Informal Northern Thai Group Bulletin 10 March 2019

1. LAST MEETING (443rd): Tuesday, 12 February 2019: “ Life in Sansai Mahawong: Elders Reflect on

Their Lives in the Village and Young People Consider Options for the Future ” - A talk by Kay and Mike Calavan.

2. Next MEETING (444th): Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 7:30 pm at the Alliance Française, Chiang Mai “Cross National and Cross Cultural Education at Payap University”. A talk by Tony Waters.

3. May MEETING (445th): Tuesday, 14 May 2019, 7:30 pm at the Alliance Française, Chiang Mai “ The Meaning of Thainess to the Lanna People”. A talk by Joel Selway.

4. ANNOUNCEMENT from the Editor about the EFEO Library in Chiang Mai. 5. FUTURE MEETINGS. 6. INTG CONTACTS: CONVENOR - SECRETARY - WEBSITE.

1. LAST MEETING (443rd) Tuesday, 12 February 2019 :

“ Life in Sansai Mahawong: Elders Reflect on Their Lives in the Village and Young People Consider Options for the Future”

A talk by Kay and Mike Calavan

1.1. PRESENT: Hans Bänziger, Saengdao Bänziger, Dianne Barber-Riley, Mark Barber-Riley, Klaus Betenhausen, Vanina Bouté, Chen Won Ru, Eric Eustache, Peter Fesenberg, Louis Gabaude, Yves Goudineau, Deborah Greenaway, Haris, Reinhard Hohler, Stanley Huitt, Klemens Karlsson, Visvalingam Narayanasamy, Colin Stratford, George McBride, Marie McBride, Patrick Morel, Arthur Njan, Susannah Pascoe, Poitch, Wining Poon, Suriya Smutkupt, David Stowe, Emmett Stowe, Celeste Tolibas-Holland, Ricky Ward, Tony Waters, Rebecca Weldon, Bill Williams, Layle Wood, Spencer Wood. Signed: 35. 1.2. The Talk: Sansai Mahawong is a Northern Thai Buddhist community located about 30 kilometers, by road, south of Chiang Mai. It is the southernmost unit of Saraphi District, and was named after Chao Mahawong, a minor prince of the Chiang Mai royal line who lived in the village in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was assigned the task of generating revenues for the royal court. Sansai Mahawong is formally divided into two administrative villages (mu ban), but operates as a single social/cultural entity with one primary school, Buddhist temple, market place, cremation ground, and village spirit cult.

Sansai Mahawong has not yet become a housing estate, industrial center, or tourism destination. It is still essentially a farming village, currently dedicated to production of longans (lamyai), a high-value orchard crop. But is has a secondary role as a bedroom community, as a number of younger residents commute to jobs in the Lamphun industrial estate, Chiang Mai city, or elsewhere in the area. The village can also be viewed as a retirement community, since a striking number of natives and long-time residents have aged into their 70s, 80s, even 90s. Sansai Mahawong may not be a “typical” Chiang Mai village. That determination is hard to make without extensive comparative date. But the authors believe the village can be considered broadly representative of rural communities across the Chiang Mai Valley.

The Calavans’ original research was carried out in 1969-70, and resulted in two dissertations and rich materials for scholarly work and university teaching. They produced, with a friend, an ethnographic film called The Rice Cycle in Sansai, Thailand in 1976, and also carried out additional research in 1975-76 and 1993. Since 2015 they have visited Sansai Mahawong a few times a month during their annual five-month stay in Chiang Mai, and undertaken numerous interviews with close friends and acquaintances in the village. They have had ample opportunities to observe changes as they walk around the village. They have also reviewed 2000 black and white photos and hundreds of color slides they made during their early visits and re-read their own publications. As the Calavans reviewed available evidence from interviews, observations, written sources, and photographs they identified seven major dimensions of change in the lives of Sansai Mahawong residents. These are: demography; agriculture; non-agricultural occupations and business opportunities; education, health, and welfare; cultural change; “quality of life;” and local governance. Demography in Sansai Mahawong One of the most striking factors shaping contemporary life in Sansai Mahawong was the abrupt demographic transition in family size achieved in the early-to-mid 1970s by Thai government programs. As part of a public health intervention, a health station was established in Sansai’s sub-district. Government health workers began delivering Depo-Provera, a three-month birth control method, and birth control pills. Local women responded with alacrity. Evidence of the transition is clear in tables shown in an earlier presentation made by the Calavans to the Informal Northern Thai Group in 2017, and also in family histories they conducted with older Sansai Mahawong residents. Informants in their 80s, and their elderly siblings, routinely had 4-5 children. Their children, in turn, have had 1 or 2. In some cases, elder siblings married before the early 1970s had 3, 4, or 5 children while their younger siblings married a few years later had 1 or 2.

