"Bricks in the wall" : sufficiency economy philosophy in Thailand and gaps in the framework

Abstract

His Majesty King Bumibol Adulyadej was inspired by a book called Small is Beautiful, all about how to humanize economics and make development benefit those who need it most. When he saw the devastation after the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis, he formulated the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) to help the Thai people recover and to make Thailand more resilient. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the philosophy in depth and find the gaps in the framework. The objectives are to pinpoint the gaps and weaknesses in the current framework, obtain farmers’ insights into the realities of farming via the New Theory, and analyse the feasibility of large corporations using SEP for their internal management. Critical indicators for agribusiness and non-agricultural based businesses are identified. They are the ‘bricks’ of Indicators (operational applications) and a new finding of Democratization. For large corporations, Democratization may not be possible, but the SEP theory could be more flexible in interpretation, such as cooperation could be introduced in stages as a compromise. The Thai Government is promoting the SEP as the vehicle to achieve the United Nations Global Goals. If the SEP is applied both domestically and internationally by the Thai Government, it could achieve the SDG’s Goals 1, 2, 5, and 10. A qualitative study comprised of a comprehensive literature review, a series of participant interviews, participant observation on SEP New Theory farms and research sites as well as speaking to key informants outlined the situation of the New Theory farmer. A macro view of six business case studies of corporations that are said to be SEP compliant were conducted with data analysis and online research as well as email interviews between the researcher and relevant stakeholders.