Mapping Households* Coping Mechanisms in the Era of Recession: Peri-Urban Village Case Studies in Northern Thailand
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Mapping Households* Coping Mechanisms in the Era of Recession: Peri-urban Village Case Studies in Northern Thailand Nongyao Nawarat Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Politics and International Studies January 2004 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the the thesis may be published without proper acknowlegement. 11 Acknowledgments First, my thanks go to the Institute of Research and Development (IRD), who kindly provided financial support to me for three years. I would also like, to thank the School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK, for waving the tuition fees in the first year. I am grateful to my supervisors, Ruth Pearson and Michael Connors who provided their kind accessibility, criticism and constant support. Michael Connors who left Leeds to a new post at La Trobe University, Australia in 2002 still kindly agreed to read the final drat My gratitude also goes to Dr. Alain Mounier at IRD for his valuable expertise which has helped improve many aspects of the thesis and for additional financial support. For my fieldwork in the two villages of Rim Ping and Pa Sang, Northern Thailand, my thanks go to Mae Srinual and Mae Thongdee for helping me to have full access to their villages, villages leaders, women's groups, as well as women and men and their households, and to my talented research assistants, Kam and Nok. I would like to thank them for their useful advice, encouragement and support including the offering of their time, delicious meals and accommodations. These assistances made my fieldwork to go on smoothly and to be completed in time. I would also like to thank everyone in the two villages studied who allowed me to intrude into their privacy, to observe their daily struggles in making a survival and subsistence met as well as to share their overt and covert experiences, both bitter and delightful ones. This thesis is dedicated to all of them. Many friends in Leeds fully deserve my gratitude. I am particularly grateful to Sadie Parker, Martin Moore, Michael Medley, Karen Luyckx and George and Tai for English corrections, academic conversations, cheese, wines and English countryside; to Naruemon Thabchumpon, Ngoc Nguyen, Pad Nilphan, Nantiya and Priyanute for their constant support and helping me tidy up the manuscripts; and to my brothers for constant love and friends in Thailand particularly Gothom Arya for unwavering friendship when my life was in turmoil. Ill Abstract This thesis examines the survival strategies and coping mechanisms employed by Thai households in the face of the Thailand's 1997 economic recession and the structural adjustment policies employed by the Thai governments. The thesis deploys recent developments in the conceptualisation of Gender Analysis and uses the 'Livelihood System Approach' developed by Grown and Sebstad (1989) to study poor women's livelihood strategies as an umbrella concept which is complemented by Moser's 'Asset Vulnerability Framework' (1998). These concepts are applied to a study of households in two poor peri-urban villages in northern Thailand. Thus the study contributes to existing knowledge about the survival strategies of households, particularly peri-urban poor households and their members. The critical and original contributions of this thesis mainly derive from the intensive fieldwork on sample households which have been able to present a direct account of their differentiated experiences. In exploring various modes of coping mechanisms, the research centres on labour assets as the essential resources of survival and subsistence and indicates the constraints placed up on these assets, especially male labour. In this context, female labour is found to play a central role in the sample households' coping strategies. In addition, this research highlights the importance, in the period of recession and transition, of the social capital of local women's groups which has long been invisible in Thai civic discourses and movements. This contribution consolidates the existing literature on the essential roles of local women's groups which encompass both providing needed resources and bringing women's needs into the centre of the analysis. Further, the shortcomings and limitations of social capital are specified in terms of De la Rocha's' Poverty of Resources' Thesis. In addition the research suggests that not only the household's stock of assets but also its composition and human resource base influence its coping strategy. Moreover, the survival of marginal households is also affected by