“The Provinces Elect Governments, Bangkok Overthrows Themâ€: Urbanity, Class and Post-democracy in Thailand

Jim Glassman
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Jim Glassman: Jim Glassman is in the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 217-1984 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z2, Canada, glassman@geog.ubc.ca

Urban Studies, 2010, vol. 47, issue 6, 1301-1323

Abstract: Urban social movements are often associated with what are considered ‘progressive’ causes and most activists involved in such movements are inclined to describe themselves in such terms. The Thai coup of September 2006 poses problems for any such easy identification. Although executed by the military, on behalf of royalist interests, the coup was supported by an array of primarily Bangkok-based and middle-class groups, many of them associated with organisations such as NGOs and state enterprise unions. Although some of these groups claimed anti-neo-liberal political orientations, their support for the coup effectively placed them on the side of forces opposed to quasi-Keynesian policies and in favour of specific forms of neo-liberalism—at least for Thai villagers. This paper explores this development by focusing on the Bangkok/upcountry and urban/rural divisions in Thai politics, which, although socially constructed, have taken on political substance, in part because of their grounding in regionally differentiated class structures.

Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:47:y:2010:i:6:p:1301-1323

DOI: 10.1177/0042098010362808

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