Project Leader: Naomi Chi (Ph.D Candidate, School of Law, Hokkaido University)

”State-Civil Society Interactions
from Governance Perspective: The Case of Thailand”

Speaker: Rika Fujioka
(Ph.D Candidate, SOAS, University of London)
Commentator: Dr. Mikine Yamazaki
(Associate Professor, Public Policy School, Hokkaido University)
Chairperson: Naomi Chi (Ph.D Candidate, School of Law, Hokkaido University)
Date and Time: March 17th, 2006 (Fri) 4:30pm-7pm
Place: W301, Humanities and Social Sciences Bldg., Hokkaido University
＜Summary and Objective＞
The purpose of Ms. Fujioka’s research is to examine the Thai government's pledge to promote complementary state-civil society partnership in line with the “good governance” agenda.  Governance is an elusive concept, defying a clearly articulated definition.  It is also an under-researched subject, academically, however, the true value which the concept of governance entails may lie in its versatility.  Having say that, there are number of critics who point out the fallacy of the concept of governance employed in development practice.  In line with this argument, this study presents an empirical evidence made by critics that “imposing” an universal “good governance” model on politico-institutionally and socio-economically different countries is prone to engender policy-practice discrepancies.  The analyses in the research are based on the review of relevant literature, along with the findings from a field survey in Thailand at the central (Bangkok) and decentralized (Chiang Mai province) administrative levels.  The case study concerns the One Tambon One Product (OTOP), an administrative unit comprising a cluster of villages), which aims at uplifting the people’s livelihoods through occupational development. 

Ms. Fujioka’s research project is important as it contributes to the generally under-researched subject of governance.  Through a case study on Thailand, this research reiterates the importance of reinforcing theory-practice interface. 

We have the honour of having Dr. Yamazaki as our commentator, who will speak to us about the possibilities of the concept of governance.