ABSTRACT
As discussed in the previous chapter, the capitalist processes that have stimulated Thailand’s rapid economic growth and urbanisation have led to greater mobility and independence of northern Thai people and an increasing disengagement from village locality. Young people, in particular, have abandoned village life for a more exciting urban life in Chiang Mai city where there are greater opportunities for education, employment, and entertainment. Yet it is important to recognise that northern Thai youth are not only products of social and capitalist processes but also actors within them. I adopt an “anthropology of youth” approach as a framework for understanding the ways in which Chiang Mai youth actively and creatively form identities at the intersections between local culture, national ideologies, and global markets – a theme that runs throughout this book.
