2021 Volume 2021 Issue 39 Pages 6-22
The theory of over-urbanization, which emerged in the mid-twentieth century, related the poverty of developing countries to the poverty of rural areas and discussed the informal sector theory and the slum problem in urban spaces. However, this theory is no longer fully applicable to Asia as Asian cities have changed drastically since the 1990s. First, slums are growing due to intra-city migration and reproduction of lower cities. Second, inequality is widening, and lower-level labor is diversifying due to the informalization of a wide range of labor in the globalized labor market, not limited to the former informal sector. Third, even in Asian cities, the struggle for urban space is intensifying due to global urbanization and gentrification.
Since the 1970s, slums, which are lower urban settlement areas, have expanded in Bangkok. In Thai slums, participatory community development was introduced in the 1980s following the failure of slum evictions. Since the 1997 Baht crisis, public participation has been further promoted against the backdrop of austerity. This situation resulted from the introduction of participatory development theory and community organizing methodologies by NGOs and public institutions, as well as the theory of intrinsic development based on historical and cultural community discourse. As a result, “sustainable economy” and “community” were included in the development plan, and “participatory community development” became widespread.
This paper examines how Thai slum communities have changed in terms of labor and how the dynamics of Asian cities have transformed over four decades. Specifically, it investigates the changes that occurred in four cases of participatory community development in Bangkok. The findings of this study show that while participatory community development has progressed and some results have been shown, the social exclusion experienced by slum dwellers due to living in the lower urban areas remains a grave and unresolved problem.
