The Empowerment of the Slum Inhabitant as a Primary Agent of Low-income Housing: the Case Studies of Sengki and Tawanmai Communities, Thailand 1980- 2011 KITAPATR DHABHALABUTR Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2017 Melbourne School of Design Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning The University of Melbourne i ABSTRACT The thesis investigates the way in which slum dwellers become ‘Primary Housing Agent’ through the practice of slum upgrade programs. Thai low-income housing development in the period from 1980 to 2011 has been formulated in the context of contradiction rather than coherence of vision, agency, and practice. Importantly there is an embedded history of the slum inhabitant’s role as ‘Primary Housing Agent’ at the local, national, and international terrain. However, there are gaps in knowledge in the inexplicit linkages across the three major components of the slum upgrading project, empowerment practices, and the slum inhabitant’s role. Empowerment theory is utilised as the research theoretical framework to analyse and connect the components together to explicitly articulate the slum inhabitant’s role. The case study method is employed to examine two key cross-sections in time represented by two projects, Sengki and Tawanmai, which reflect the best practices of Thai slum upgrading and its substantial transformation in housing the slum dweller. The thesis argues that over four decades, the gradual up-scaling of empowerment practices led to the transformation process of the slum inhabitant as the Primary Housing Agent. This, in turn, led to changes in government agencies, who have been engaged with the process, and their practices. The thesis finds that the narratives of change manifest in the multi-scalar Primary Housing Agent statuses of the slum inhabitants as they experienced the long decades of evolution and transformation in the period that spans the developments of Sengki and Tawanmai communities. ii DECLARATION This is to certify that this thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all material used. The thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, references, and appendix. KitapatrDhabhalabutr October 2017 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my thesis supervisors; Dr.Sidh Sintusingha (principal supervisor) and Prof.Catherin Bull (co-supervisor). They consistently conveyed a spirit of adventure in regards to research and teaching. Dr.Sidh, in particular, strongly supported me to achieve my academic goal. He performed multiple roles as supervisor, brother and friend with his patience and enthusiasm in every step of my academic journey at ABP University of Melbourne. Without his guidance and persistence, this thesis would not have been possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you the thesis committee chair and members, Prof.Ross King, Prof.Hannah Lewi, Dr.Ajibade Aibinu and Dr.Hao Wu who shared their expertise, gave invaluable suggestions and diversified approaches toward the thesis Thank you very much Somchit Terrell and Richard Bajraszewski for providing reading materials and suggestion for writing improvement. I would also like to forward my gratitude to RHD staff and RHD friends for their innumerable discussions over coffee and wine. I would like to mention three important organizations, the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) Thailand, Khon Kaen University (KKU) and ABP University of Melbourne who provided scholarship support, tuition fee waiver, and time allowance. In addition, a sincere thank you to the local residents of the case study communities, the national and local organizations, and relevant participants for their contributions to the research. Finally, I would like to specially thank my family; Dad, Mom, New, Nat, Proud and friends in Thailand who are always by my side and lend me support anytime I am in need. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii DECLARATION iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES xii LIST OF TABLES xv GLOSSARY xvi CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1-11 1.1) Aims and scope 2 1.2) Research questions 3 1.3) Research Theory Framework 4 1.4) Research Significance 4 1.5) Structure of Thesis 5 Part I: Introduction and Literature Review 5 Part II: Research Design and Finding 6 Part III: Research Design and Finding 9 CHAPTER 2International Low-income Housing Development 12-36 Introduction 12 2.1) International Agencies Practices: from polarized to integrated approaches 12 2.1.1 Political based Housing Development: UK and US 13 2.1.2 Social based Housing Development: UN 14 2.1.3 Economic based Development: World Bank 16 2.1.4 Socio-Economic based Development: UN and World Bank 17 2.2) Top-down