Department of Political and Social Change Seminar Series
Since the 2006 military coup, Thailand has experienced turmoil that has divided the nation. After the military-led government took power in 2014, demonstrations have continued throughout the pandemic. In the process, new movements have emerged, such as a new generation of student movements, urban street demonstrations, and community radio in rural areas, utilising the new media of social networks, which are not limited to the traditional theory of organized social movements based on homogeneous identities, but are created by diverse entities.
This talk will focus on the new political dynamics that are giving rise to alternative forms of community made up of diverse individuals. How do diverse individuals come together with non-human elements such as the media to form alternative communities? I will also explore the broader question of how the concept of community could be rethought in contemporary Thai society.
Two ethnographic studies in northern Thailand are shown to approach this question. One is a movement centered on community radio in the 2010s, and the other is a movement centered on social media in the 2020s. Both are composed of a variety of different entities and are forming into movements with media as an important component. I would like to focus the concept of assemblages as community movements constituted of a variety of human and non-human components such as the media.
About the speaker
Ryo Takagi is a visiting fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change from April 2024 to March 2025. He is a professor at Kanagawa University in Japan, specialising in cultural anthropology and mainland Southeast Asian (Thai) studies. Takagi is researching contemporary Thai political dynamics from the perspective of community movements, particularly in Chiang Mai, focusing on everyday practices through media such as community radio and social networks.