ABSTRACT
From the moment that Thailand was accorded the epithet ‘miracle economy’ by the World Bank in the early 1990s (World Bank, 1993), attention has focused on the Kingdom’s fast-track, foreign investment-driven, exportoriented industrialisation. To be sure, structural change has been both rapid and deep and this, in turn, has led to a fundamental restructuring of patterns of employment and modes of living. But there are two issues that can be placed in juxtaposition to this image of Thailand’s development practice and experience. First of all, there remains an important rural and agricultural context that has supported and contributed to the industrialisation process, while also being affected by it. And second, while car parts, micro-electronics, garments and footwear may represent the ‘new’, high-profile product lines in Thailand’s industrialisation (see Chapter 10), there is an older industrial sector of artisan-based activities which continues to be active, significant and vital. It is this second, low-profile and low-impact element of the country’s industrial sector which concerns us here.
