Abstract
Social organization and the development of tambol civil society:a case study on Ubonrat district , Khon kean provinceThis study is a comparative study of the development of civil society in two sub-districts, Tung Pong and Kong Sung in Ubonrat District Khon kane Thailand. Using an analytic research approach, data were gathered by key informant interviews, community leaders' group discussion and compact questionnaires. It was found that civil society have been existed at village level and closely related to cultural and mythical belief. Civil action and linkge at the sub-district or "Tambon" level were also existed through kinship and cultural beliefs. External factors which facilitate civil society at tambon level are the country's administrative reform of decentralization and the new constitution which recognize the community rights in resource management. Internal factors are undamentally endowed and related to matri-archal kinship system, indigenous knowledge, sufficient economy, people organization, good leader and interactive learning. In both tambons, there were similar formal groups supported by the government. Tambon organization and a group of village health volunteers were foremost accepted by the people. The two groups appeared to have good communication network above village level. Both organizations were dependent on external funding and bureaucratically supervised. The change from agricultural to industrial based community as found in Tambon Kok Sung became an importance condition the weaken traditional civil society in the area.There are exists conflicts of land and water uses. This conflict has not been concertedly solved by existing people organizations including Tambon Administrative Organization. In contrary, Tambon Tung Pong has remained agricultural based without serious resource management problem and socially knitted by kinship. Tambon civil society in this case was strengthened by interactive learning process, people participation and progressive leaders. Experiences learned from working with the NGO in the community enable Tambon leaders to modify their way of communication through series of meeting planning and evaluation. Water management system which has been totlally run by villagers was a unique example of people civil society of this Tambon. As a result it was found that Tambon Tung Pong were more serene and self sufficient as compared to Tambon Kok Sung. Example drawn from this study suggested that existing culture and mythical belief as well as kinship were supporting civil society in the rural community under normal and agricultural condition but it was not enough to tackle emerging conflicts along the path of development. Existing people organization and interest groups need to develop interactive communication systems, good management and transparency and democratic decising making. All these can only come about when people realized that public issues are, in deed, individual concerns
