ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the question of how the economic action of urban-based Akha vendors is embedded in social relations and experiences. I analyse the social relations of Akha micro-entrepreneurs with members of their own ethnic group and with members outside their group and the ways these social ties can be mobilized and transformed into social and other forms of capital, thus benefiting individuals or groups within social networks (Portes, 2000; Anthias, 2007). Putnam (2000) used the concepts of “bonding social capital”, referring to networks within a community that tend to reinforce rather homogenous groups, and “bridging social capital”, referring to networks that connect or “bridge” different groups or communities. By distinguishing between these two types of social capital, I draw on Tooker’s (2012) semantic use of an “inside-outside distinction” of the ‘Akha world’ ” (p. 103). Tooker’s ethnographic study is based on extensive fieldwork among the Akha prior to their full nation state integration and describes a continuum of inside-outside distinctions within Akha society as well as between the Akha and the ‘outside-world’. Today, Akha entrepreneurs are embedded in multiple national, legal, and political structures (see chapters 3 and 5) and have ventured into various tourist destinations across the country (chapter 4). By pursuing their businesses in urban and tourist contexts, they make use of social relations to other Akha (whom I term ‘insiders’) and a range of actors outside their own ethnic group, including members of other ethnic minority groups, various agents of Thai mainstream society, expatriates, and international tourists (whom I term ‘outsiders’).