Many any other facets of village life--for example in agriculture, education, administration, and culture--have also been shaped by this abrupt change. For example: Agriculture has been shaped by a labor shortage for major tasks of traditional rice agriculture such as transplanting and harvest. In part, rapid expansion of longan (lamyai) orchards was a response to a shrinking labor pool. Furthermore, shrinking enrollments in the lower grades has led to the closure of three elementary schools in Sansai’s sub-district (and thousands of others across Thailand), but has (apparently) released resources for expanding public education in middle and secondary schools, and for technical/vocational schools and universities. It has also enabled the government to lavish greater capital and teaching resources on remaining elementary schools. A final note is that children have few cousins, if any. The immediate cultural implications are not obvious to the Calavans, but this phenomenon is worthy of detailed research in the future. Agriculture in Sansai Mahawong Fifty years ago when the Calavans first lived in Sansai Mahawong, and a few years later when they worked with a friend to make a film titled The Rice Cycle in Sansai, Thailand, they assumed rice farming was forever part of the landscape and daily life. However, with the final transformation of the village from flooded rice fields (na) to longan orchards (suan lamyai) around 20 years ago, they have been forced to think about push and pull factors that brought this change about.

The strongest pull factor for longans is high potential cash profits. Markets for fresh longans were expanding in the 1960s and 1970s within Thailand. Later, in the 1980s and 1990s, markets were developed across Southeast Asia and as far away as Europe. China also became a major customer. A large proportion of fruit exported from Sansai Mahawong is sold to China and Vietnam.

Other important developments affecting the profitability of longans include new processing methods, notabley drying and canning fruit. One local purchasing/processing/grading operation ships up to 16 tons of fresh fruit daily to a drying factory during the July-September normal harvest season. Some orchardists also extend production a few months by applying chemicals. Improved production methods--in pruning, irrigation, use of herbicides and pesticides--also increase yields and profits. The strongest push factor in persuading Sansai Mahawong land owners to plant longan orchards was an increasing labor shortage for rice production. The abrupt demographic transition noted above began to reduce the number of young people (and thus potential farm laborers) in the village. At the same time, expanding job opportunities at construction sites in Chiang Mai and nearby provinces, and in assembly line work at the industrial estate in Lamphun, made it increasingly difficult to mobilize workers for transplanting and harvesting rice. Thus, a profitable crop demanding less labor (e.g. longans) became increasingly attractive.

The biggest drawback to switching to longan was substantial “transition costs” as immature trees provided no income until they matured in 5-7 years, and cash crops (such as chilies or soybeans) planted between seedlings provided limited income that declined year by year as the young trees grew and cast additional shade. Early Adopters in the 1960s and 1970s generally had substantial rice land available to establish orchards, and sufficient cash income to absorb costs associated with shifting land out of rice production. In the process, though, they may have forced sharecroppers who farmed their rice land into less profitable, lower status work as agricultural laborers. Many Early Adopters have passed away and orchards have passed to their heirs.

Middle Adopters in the 1980s and 1990s generally had small land plots and sufficient income from construction, factory work, or micro-businesses to cover “transition costs.” If they put sharecroppers or farm workers out of work in the process, those individuals at least had opportunities in construction, factory work, and micro-business to stay afloat. Late Adopters appear to be members of the younger generation who have well-paid jobs or small businesses and sufficient income to buy established orchards, possibly in some cases from the heirs of Early or Middle Adopters. Non-Agricultural Occupations and Business in Sansai Mahawong Quite often, when the Calavans asked themselves “What happened?” regarding some significant economic, social, political, or administrative change in Sansai Mahawong the answer was “Development happened!” Politicians and administrators had developed and implemented policies and programs that were generally good for rural communities like Sansai Mahawong. For example, beginning in the 1970s government construction projects in transportation, irrigation, flood control, and establishment of new office complexes, created many jobs for skilled and unskilled workers.

