic mechanisms market forces and capital flows, and non-economic mechanisms land policy frameworks, capitalist development landscapes, and the restructuring of local power dynamics. The second section examines the consequences of the new enclosure process, focusing on two key consequences that directly impact farmers' livelihoods and land relations. First, the construction of uncertainty in farmers' lives, is a condition wherein farmers must confront consequences from state-led development projects and the land-capitalization process. Second, the emergence of social differentiation, in relation to different types of capital and land relations, into three distinct groups: rent-seekers, rural precariats, and proletarians. The final section analyzes the strategies utilized by farmers to cope with development consequences and uncertainties, particularly focusing on their adaptation of diverse and flexible livelihood strategies encompassing productive activities, exchange processes, distribution mechanisms, and resource allocation within households and local networks. The critical conditions influencing farmers' strategic decision-making include their relations to land, capital, and resources, and their varied experiences with the effects of development that differ across individual farming households.