The Transformation of Thailand from an Agrarian into an Industrial Society

The topic of this article is the transformation of Thailand from an agrarian into an industrial society. This kind of transformation – or development is far more difficult to realise than is generally assumed, and for quite other reasons than often thought. The main theory – based on ideas of the British anthropologist Ernest Gellner – is that there is a fundamental gap, in the political, social, economic, cognitive and cultural sphere, between agrarian and industrial societies. There is no continuity, let alone some kind of necessary historical development culminating in industrial society. Agrarian society can exist forever and has no internal drive to change into another kind of society. In fact, everything in it militates against the sheer possibility of a fundamental change. Therefore, it is more likely that the transformation of an agrarian society into an industrial one – or in other words the process of ‘development’will fail, than that it will succeed. The transformation of Thailand is a good case to apply and test this theory...