This paper investigates the history of spreading strawberry cultivation in the context of Thai society, focusing on changing production patterns, not only over the course of local history but also through markets, crop distribution and interethnic relationships. Firstly, I describe the change that has taken place from the production of strawberries for export and processing to the production of fresh strawberries for domestic market, with increased amounts of production. Secondly, I focus on the strawberry festival and the promotion by the Royal Project as factors that created and enhanced the demand for fresh strawberries within the Thai domestic market. Furthermore, exploring that some of Shan immigrant workers became self-employed as contract farmers with Karen working as their intermediary, this paper shows new interethnic relations have been formed as a result of strawberry cultivation. Then I conclude that in Thailand’s region of the largest strawberry production has developed in tandem with changes in Thailand, such as changing demand in the domestic markets and increasing migrant workers.

Despite the continuous drop in the number of agricultural workers in Thailand for a half-century, its percentage in the total Thai employed workforce remains over 30% even today. Garlic production, which is the focus of this article, shows the same tendency. Garlic, an essential spice for Thai cuisine, has been produced as a cash crop by small-scale garlic farmers in northern Thailand for over 40 years. Since the China-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was concluded in October 2003, however, large quantities of Chinese garlic began to be imported to Thailand. Chinese garlic is cheaper, about one-half to two-thirds the price of Thai garlic. As a result, the production, distribution, and consumption of Thai garlic declined by about half within five years. Thus, many scholars lamented that there would be no future for garlic farmers in Thailand at that time.

After tracking changes in the structures, volume, and labor processes of garlic production and processing in northern Thailand from the early 2000s to the present, and summarizing the fluctuation of import volumes of Chinese garlic and the current state of retail garlic in the local markets of northern Thailand, the article explores and examines the transformation of northern Thai garlic production in the face of unilateral changes in the distribution system of garlic in the context of Thailand’s economic globalization and liberalization, and how garlic production persists.

The primary focus of this article is on women farmers, who are sometimes overlooked in economic research, and the concept of “feminization of agriculture” is identified in the process of agrarian transformation, namely the de-agrarianization process. Traditionally, both women farm family members and women laborers have been heavily involved in the garlic production labor process in northern Thailand. The transformation of labor structures from traditional local exchange labor to present day immigrant labor gives reason to safely assume that agriculture has been de-feminized there. However, this paper contends that the scenario of feminization of agriculture persists even in 2023 in the form of symbolic feminization, a subsequent form of the concept of feminization, by focusing on the exploitative working conditions of migrant agricultural laborers.

This article is based on a revisit of the author’s research for the doctoral thesis, which primarily involved socio-anthropological research from 2007 to 2008. One revisit occurred, in 2023, and additional data were obtained through documentary research. The research site is Si Dong Yen sub-district, Chai Prakan district, Chiang Mai province.

Since the early 2000s, growing Arabica coffee has been a method of conserving the forested areas of Thailand’s highlands. Coffee has been used to replace opium and other commercial crops requiring deforestation. Arabica coffee can be grown below the forest canopy. Coffee bushes must be cultivated in the shade of highland trees, with high humidity and cool temperatures throughout the year. The optimal areas for growing coffee are those 1,000 meters above sea level. In Thailand, areas at such high altitudes are conserved, and watershed forests are protected by forest authorities. Coffee farmers in northern Thailand do not own land. Although farmers are permitted to grow coffee or build housing, they cannot transfer land ownership to people outside their communities.

Most Arabica coffee farmers in Thailand are of some ethnic origin. In Chiang Rai Province, the Akha ethnic farming group plays a key role in coffee production and market. Thus, coffee production can be integrated into the cultural and social networks of ethnic farmers. Ethnic farmers in coffee production supply chains use kinship relationships as the foundation for production. In the planting, maintenance, and harvesting processes, farmers use kinship connections to build labor and coffee business networks.

This article discusses the application of kinship relationships among ethnic coffee farmers in the protected highlands of the Chiang Rai Province. This forms the foundation for the development of coffee products and value chains for coffee production. Consumers have begun to demand the development of special coffee production in the current market, from commercial coffee production to standard coffee production, which responds to the quality and environmental standards of large national coffee-purchasing companies. Although the production, processing, and supply chain of coffee, a new commercial crop, has been promoted in the community for conservation purposes, farmers’ traditional kinship relationships constitute the foundation of the supply chain.

This paper examines diverse narratives about the soul’s destination after death. These accounts were generated through an amalgamation of improvisation and the negotiation of certain cognitive schemata emanating from religious beliefs. The study entailed interviews conducted between 2007 and 2008 in a mountainous Khon Mueang village in Samoeng District, Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand. The research site was a small hamlet comprising 42 households encompassing approximately 130 villagers; it was labeled TD Village.

Apropos beliefs about the afterlife, Theravada Buddhist cosmology is accepted as the dominant doctrine by Northern Thai people, who are educated by monks via preaching, publications, Buddhist simulations of hell gardens, and mural paintings. This interview-based study queried 34 householders about the soul’s destination after death. The subsequent analysis of their answers yielded five categories as destinations for souls: (1) they go to heaven or hell, (2) they remain in the village, (3) they disintegrate, (4) they travel to the Land of the Spirits (Mueang Phii), and (5) their destination is unknown. These responses incorporated both Buddhist concepts and local spiritual credos.