By the 1980s, private entrepreneurs and other business people across Thailand were responding to the myriad business opportunities available in a rapidly expanding economy, in the process creating jobs and offering goods and services that ordinary citizens desired. While Sansai Mahawong residents were seldom significant leaders in these processes, they responded eagerly to opportunities as they were provided. In particular, men and women responded to opportunities to work in construction. Often, construction firms actively sought workers in rural areas and transported them to job sites in Chiang Mai or nearby rural districts. Only occasionally were Sansai Mahawong residents hired to work in their own village. Over time, some residents who joined construction crews (usually men) acquired particular skills in carpentry, cement and tile

work, electricity, plumbing, etc. And some moved up to positions as foremen and crew leaders. In due course, some Sansai Mahawong residents organized construction work gangs or established their own small construction firms.

Beginning in the late 1980s, residents also took assembly line jobs and, in some cases, supervisory positions at Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese manufacturing plants located in the massive government-sponsored industrial park in Lamphun. For these workers, Sansai Mahawong became a bedroom community as they commuted to their work by motorbike. Industrious workers labored overtime and received specialized training, sometimes in Japan. Equally important for Sansai Mahawong was creation of numerous “niches” for micro- and small businesses in the village that did not exist when Sansai Mahawong residents were poorer and less worldly. Examples include: Small motorcycle businesses that buy, repair, detail, and resell used machines to locations as distant as Bangkok and Isaan. Small coffee shops that sell a full range of products--espresso, latte, cappucino--to a limited clientele. Substantial grocery shops. A motorbike repair shop. A couple that steams large quantities of corn ears and peanuts daily for sale to small shops and individual families. A family operation that retails bamboo lengths purchased from a wholesaler in Phrae and also hand-produces bamboo fences, tables, and small chicken coops.

With their accumulated earnings from small businesses or construction or assembly line work, Sansai Mahawong residents were able to improve their standard of living, build better houses, and buy motorbikes and pickups. But notably, they invested in establishing longan orchards and in the education of their children. Education, Health, and Welfare in Sansai Mahawong In 1969-70, virtually all Sansai Mahawong children attended the local elementary school and completed Grade 4 (Pau 4). This schooling imparted basic literacy and

numeracy skills. However, few children proceeded on to middle school, and fewer still received secondary or post-secondary education. The barriers to further education were substantial: the best schools were in Chiang Mai, and generally quite expensive. Since transport options were few, students needed to find room and board in the city. However, a few Sansai Mahawong families made extraordinary efforts to educate the next generation beginning in the early 1960s: Khru Lit’s father was an early headmaster of the Sansai Mahawong primary school. He and his wife, heir to a considerable amount of rice land, had high aspirations for their children’s education. Having finished Grade 4 in Sansai, eldest son Lit was sent to Chiang Mai, and lived on his own in a Buddhist temple while attending Yupparat School. He went on to study at the provincial teachers’ college, then took a teaching position in the primary school in Muu 2 close to Sansai. Several years later he attended Chiang Mai University, earned a bachelor’s degree in math, became headmaster at the school in Muu 11, close to Sansai. Khru Lit’s siblings also became teachers. A generation later, the children of Khru Lit, his siblings, and his cousins were sent to well-regarded private and public schools in Chiang Mai from ages as early as pre-school. Khru Lit and his siblings purchased a small house in a Chiang Mai suburb and operated an informal family dormitory. Lit and his wife alternated nightly in cooking meals and supervising homework at the house, commuting by motorcycle. Eventually, Khru Lit’s

daughter graduated from Phayap University, and currently works in Bangkok as a bank manager. His son graduated from Mae Joe University and works for an agricultural supply company in northeastern Thailand.

