;;Money Trees” in Southern Thailand: Beyond the Rubber Market

Rubber farmers;Thailand;Southern Thailand;Rubber markets;Rubber prices;Rubber plantations

Shattuck, William R.

University of Wisconsin

关键词: Rubber farmers;    Thailand;    Southern Thailand;    Rubber markets;    Rubber prices;    Rubber plantations;   

Others  :  https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/78921/Shattuck%20William%20R%202013.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: University of Wisconsin

【 摘 要 】

Over the past two years, Thai- and English-language newspapers have reported on thedifficulties facing Thailand’s rubber farmers. Newspaper articles focus in particular on thedissatisfactions over low rubber prices that have materialized in the form of protests throughoutsouthern Thailand. In this study I consider these accounts alongside perspectives attributing amuch more subdued role to rubber markets. I draw on information from twenty qualitativeinterviews with owners of rubber plantations in several provinces of southern Thailand.Informants related concerns about the vagaries of increasingly unpredictable weather as well asthe shifting employment preferences of younger generations. These issues were discussed at leaston a similar footing with price and market fluctuations, and they were often considered to be ofgreater significance. World systems theory provides a useful heuristic to understand some of thechallenges that rubber farmers confront; however, complementing world systems theory byintegrating literature from alternative theoretical positions produces a more constructiveanalytical framework to consider many growers’ experiences in southern Thailand.