Discourse dialogue : grassroots' perspective on sustainable development
Abstract
The concept of sustainable development has been discussed, debated and defined
at the global level since the 1960's. This dialogue has created questions on
whether or not the definitions promoted at the global level are appropriate in the
context of rural development in developing countries, and, furthermore, how
grassroots people in the developing world define the concept of sustainable
development.
This disseltation considers the "dialogue" on sustainable development from a
number of key sources at the global level and compares this with the perspective
of grassroots farmers of Mae Tha community in northern Thailand towards
sustainable development. Discourse analysis approach is used as the method for
the analysis of sustainable development discourses at the global level, and
qualitative research through participant observation was conducted in order to
gather information from Mae Tha farmers.
Global sustainable development discourse is different from that of Mae Tha
farmers. The global discourse comprises two sub-discourses; the Earth and Equity.
It argues that sustainability on Earth will be attained when equity between human
beings and the environment, and between developed and developing countries,
take place. Economic development is seen as a means to accomplishing these two
concepts of equity.
Grassroots farmers of Mae Tha community in northern Thailand define
sustainability as "having rice to eat and having land on which to stay". However,
as the farmers have experienced developmental problems introduced to the
community by outsiders, namely government development policies, they view that
in order to attain sustainability, the villagers themselves have to have control over
development direction. This control consists of control over agricultural
production and food supply, land and forest management, and knowledge used in
development processes. To have control, power to negotiate with the state
development direction is required. They view that this power will be gained
through strengthened people's organisations and networks. Although the villagers
view power to control as a means to attaining sustainability, they, however, view
that this power needs to be controlled by the concept of "knowing when to stop,
knowing what sufficiency means".
The perspective on sustainability and sustainable development of Mae Tha
farmers results from decades of experience. Situated in different contexts, global
and grassroots' sustainable development discourses are therefore different. This
difference will not cause any problems in terms of rural development if the Thai
government, an institution standing between grassroots and global development
directions, can serve the needs of grassroots people. However, the Thai state
cannot ignore the flow of the global economy, and has adopted global ideology to
be the country's development direction, which is not appropriate for rural
development in the Thai context. To be sustainable in the rural development
context, therefore, local communities must be politically autonomous. To be
autonomous, a "genuine" decentralisation of power is needed.
In sum, decentralisation, as well as strengthened people's organisations, are the
very keys to aniving at sustainability at rural level.... [Show full abstract]
Keywords
discourse; sustainable development; sustainability; grassroots; global; national development policy; community participation; decentralisation; organic farming; land and forest management; ThailandDate
2003Type
DissertationCollections
- Dissertations [385]
- Department of Agricultural Sciences [1215]