Chao Pho Mongkon was a descendant of the traditional Chiang Mai aristocracy. Having studied at Montfort School (a Catholic institution) himself, he made concerted efforts to invest in quality education for his children. He sold off 15 rice land in the late 1950s and used the proceeds to send his four children to Montfort and Regina Schools in Chiang Mai. The eldest son earned a degree at Mahidol University and became a Provincial Health Officer in southern Thailand. The daughter earned a degree at Chulalongkorn University, and worked for the Bangkok Bank, eventually becoming a branch manger in Chiang Mai. Despite these heartening stories of family-level initiative, it is important to understand tha the “driving forces” behind rapid and substantial changes in education, health, and social welfare that have affected Sansai’s entire population are central government ministries. Government programs tend to be rigid and with little interest in input from rural communities. For example, communities have little influence over decisions to close existing primary schools or where to establish new secondary and vocational schools. On the other hand, government has steadily expanded and improved services that have met the needs of the general population. Furthermore, ministries have allowed for-profit and NGO groups to enter into the education field at all levels from pre-school to post-secondary, and have permitted a wide range of non-governmental clinics, hospitals, and public health interventions. In any case, ordinary Sansai Mahawong residents have primarily benefited from government systems for education, health, and welfare. Schooling available to Sansai Mahawong families has been significantly expanded, providing almost all children the opportunity to follow up primary education with attendance at middle school, and also making secondary and vocational education readily available. Furthermore, public pre-schools (anuban) enable children to enter primary school better prepared for classroom discipline and for achieving reading and writing skills. Even public university education has been greatly expanded. 50 years ago, Chiang Mai University was only a few years old, and was one of two degree-granting institutions in the North. Mae Joe was a vocational agriculture school, and the Rajabhat was a two-year teachers’ training college. In the intervening decades, educational opportunities have expanded schools.

The comprehensive rural public health system has been created from a non-existent base: In the 1970s, government sanitation programs began to field extension workers who offered training and advice on household sanitation, and provided free “gooseneck” toilets, a significant contribution to village cleanliness and public health. A new health station established in the early 1970s began to provide family planning services, MCH programs, treatment for childhood and communicable diseases, and vaccinations. Later, in the 1990s, second tier hospitals were set up in rural districts across the North of Thailand. Sansai Mahawong residents routinely receive treatment in the 60-bed hospital in Saraphi, and sometimes at others in Mae Rim and Hang Dong.

Unfortunately, despite an expanding government health system, some Sansai Mahawong families have been ravaged by disease and death: Mr. Oum and his wife married in their teens, and had three children in short order. The youngest was sickly from an early age, but was adopted by a foreign couple. The eldest, a girl, was able to complete middle school (Matthayom 3) and went to work on an assembly line at the Lamphun industrial estate. Unfortunately, her work resulted in inhalation of toxic chemicals, and she died in her late 20s with a lung-related disease. Her younger brother worked with a traveling movie operator, married early and had two sons. Unfortunately, he, his wife, and younger son all contracted HIV/AIDS, and he committed suicide in the early 1990s. The younger son also died. (The Calavans are not aware of the outcome for the wife or elder son.)

Fifty years ago, social welfare was a facet of village-level religious life or of still-existing patronage networks. Excess food from merit-making donations to monks in the temple was quietly passed along to the poorest families, and those families also sought out patrons who could provide them space to build a small house and occasional gifts of food, clothing, etc. In exchange, client families provided a range of on-demand services, such as serving meals when guests were present, cleaning, assisting with transplanting and harvesting rice, etc. However, in recent decades the need for poor families to seek out patrons has been largely eliminated. In addition to increasing wealth across board, the Thai government has developed a comprehensive system of payments and subsidies for needy groups. Beneficiaries include: newborns, HIV/AIDS victims, the handicapped, the elderly, and poor school children. These payments are directed through Sansai’s sub-district municipal government from various ministries such as Health and Education. Cultural Change in Sansai Mahawong

