Neolocalism and renascent social capital in northeast Thailand

摘要

This paper presents a case study of neolocalist revivalism in a small cluster of communities in northeast Thailand, and uses this to support the notion of latent and renascent social capital. The case shows how communities have sought to confront some of the pernicious social, economic, and environmental effects of relentless modernisation and development by reviving a variety of social institutions and associational practices that underpinned social capital and the 'moral community' of the past. Catalytic in this process has been a local Buddhist abbot and 'development monk' who has drawn together Buddhist values and northeastern Thai traditional culture to rebuild social capital in order to construct an alternative, neolocalist model of development which these days can be found mirrored in a growing number of rural locations across Thailand.