SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
SUFFiciENcy EcONOMy ANd GRASSROOtS DEvElOPMENt
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The Meaning of Sufficiency Economy <br />
International Conference<br />
195<br />
and Leppin 1991), who considered social support to be the consequences of social<br />
networks, the Thai NESDB integrated social network and social support into their<br />
definition of social capital. The knowledge element consisted of the local<br />
wisdomand the new knowledge(สำนักงานคณะกรรมการพัฒนาเศรษฐกิจและสังคมแห่งชาติ 2548).<br />
The NESDB considered those four elements as Thai society’s assets and as the<br />
critical aspects for promoting desirable Thai lifestyle and economic growth.<br />
The NESDB’s definition integrates human capital and social capital in their<br />
definitions. Moreover, the level of reference clearly mentioned that Thai’s social<br />
capital could be considered at both an individual and community level. <br />
In order to clarify the terms, in this paper, “social capital” refers to the<br />
traditional meaning given by social theorists, and “Thai social capital” will indicate<br />
the meaning given by NESDB.<br />
The NESDB broad definition of Thai social capital went along very well with<br />
views of several Thai scholars on the discourse of Thai development.<br />
PongpisitWisetkul and ApichaiPanthasen suggested the notion of Buddhist<br />
Meritlism and Buddhist economics(พงษ์พิสิฏฐ์ วิเศษกุล. 2551; อภิชัย พันธเสน และคณะ 2549).<br />
Both of them applied the Thai Theravada Buddhist teachings and several concepts<br />
that were familiar by Thai lay people such as Punna, Dana and Sila (Thai: บุญ, ทาน,<br />
ศีล) to challenge the mainstream consumerist economic system. Seri Phongphit’s<br />
view of social capital was widely accepted. He differentiated money as distinct<br />
financial capital and he urged the people to focus more on natural resources capital,<br />
wisdom capital and social capital. Like NESDB, in some contexts, Seri included all<br />
non-monetary capital and categorised them as social capital. In his acclaimed “back<br />
to the roots” notion he proposed the promotion of social capital as a strategy to<br />
address Thai poverty. In this sense, social capital incorporated the inherited local<br />
wisdoms that were expressed in the culture, traditions, life style, value system and<br />
the fertility of the communities’ environmental system(เสรี พงศ์พิศ 2545; เสรี พงศ์พิศ<br />
2548a; เสรี พงศ์พิศ 2549).<br />
It could be claimed that the most well-known development philosophy in<br />
contemporary Thai society is the King BhumibolAdulyadej’s“Sufficiency Economy”<br />
(Thai: เศรษฐกิจพอเพียง). The core concept of this philosophy was translated from<br />
theeconomic and social development plan as: (Krongkaew 2005)<br />
“Sufficiency Economy is a philosophy that guides the livelihood and behavior<br />
of people at all levels, from the family to the community to the country, on matters<br />
concerning national development and administration. It calls for a “middle way” to<br />
be observed, especially in pursuing economic development in keeping with the<br />
world of globalization. Sufficiency means moderation and reasonableness, including<br />
the need to build a reasonable immune system against shocks from the outside or<br />
from the inside. Intelligence, attentiveness, and extreme care should be used to<br />
ensure that all plans and every step of their implementation are based on knowledge.<br />
At the same time we must build up the spiritual foundation of all people in the