Buddhism and complementary spirit cults remain important in Sansai. The temple is well funded, but the young boys (dek wat) who used to hang around the temple to learn prayers, rituals and the Northern Thai script in preparation for becoming novices are no longer present. Ordination ceremonies, once a major focus of community life, are now carried out at a distance in Saraphi town and often sponsored by strangers. The Northern Thai script is no longer used, and the novices are commuters, travelling regularly to Saraphi for religious education and elsewhere to participate in ceremonies at the request of strangers. Village spirit cults and spirit dance/possession ceremonies still exist, and seem to be well funded. For example, Sansai’s village spirit houses have been modernized with cement, tile, and electric

lights at considerable expense. And some residents attend spirit possession ceremonies at varied locations in the Chiang Mai Valley. But the Calavans have the impression that participation in these activities is not a social/cultural obligation, but rather a lifestyle choice. There have also been changes in everyday dress. Women seldom wear the wraparound skirt (pha sin) and seem never to wear the blue-dyed loose trousers (tio sado) and matching shirt. Courting has also changed, as young people are more mobile, and more likely to meet potential spouses in school or at work. Important markers of traditional culture that have been retained include use of the Northern Thai language with its emphasis on colorful expressions and humor, and frequent consumption of sticky rice.

In any case, cultural change in Sansai Mahawong has been substantial, and has been driven by myriad factors: improved infrastructure, communication technology, improved “quality of life,” expansion of education, new job opportunities, dramatic increases in cash income, etc. Government-provided infrastructure and services--improved roads, electricity, landline phone service, radio and TV broadcasts, satellite internet service, airports and bus stations--have been made available to Sansai Mahawong residents. Increased incomes noted above--through longan sales, construction and assembly line jobs, small businesses, and remittances from family members working abroad or in Bangkok--have enabled

them to respond with alacrity to opportunities they provide, in the process changing their behavior and their culture. For example: Purchases of fans, TV sets, cable TV, wifi, and personal computers encourage residents to spend more time inside their houses, reducing opportunities for neighborly chats.

As residents enjoy new forms of entertainment such as Chinese and Korean TV dramas, and have greater access to information through national and international news provided on radio and TV, they become more cosmopolitan, perhaps less “Northern Thai.” Improved roads and purchases of motorbikes, trucks, SUVs, and sedans ensure ordinary Sansai Mahawong residents are far more mobile, able to travel throughout the Northern region for business and pleasure. Young people who meet in technical college or university can conduct friendships and courtships at a distance by traveling to meet each other, and staying in contact through phone calls, texts, emails, etc.

Buses, trains, and airplanes, coupled with sufficient income to access them, have given rise to a new phenomenon, travel for pleasure. And greater mobility and “connectedness,” coupled with greater income, enable residents (at least younger residents) to change clothing and grooming styles and succumb to fads that have little to do with being Northern Thai Changing “Quality of Life” in Sansai Mahawong As incomes grow, Sansai Mahawong residents readily invest in their children’s education, and sometimes in establishing or expanding a longan orchard or another activity that affords additional income. Beyond these basic investment strategies, they demonstrate their essential humanity through expenditures on goods and services to enhance their comfort, convenience, and pleasure: They enhance their mobility through purchase of motorbikes, pickup trucks, SUVs, and sedans. They enhance their ability to communicate through “passive” devices such as radios, TVs, and cable service. Residents reported that they watch TV news and Thai, Chinese, and Korean dramas. They have own devices for interactive communication such as mobile phones and Internet-enabled computers. They enhance comfort and convenience in their homes through purchase of table and floor fans; chairs, tables, and cabinets; gas stoves and electric refrigerators; and bathrooms equipped with modern toilets, showers, sinks, and water heaters.

But, the major “quality of life” issue residents have pursued is building more comfortable and impressive homes. Some informants described a three-stage process: a couple newly-married 40 or 50 years ago lived initially in a bamboo/thatch house, replaced it with a modest wooden structure a couple of decades later, then finally built a more impressive concrete block home within the past several years.

Residents have pursued a range of strategies to provide their families’ with comfortable, modern homes. Some proceeded gradually, purchasing and storing cement blocks and other materials, and exchanging labor with neighbors who have some construction skills. In such cases, paid labor may be limited to a few key skill areas, such as fitting high quality windows or installing tiles on verandas. Other residents have accumulated sufficient funds to sign a comprehensive contract for materials and construction labor or have contracted separately for such tasks as building concrete-brick walls, roofing, tile work, electricity and plumbing.

