SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy
International Conference
193
The Thai Social Capital of the People in
Inpaeng Network, Sakonnakhon Thailand
This article is a part of a Thesis ‘The Thai social capital as a social determinant of oral health’
submitted as a requirement for the degree of PhD in Dentistry Sutee Suksudaj, School of Dentistry,
The University of Adelaide, Australia, May 2010
Introduction
Social capital as a concept for community development
Social capital is a social concept mentioned by several classic theorists. This
concept traces back to the 19th century of Marx’s analysis of social class and
Durkheim’s study of anomie (Portes 1998). Pierre Bourdieu, James Coleman and
Robert Putnam, could be considered the most influential contemporary scholars in
the field of social capital. Robert Putnam’s acclaimed book “Bowling alone: the
collapse and revival of American community”, provoked the general public and
politicians awareness of this issue(Putnam 2000). The notion of social capital was
mentioned several times in UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speeches from the years
2000 to 2002(Roberts and Devine 2003). It has also been introduced as a significant
social development strategy by the World Bank(Woolcock and Narayan 2000).
Social capital sometimes has been depicted as a magic remedy to cure several
social problems. It was studied beyond the sociology field into the fields of
education, political science, business and public health. The studies found the
association between social capital and school attrition, academic performance, crime
rate, juvenile delinquency, political participation, organisation business benefit and
health status(Macinko and Starfield 2001).
In the Thai context, the notion of social capital was re-introduced as one of the
strategies to cope with the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis. Shivakumar et al.
proposed that Thai social capital has been depleted as a result of modern
development and the financial crisis(Shivakumar et al. 1998). In 1998, King
BhumibolAdulyadej officially addressed the concept of “new theory on the
sufficiency economy” as a model of self-reliance that could lead to economic-