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Urban Expansion, Agrarian Shifts, and Decentralized Governance in Thailand's Isaan Region
Author(s) -
Gullette Gregory,
Singto Sayamon
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
culture, agriculture, food and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2153-9561
pISSN - 2153-9553
DOI - 10.1111/cuag.12090
Subject(s) - agrarian society , livelihood , urbanization , corporate governance , agency (philosophy) , decentralization , agrarian system , natural resource , geography , negotiation , economic system , economic growth , development economics , business , political science , agriculture , economics , sociology , market economy , social science , archaeology , finance , law
The Thai government has increasingly sought to expand urban growth in provinces characterized by agricultural production. However, urbanization's structural changes alter natural resource availabilities, encumbering agrarian families, and constraining livelihood options. In an effort to map state development and urban growth objectives to local conditions, the Thai state has supported regional autonomy by decentralizing decision‐making powers to localities. Here, we seek to explore the ways in which decentralized governance provides avenues for agrarian families located in urbanizing spaces to negotiate anxieties and desires with the Thai state, including broad concerns of sustainability, livelihood rights, and market opportunities. We consider how agrarian households understand the economic and ecological effects of urbanization, shifting the focus to agrarian families’ agency—how families diversify household livelihoods and employ migration to enhance economic portfolios. Ultimately, by doing so, we examine the intersections between urbanization, development, and agrarian livelihoods, situated within practical and theoretical discussions of decentralized governance in Thailand.