Local Governance in Sansai Mahawong Local government statutes and support programs in Thailand have both supportive and restrictive elements. Interestingly enough, the current system of sub-district (tambon) municipalities, as found in Sansai Mahawong and other rural areas, has allowed for a modicum of democratic governance, even while the national government has been controlled by coup-making generals, the district (amphoe) remains an impermeable bureaucratic layer above the tambon, and the province (changwat) restricts the role of elected district “representatives” to allocation of a small, restrictive grant fund. Sansai’s tambon municipality, which serves Sansai Mahawong and 10 other villages, is able to operate in a “quasi-democratic” fashion. It receives rather generous support from government ministries--personnel and their salaries; municipal buildings; equipment such as furniture, computers, and fire trucks; and substantial operational and program budgets. The total staff is about 45 individuals, including professionals, clerks, and laborers. The municipal building is well-equipped, physically imposing, and includes office and meeting space for elected leaders, and sections for standard local government functions--municipal clerk, municipal council clerk, budget, tax assessment, vital statistics, etc. One striking feature of the municipal compound is a fire station with specialized trucks and 24-hour staffing On the other hand, Sansai Mahawong decision-makers are hemmed in by a severe lack of “autonomous resources.” Despite a few local taxing and licensing authorities, actual income from these sources pales in comparison to central government grants. The latter come with significant strings attached. For example, there is a strong bias toward small-scale infrastructure, and annual budgets extended from the central government generally offer a short list of acceptable projects. Elected leaders--mayor, vice-mayor, council members--no doubt seek opportunities to assert a degree of autonomy. But restrictions noted above remain in place.

Sansai Mahawong does provide one heartening example of bottom-up democracy. In effect, local citizens organized an informal recall of their elected leaders. Several years ago, soon after the tambon council was upgraded to municipal status, local citizens noted that newly elected leaders, notably the mayor, but also the vice mayor and some council members, were operating with minimal transparency. There was widespread suspicion that funds were being misused and favoritism was being practiced. When direct complaints to the individuals involved were rebuffed, residents organized a citizen group (with middle-aged women prominent among the leaders) to take their complaints to the district administrator (nai amphoe) in Saraphi. After listening to complaints, the nai amphoe agreed to conduct a public hearing in Sansai Mahawong municipality (tambon). After the hearing the elected council was disbanded and a new election was held. Sansai Mahawong residents had an opportunity to elect a new government they found more trustworthy.

2. Next MEETING (444th) Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 7:30 pm at the Alliance Française, Chiang Mai

Cross National and Cross Cultural Education at Payap University A talk by Tony Waters who advises us to bring our smartphones!

The Talk: Chiang Mai is quickly becoming known as an international city in Thailand. Payap University is part of this movement and has begun recruiting students internationally. In doing this, beginning in 2004, they have developed an English-language curriculum (BA, MA, and PhD), leading to the enrollment of large numbers of Chinese students in 2017. This is in addition to the substantial enrolment of Thai students in a Thai curriculum, which began in 1974. In this context, Payap in 2017-2019 funded a study of how both English and Chinese speaking students are adapting to life at Payap University. Students were surveyed in order to understand issues of student engagement, language abilities, friendship patterns, and cultural orientation. Preliminary indications are that students from different cultural backgrounds approach the experience at Payap University differently, and take away different values from their educational experiences. This data is being developed in a fashion that policy makers can develop the best cross-cultural education experience possible. This talk will report on the preliminary results of the surveys, and describe the issues, problems, and advantages of international education at Payap University.

The Speaker: Dr. Tony Waters is on the faculty of the PhD program in Peacebuilding at Payap University in Chiang Mai. He is also Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico. His international career began in Phrae, Thailand, where he was an American Peace Corps Volunteer in the Malaria Zone Office in 1980-1982. After that he worked for NGOs serving refugees in Thailand and Tanzania, before returning to graduate school. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania in 2003-2004. He has published books including Bureaucratizing the Good Samaritan (2001), When Killing is a Crime (2007), Max Weber’s Rationalism (2015) and others. He has research interests in refugees, culture, language, the nature of violence, and other subjects.

