SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
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194<br />
The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy <br />
International Conference<br />
reliance and a sustainable future(อุดมพร อมรธรรม 2549). From then on, social capital<br />
along with other concepts in the same category such as self-reliance, sufficiency and<br />
moderation were heavily promoted as the national values by Thai governments.<br />
Recently, the Thai National Economic and Social Development Board recognised<br />
the concept of social capital as a scheme of country development in Thailand’s 10 th<br />
national economic and social development plan (this plan covered the country’s<br />
development strategies from 2007?2011).<br />
Definition of social capital<br />
There are several definitions of social capital. In the broadest sense, social<br />
capital is a type of asset. It was differentiated from two other well-known capitals:<br />
financial capital and human capital. While people’s financial capital was the amount<br />
in their bank account, and their human capital was what was in their head or their<br />
ability to perform the task, their social capital could be found in the structure of their<br />
relationships(Portes 1998). Leading scholars accepted that social capital could be<br />
both an individual asset and a community attribute. Bourdieu defined this notion as<br />
“the aggregate of the actual of potential resources which are linked to possession of<br />
a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual<br />
acquaintance or recognition”(Bourdieu 1986). Coleman defined social capital<br />
through its function. Coleman’s social capital included the entities in the social<br />
structures that facilitate certain actions of person or the communities who belonged<br />
to those structures. More recently, Putnam’s definition of social capital as “the<br />
connections among individuals–social networks and the norms of reciprocity and<br />
trustworthiness that arise from them(Putnam 2000)”, was the most widely accepted.<br />
Used in a practical perspective, a simplified categorisation of social capital<br />
was proposed. Two perspectives of social capital: cognitive and structural (Bain et<br />
al. 1998, cited in De Silva 2005) were widely accepted(De Silva et al. 2005). The<br />
cognitive social capital, what people “feel”, referred to the individual’s<br />
characteristics such as trust and reciprocity, while the structural social capital could<br />
be found in what people “do” which referred to group participation and networking.<br />
Social capitaland Sufficiency Economy in Thai’s context<br />
The Thai National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB)<br />
adjusted the definition of social definitions to fit Thai’s social context in their 10 th<br />
economic and social development plan (2007-2011)(สำนักงานคณะกรรมการพัฒนาเศรษฐกิจ<br />
และสังคมแห่งชาติ 2549). In Thai social context, social capital was the structure of the<br />
relationships of four elements: people, institution, culture and knowledge. The<br />
people element included their morality, their ability and wisdom, while the<br />
institution were family, religion, politics and administration, education, business and<br />
the media. The element of culture included the belief, faith, social norm; moreover,<br />
the historical buildings, sites and objects were also included in this group. Unlike the<br />
definitions given by Seeman(Seeman and Berkman 1988) and Schwarzer(Schwarzer