SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

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194 The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy International Conference reliance and a sustainable future(อุดมพร อมรธรรม 2549). From then on, social capital along with other concepts in the same category such as self-reliance, sufficiency and moderation were heavily promoted as the national values by Thai governments. Recently, the Thai National Economic and Social Development Board recognised the concept of social capital as a scheme of country development in Thailand’s 10 th national economic and social development plan (this plan covered the country’s development strategies from 2007?2011). Definition of social capital There are several definitions of social capital. In the broadest sense, social capital is a type of asset. It was differentiated from two other well-known capitals: financial capital and human capital. While people’s financial capital was the amount in their bank account, and their human capital was what was in their head or their ability to perform the task, their social capital could be found in the structure of their relationships(Portes 1998). Leading scholars accepted that social capital could be both an individual asset and a community attribute. Bourdieu defined this notion as “the aggregate of the actual of potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition”(Bourdieu 1986). Coleman defined social capital through its function. Coleman’s social capital included the entities in the social structures that facilitate certain actions of person or the communities who belonged to those structures. More recently, Putnam’s definition of social capital as “the connections among individuals–social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them(Putnam 2000)”, was the most widely accepted. Used in a practical perspective, a simplified categorisation of social capital was proposed. Two perspectives of social capital: cognitive and structural (Bain et al. 1998, cited in De Silva 2005) were widely accepted(De Silva et al. 2005). The cognitive social capital, what people “feel”, referred to the individual’s characteristics such as trust and reciprocity, while the structural social capital could be found in what people “do” which referred to group participation and networking. Social capitaland Sufficiency Economy in Thai’s context The Thai National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) adjusted the definition of social definitions to fit Thai’s social context in their 10 th economic and social development plan (2007-2011)(สำนักงานคณะกรรมการพัฒนาเศรษฐกิจ และสังคมแห่งชาติ 2549). In Thai social context, social capital was the structure of the relationships of four elements: people, institution, culture and knowledge. The people element included their morality, their ability and wisdom, while the institution were family, religion, politics and administration, education, business and the media. The element of culture included the belief, faith, social norm; moreover, the historical buildings, sites and objects were also included in this group. Unlike the definitions given by Seeman(Seeman and Berkman 1988) and Schwarzer(Schwarzer
The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy International Conference 195 and Leppin 1991), who considered social support to be the consequences of social networks, the Thai NESDB integrated social network and social support into their definition of social capital. The knowledge element consisted of the local wisdomand the new knowledge(สำนักงานคณะกรรมการพัฒนาเศรษฐกิจและสังคมแห่งชาติ 2548). The NESDB considered those four elements as Thai society’s assets and as the critical aspects for promoting desirable Thai lifestyle and economic growth. The NESDB’s definition integrates human capital and social capital in their definitions. Moreover, the level of reference clearly mentioned that Thai’s social capital could be considered at both an individual and community level. In order to clarify the terms, in this paper, “social capital” refers to the traditional meaning given by social theorists, and “Thai social capital” will indicate the meaning given by NESDB. The NESDB broad definition of Thai social capital went along very well with views of several Thai scholars on the discourse of Thai development. PongpisitWisetkul and ApichaiPanthasen suggested the notion of Buddhist Meritlism and Buddhist economics(พงษ์พิสิฏฐ์ วิเศษกุล. 2551; อภิชัย พันธเสน และคณะ 2549). Both of them applied the Thai Theravada Buddhist teachings and several concepts that were familiar by Thai lay people such as Punna, Dana and Sila (Thai: บุญ, ทาน, ศีล) to challenge the mainstream consumerist economic system. Seri Phongphit’s view of social capital was widely accepted. He differentiated money as distinct financial capital and he urged the people to focus more on natural resources capital, wisdom capital and social capital. Like NESDB, in some contexts, Seri included all non-monetary capital and categorised them as social capital. In his acclaimed “back to the roots” notion he proposed the promotion of social capital as a strategy to address Thai poverty. In this sense, social capital incorporated the inherited local wisdoms that were expressed in the culture, traditions, life style, value system and the fertility of the communities’ environmental system(เสรี พงศ์พิศ 2545; เสรี พงศ์พิศ 2548a; เสรี พงศ์พิศ 2549). It could be claimed that the most well-known development philosophy in contemporary Thai society is the King BhumibolAdulyadej’s“Sufficiency Economy” (Thai: เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง). The core concept of this philosophy was translated from theeconomic and social development plan as: (Krongkaew 2005) “Sufficiency Economy is a philosophy that guides the livelihood and behavior of people at all levels, from the family to the community to the country, on matters concerning national development and administration. It calls for a “middle way” to be observed, especially in pursuing economic development in keeping with the world of globalization. Sufficiency means moderation and reasonableness, including the need to build a reasonable immune system against shocks from the outside or from the inside. Intelligence, attentiveness, and extreme care should be used to ensure that all plans and every step of their implementation are based on knowledge. At the same time we must build up the spiritual foundation of all people in the
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SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt

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