Communities of Potential
This multiauthor volume provides fresh ways of looking at community movements and social actors in Thailand and beyond. The chapters cover a range of movements, from personal and social development based on Buddhist principles to community movements centered on other religious, spiritual, and traditional practices. Community movements differ markedly from the classic social movements of the early twentieth century and the subsequent “new social movements.” Anthropologist Shigeharu Tanabe and Thai and Japanese colleagues explain that a key feature of these community movements is “assemblage”— individuals or groups coming together in networks that enable them to realize their potential. Building on theoretical foundations developed by social scientists Giles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and others, this book is an important reference on the workings of community movements in Southeast Asia.
Shigeharu Tanabe is professor emeritus at the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan and currently teaches social anthropology at Chiang Mai University.