The emergence and development of new coffee culture in Thailand

Abstract

This thesis aims at studying the emergence and development of new coffee culture in Thailand. It attempts to answer two research questions: what is the style of the newly emerged coffee houses and what is the new style of coffee consumption. The analysis reveals that there are two co-existing coffee cultures in Thailand: modern/new coffee culture and traditional/old coffee culture. In the modern coffee culture, one can see an intermixing of the traditional and modern elements as well as the local and global elements resulting in hybrid features. Additionally, a distinctive phenomenon can be seen in the customers’ new consumption style. The customers who consume expensively priced coffee at a modern style coffee house show the appreciation of sign value. They are not just consuming ‘coffee’, but are also identifying themselves with the image that a particular coffee house offers, which is its differential logic of sign value. There are global and local factors that have caused the hybridization of the coffee culture in Thailand. First, the global factor is globalization which causes cultural exchange and transmission among different countries. It brought about the advent of Starbucks Coffee in Thailand together with a new concept of coffee consumption. Second, there are mainly two local factors that caused hybridization, namely the attempt for survival of local coffee businesses and the emergence of a new coffee image. Some local coffee houses use the Thai traditional elements to distinguish themselves from other coffee houses and also as their strategy for survival. Another cause of hybridization is the emerged new coffee image which was created by Starbucks and other modern style coffee houses. The new coffee image increases coffee demand and stimulates coffee business to grow. Also, this new image brought about the modern adaptation of some local and traditional coffee houses. Therefore, the new coffee image’s the motivation not only for the emergence of new coffee houses, but also for the hybridization of coffee culture.