The villagers acknowledged the authority of Buddhist cosmology but harbored diverse conceptions of the afterlife. These notions changed distinctively based on individual imaginations and the locality. The interviewees formulated a practical version of the afterlife by negotiating between the dominant schema introduced by the religious authority and the knowledge generated through their daily lives and rituals.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify what kind of distance learning (online class) has been implemented in Thailand in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what kind of impact distance learning has had on Thai students. This paper focuses on differences in educational environments and issues of educational quality. This paper examines four different types of schools. The research target of this paper is lower secondary students, and the research target schools are one each from a general secondary school, an educational opportunity expansion school, a Suksasongkhro school, and a Buddhist school. This paper examines the differences between those schools. This research was conducted through interview surveys of school principals and student questionnaires in Chiang Mai province.

As a result of this survey of those schools, it became clear that there were differences in students’ ICT environments between schools. In this paper, I found that the format of online classes that each school can adopt differs depending on the condition of the ICT environment in the homes of their students. However, children find it difficult to attend classes in either learning format, and it can be concluded that the quality of education is not being maintained sufficiently with online classes under the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article aims to clarify the overall image of the use of buildings by the Japanese army in Thailand during the Second World War before analyzing the role and the limit of the Thai Department of Alliance, the Thai liaison office. The use of buildings by the Japanese army was most active during the initial and the final stages of war when the number of Japanese soldiers stationing/transiting through Thailand reached the highest level, among which houses were most frequently used in Bangkok and schools or temples were often used in the region. While many buildings were continuously used from the beginning to the end of war in Bangkok, most buildings in the region were temporary used at the specific period.

The use of buildings by the Japanese army can be divided into three types: occupation, free lending and leasing. The Japanese army often occupied buildings of Thai governmental organization and the enemy’s properties, among which the latter contained the buildings of Thais where the enemy lived; some buildings were leased to the Japanese army later by the request of owners. Free lending was common for the use of public facilities such as schools or semi-public facilities such as temples. On the other hand, leasing was mostly adopted to privately-owned houses, and the Department of Alliance often mediated the lease contract between the Japanese army and the owner.

The negotiation with Japanese regarding the use of buildings was carried out by the staffs in charge of building whose main duty was the reaction toward the occupies buildings, advance payment or hike of rent, and the request for reparation. They negotiated the return of the occupied buildings or transfer to leasing. The advance payment of rent facilitated the consent of owners when negotiating lease contract, but the hike of rent requested by owners needed the negotiation with Japanese who desired the lower rent. The negotiation of reparation was also carried out by owner’s request, but most cases have ended with Japan’s approval of future payment by adding to the outstanding debt list since the negotiation started after the end of war when buildings were returned to owners; the payment of reparation was hardly materialized.

This paper focuses on giving practices of the Khruba (a venerable monk) in Northern Thailand. Previous researches have indicated that monks or temples in Theravada Buddhism have been regarded as fields of merit and monks have played the role of converting money offered by lay people into merit. The offering practices of monks have never been concerned in this assumption. However, this paper analyzes that the Khruba in Chiang Rai province is not only the recipient of offerings but also the giver of them. The activities of the Khruba are supported by urban wealthy people, which makes him possible to engage in various activities to distribute materials or donate money to his village communities in many ways. Considering this case study, it is pointed out that Theravada Buddhist monks can be dual sources of power: fields of merit and sources of supply, which contribute to pursue altruism in the society.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze networked educational governance in Thai local educational administration, with a case study of “Chiang Mai Education Reform Alliance” (CERA), in terms of the process leading up to its establishment, its members, and the projects focused on by the network, in order to provide suggestions for the direction of education reform.

The results of the study are summarized in the following four points. First, CERA can be understood as a solution to the longstanding problem of “fragmented centralism” in Thai public administration. Chiang Mai provincial administrative organization (PAO) took the lead in gathering information on educational issues, and identified the lack of uniformity in the administration system. Second, this recognition of the issues is connected to the network structure of CERA, which attempts to overcome “fragmented centralism”. In the Thai context, the networking of “fragmented” national sector institutions in the province was important. Third, the “Strategic Plan” drafted by CERA can be understood as an attempt to assume all people with “diverse potentials” as learners and to make the guarantee of lifelong learning opportunities the responsibility of all people, based on the consensus on the image of Chiang Mai people to be raised. Fourth, the “10 Baht Fund” project implemented under the plan was used to provide educational support to children and youth in difficult circumstances in accordance with their “actual conditions”. In addition, the achievement of this project was highly evaluated, and Chiang Mai province could be a pilot province of Area Based Education (ABE) Project supported by the Equitable Education Fund. This made the support for children and youth further strengthened through interprofessional-interagency collaboration.

In conclusion, CERA which consists of various organizations and people institutionalized educational governance under the formalized “system” to create learning opportunities that would meet the diverse “needs” of children and youth. On the other hand, the experience of the CERA have highlighted the need for a continuity of public policy in PAO. There is much to be learned from CERA’s experiences for other provinces.

As for future research, it is necessary to conduct research on ABE projects in other provinces. In terms of Chiang Mai Province, research on “Chiang Mai Province Education Innovation Area” as a special educational administration district remains to be conducted.