Public Housing and Bottom-up Self-help Approaches: International Agencies vs. the Thai Government 20 2.2.1 Top-down Approach: Public Housing 21 2.2.2 Bottom-up Approach: Self-help 26 v 2.2.3 Enable Market Housing and Integrated Top-down and Bottom-up Approach 32 2.3) Conclusion 35 CHAPTER 3 Low-income Housing Development in Thailand 37-75 3.1) Background of Slum Phenomenon in Thailand 37 3.1.1 Thai Economic Development and the Formation of Slum Settlements 37 3.1.2 Formation and Growth of Permanent Urban Slum Settlement 38 3.1.3 Defining Thai Slum Settlement and Slum Inhabitants 39 3.2) Housing Provisions to Address Slum Housing Problems 43 3.2.1Formal Housing Provision 44 3.2.2 Informal Housing Provision 65 3.3) Formal vs. Informal Slum Housing Provision: Defining the research framework 71 3.4) Identification of the Research Gap The Practice link between the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches 74 CHAPTER 4 Research Design 76-117 4.1) Research Framework and Terminology: Empowerment 77 4.1.1 Power: Fundamental Concept of Empowerment Theory 78 4.1.2 Empowerment of Asset and Capacity 81 4.1.3 Empowerment of Opportunity Structure 83 4.2) Thesis Theory Framework 85 4.2.1 Housing Agency 87 4.2.2 Economic, Social and Political Empowerment 91 4.2.3 Slum Upgrading 92 4.3) Research Design 93 4.3.1 Research Methods and Tools 93 4.3.2 Case Study Approach 101 4.4) Selection of the Case Study 104 4.4.1 List of Alternative Communities 104 4.4.2 Selected Case studies 105 vi 4.5) Implementation of Research Plan 107 4.6) Revision of Research Framework 115 CHAPTER 5 Sengki Community 118-162 5.1) Pre-Upgrading Process (Pre 1940-1986): Problem of illegally Land Occupation 119 5.1.1 Sengki Community Background 119 5.1.2 Socio-Economic and Political Structure of Sengki Community: Traditional Patron-Client Tie 122 5.1.3 Sengki Community Resistance to Eviction 123 5.2) Upgrading Process (1986-1990) and Practice of Empowerment 124 5.2.1 Community Socio-Economic-Political Conflicts 125 5.2.2 Application of Democratic Practices: Election of Community Committee and Political Structure Change 126 5.2.3 Linking between Socio-economic Groups: Patron-Client Tie as a Platform of Gathering Disparate Households 128 5.2.4 Empowering the Collective Community: Community Registration under Local Government Agency 129 5.2.5 Empowerment through Community Participation: 130 5.3) The Evolution of Sengki Slum Inhabitants 137 5.3.1 Empowerment through the Change in Political Structure; Patron-Client toward Community Based Organization 137 5.3.2 Empowerment through CBOs: Sengki Housing Cooperative (SHC) 138 5.4) Empowerment through Networking: Government-Community Organization Partnership 142 5.4.1 Construction of the SHC Office 142 5.4.2 The SHC’s Mechanism in the Emergence of Government and Community Organization Partnership 143 5.4.3 International Support the Process of Acquiring Land Tenure Security 144 5.4.4 Process of Land Purchasing 145 5.4.5 Towards a Resident-let Planning and Design Process 146 vii 5.4.6 The Construction Process 149 5.5) Post-Upgrading (1992-Present) 153 5.6) An Evolving Role of Institutional Agency as Project Stakeholder: A Decentralization Process 155 5.7) Political Conflicts; Limitation of Slum Inhabitant as PHA 158 5.8) Conclusion 161 CHAPTER 6 Tawanmai Community 163-211 6.1) Pre-Upgrading (1970-2003) 164 6.1.1 Community Background and Problem of Illegally Land Occupation 164 6.1.2 Socio-Economic Structure of Dynamo Slum and Traditional Political Structure: Patron-Client tie 166 6.1.3 Dynamo Slum’s Resistance to Eviction 168 6.1.4 BMK Program in Khon Kaen Municipality (KKM) 169 6.2) Upgrading Process (2004-2007) and the TWM Practice 170 6.2.1 BMK’s Integrated Socio-Economic Empowerment 170 6.2.2 Pre-Upgrading Process: Establishing the Citywide Network 172 6.2.3 The Institutional Citywide Network as the Medium of Empowerment 173 6.3) Empowerment through Community Participation and Collective BMK Process 175 6.3.1 Empowerment through Participation in Community Survey 175 6.3.2 Empowerment through Participation in Collectively Managed Savings Group 177 6.3.3 Empowerment through Democratic Practices in Election of SHC Community Committee 179 6.3.4 Empowerment through Community Participation in Land Purchasing 181 6.3.5 Empowerment through Participation in Collective Planning and Design 184 6.3.6 Empowerment through Participation in Collective Construction: Housing and Infrastructure 190 viii 6.4) Empowering through an Up-scale of Community Network to Citywide Network (2004-2007) 195 6.4.1 Institutional Citywide Network 196 6.5) Empowering through Democratic Practices: Political Structure Change 198 6.5.1 The Turning Point: The Upscale of Slum Movement from Technical to Political Development