ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that urban environmental conditions have degraded at a rapid rate during the past decade in developing countries along the Pacific Rim. It focuses on the underlying structure and function of environmental governance in Bangkok to explore how state, non-governmental and community actors both exacerbate and ameliorate urban environmental degradation, and to illuminate the interconnection among these actors and the institutions within which they operate. The book explains how non-governmental environmental activities in Thailand might be better conceptualized as an instance of an expanding corporatist shadow state, rather than solely or predominantly an illustration of community grassroots mobilization. It also argues that government and non-governmental efforts at environmental policy-making are likely to be much more effective given a sensitivity to community-level beliefs and network linkages.