the pattern of the local political economy of the area in which their home villages are located. IV Content Acknowledgments ii Abstract iii Contents iv Appendices x Maps x Tables x Boxes x Figures xi Abbreiations....................................................................................................... xii One. Thailand’s 1997 Economic Crisis: a crisis of a survival for the poor and women 1.1 Thailand's 1997 Economic Crisis is a Crisis of Survival of the Poor and Women 1 1.2 Thailand's 1997 Economic Crisis: a global crisis emerging locally 4 1.3 The Persistent 1997 Economic Crisis and the Rise of Poverty and Vulnerability of the Poor and Women 7 1.3.1 The Rise in Incidence of Poverty: an indication of reproduction insecurity 7 1.3.2 The Erosion of Labour Market: increasingly layoffs, unemployment and underemployment 9 1.4 Rethinking of the Impacts of the 1997 Economic Crisis in Thailand 12 1.4.1. The Strength of the Rural Economy 12 1.4.2. The Economic Crisis Responses are Gendered 12 1.4.3. Household Differentiation and Their Vulnerabilities 15 1.5. Organisation of the Thesis: an outline of the arguments 15 Two. Survival Strategies of Poor Households in the Prolonged 1997 Recession: gender perspectives on livelihood systems 2.1 Survival Strategies in Times of Hardships: experiences of ordinary People 21 2.2 Discourse and Theoretical Orientation on Responses to the Recession of the Poor and Women 22 2.2.1 Household Survival Strategy and Gender and Livelihood Systems 22 2.2.2 Gender and Livelihood Systems Approach on Survival Strategies 24 2.2.3 Women's Groups as a Social Capital: a source of resources beyond households institution 25 2.2.4 Implications of Survival Strategies 28 2.3. Feminist Research Methodologies 29 2.3.1 A Triangulation Research Approach 31 2.3.2 Rim Ping and Pa Sang: criteria of selection of the study sites 32 2.4 Fieldwork 34 2.4.1 The Fieldwork's Activities 34 2.4.1.1 Approaching the Villages 34 2.4.1.2 A Rapid Capturing of the Impact of the 1997 Recession on Village's Livelihood Systems 37 2.4.1.3 Conducting the Survey of the Total Household Population 38 2.4.1.4. Classifying Households Population into Three Categories 39 2.4.1.5. Selecting Sample Households: a purposive sampling 42 2.4.1.6. Conducting the In-depth Interviews of Sample Households 43 2.4.1.7. Conducting the In-depth Interviews with Members of Women's Groups 43 2.4.2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Triangulation 44 2.5 Conclusions 45 Three. Mapping Responses of the Government to the 1997 Recession in Thailand 3.1 The Nature of the IMF Economic Rescue Programme in Thailand 48 3.2 The Government's Social Rescue Policies in the1997 Recession 50 3.2.1 The Sources of the Social Loan Funds 50 3.2.2 Social Loan Programme: objectives and activities 51 3.2.3 The Nature of State Social Safety Net and Social Protection Schemes: before and during the recession 52 3.3 IQLS: before and during the recession 54 3.3.1 Educational Funds: grant, scholarships, and student loans 54 3.3.1.1 Educational Grant Scheme 54 3.3.1.2 Scholarship Scheme 55 3.3.1.3 Student Loan Scheme 56 3.3.2 Voluntary Health Card for Low-income Households 57 3.3.3 Social Welfare Scheme for the Phu-yak-rai (the disadvantaged) 57 3.3.4 Social Security Provision for the Unemployed 59 3.3.4.1 The Existing Social Security Provision for the Unemployed 59 3.3.4.2 The New Initiative Social Security Provision for the Unemployed 60 3.4 The EGS and IGS Initiated in the Recession Period 62 3.4.1 The EGS 63 3.4.1.1. Employment for Entrance Labour 63 3.4.1.2. Public Employment Scheme for the Unemployed 65 3.4.2 The EGS and Its Impact on the Poor and Women 68 3.4.3 The IGS: through occupational development training 70 3.4.3.1 ADB Loan Scheme: the first IGS 71 3.4.3.2 SIP Loan Scheme 71 3.4.3.3 Miyazawa Plan and the Training Activities 72 3.4.3.4 The IGS and Its Impact on the Poor and Women 73 3.5 Conclusions 74 4. Mapping Responses of Civil Society and Households to 1997 Economic Crisis in Thailand 4.1 Mapping the Responses of Civil Society to the 1997 Economic Crisis: attention urgent needs and reform agendas 76 4.1.1 Civil Society and Civic Politics in the Thai Context: before and during the 1997 recession period 76 4.1.2 The Civic Politics of Good Governance 79 vi 4.1.3 Civic Politics of Civil Society Organisations: urgent needs and strengthening permanent social protection systems 81 4.1.4 The Civic Politics of the LDI-led Localism: strengthening self-sufficient economy and social capital 87 4.2 Thai Localism and Its Ability to Assist the Poor though the SIF Programme 89 4.2.1 The SIF and the Social Fund Office 90 4.2.2 The SIF Projects and Recipients 91 4.2.2.1 Building a Strong Society 91 4.2.2.2.