NO MEETING IN APRIL 3. May MEETING (445th)

Tuesday, 14 MaY 2019, 7:30 pm at the Alliance Française, Chiang Mai The Meaning of Thainess to the Lanna People

A talk by Joel Selway

The Talk: Thainess (khwam pen thai) is an attribute deemed to be possessed by all true Thais, but one that has been used as a political tool throughout the ages and thus interpreted through the lens of political elites. But what exactly is Thainess? This talk discusses the results of what is the first survey-based exploration of this topic allowing us to understand what Thainess means to actual everyday Thais, rather than to political elites. The survey was conducted in Chiang Mai on a sample of around 2,000 and posed a simple open-ended question: What is Thainess? The responses were subsequently coded, allowing us to explore how these responses varied by various sectors of Northern Thai society. The Speaker: Joel Selway (Ph.D. 2009, University of Michigan) is an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University and Director of the Political and Economy Development Labs (PEDL). He is also the chair of the board for the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG). His research interests focus on ethnically divided societies, and especially on how to design democratic institutions to prevent conflict and enhance coordination over public goods provision. He has conducted fieldwork in Thailand, Laos, India and Mauritius. Selway is the author of "Coalitions of the Well-Being" with Cambridge University Press. His publications have appeared in World Politics, Political Analysis, Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Journal of Asian Studies, among others..

4. AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE EDITOR ABOUT THE EFEO LIBRARY CHIANG MAI

At the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) library—131 Charoen Prathet Road, opposite the Alliance Française—the cataloguing of publications acquired prior to 2007 is still in process. In order to facilitate access pending completion, I offer a list of almost 12 000 references in social sciences. It is taken from the databases established on Pro-Cite before 2007, prior to the transfer of part of my collection to the Library.

This selection of books, chapters and articles relating to ANTHROPOLOGIE / ANTHROPOLOGY, ETHNOLOGIE / ETHNOLOGY,

SOCIOLOGIE / SOCIOLOGY is listed by Authors in two volumes:

Vol. I : A > K (506 p.) Vol. II : L > Z (502 p.).

Hard copies of this list are available for consultation at the library.

Searchable digital versions may also be downloaded from: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/odh0eo2cgrb0ngi/AADISHwh8tJYzmiNCVbmAf0ba?dl=0

OR from https://efeo.academia.edu/LouisGabaude

5. FUTURE MEETINGS

12 March 2019: (444th Meeting): “Cross National and Cross Cultural Education at Payap University” - A

talk by Tony Waters.

NO TALK IN APRIL! 14 May 2019: (445th Meeting): “The Meaning of Thainess to the Lanna People” - A talk by Joel Selway. 11 June 2019: (446th Meeting): “Luang Prabang as a UNESCO World Heritage site, advantage and

risks” - A talk by Francis Engelmann. Talks to be scheduled by: Amporn Jirattikorn, Paul Carter, Michel Bauwens, Vanina Bouté…

6. INTG CONTACTS: Convenor - Secretary - Website

1) Convenor: Rebecca Weldon: e-mail: rebecca.weldon@gmail.com. Mobile: 087 193 67 67.

2) Secretary: Louis Gabaude: e-mail: gabaudel@yahoo.com. Mobile: 087 188 50 99.

3) INTG Webdoctor: Clarence Shettlesworth: e-mail: nugentsr@gmail.com. Mobile: 0610509996.

4) INTG Website: http://www.intgChiang Mai.com

Informal Northern Thai Group (INTG) 1984-2019 = 35 years of Talks!

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CROSS NATIONAL AND

CROSS CULTURAL EDUCATION AT PAYAP UNIVERSITY

A Talk by Tony Waters

Tuesday, 12 March 2019, 7:30 pm At the Alliance Française - Chiang Mai

138 Charoen Prathet Road (Opposite EFEO)

Informal Northern Thai Group (INTG) 1984-2019 = 35 years of Talks!

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THE MEANING OF THAINESS

TO THE LANNA PEOPLE

A Talk by Joel Selway

Tuesday, 14 May 2019, 7:30 pm At the Alliance Française - Chiang Mai

138 Charoen Prathet Road (Opposite EFEO)