Making of Community in a Commercialized Community in Northern Thailand

The community-based development approach has been applied to development projects for a long time. Recently the Thai government launched the "sufficiency economy" policy, which promotes subsistence agricultural production and claims to strengthen rural communities. However, on the ground implementation of this policy does not necessarily result in the strengthening of rural communities as the government claims it does. A strong sense of community can be built among farmers even if they practice commercial agriculture. Strengthening a community, however, is dependent neither on subsistence farming nor commercial farming. Rather, as I argue in this paper, the idea of "community making" involves collective actions in relation to political and economic conditions. I will illustrate this point by examining the process of strengthening an upland community in Northern Thailand through agricultural practices of farmers in relation to their political and economic conditions

Contested Upland Landscapes: the Meanings of Feed corn and Upland Farmer Identities

ISSN 1919‐0581Feed corn farming is expanding throughout the forested uplands of Thailand. Although feed corn is a significant global commodity, several factors are working to drive the transformation of these upland landscapes and quicken the spread of feed corn plots. These changes cannot be completely understood under the rubric of global market forces. Similarly, the upland farmers who have adopted feed corn as a main cash crop cannot be understood simply as the passive and unfortunate victims of economic globalization. This paper discusses the agency of local farmers and their influence on the expansion of feed corn farming. I argue that farmers have adopted feed corn farming as they struggle with the imposition of conservation policies and ideals. Despite agro‐economic globalization, the conservation ideals of actors from outside of the commodity chain have crucially impacted the agricultural practices of local farmers