ABSTRACT

As the effects of globalization and urbanization cause many cities to become seemingly indistinguishable, Bangkok and its communities are also undergoing reformation and fragmentation. Visible changes in the constituents of community over the past few decades raise questions about how Thai community is formed, reproduced and continually transformed: how has the role of these changes, with their tangible and intangible qualities, impacted upon the constitution of community? In this chapter, these metamorphoses and their characteristics are read and interpreted according to their conceptual, practical and political implications in three sites that represent different articulations of urban development in Bangkok. The study not only reveals how the changes in political approaches to the city have resulted in the modification of people’s everyday lives and perceptions, but it also discusses the dilemma of reading and interpreting community in a Thai context through space and time.