The Culture of the Public World . By Niels Mulder

Niels Mulder's new book comprises a collection of studies gathered under the rubric of the Thai " Public World ". Readers of his best-selling works — Inside Thai Society and Inside Southeast Asian Society — will recognize the continuities in this work, particularly his non-ethno-graphic brand of " culture-as-world-view " anthropology, through which he defines " culture " as the way people think about their lives, and " anthropology " as the study of text-derived images that are taken to represent the common patterns guiding social life and its comprehension. Mulder's earlier writings have dealt essentially with the principles of power, respect, and hierarchy in the this-and other-worldly realms of Thai reality. Unfortunately, this book does not share the conciseness of its predecessors. The book comprises eight chapters, together with an introduction and conclusion. The introduction sets out his " anthropological approach " , and a definition of the " public world " and its Thai version. There follows three chapters discussing the social studies textbooks used in Thai schools at elementary, junior high, and senior high school levels , respectively. These long chapters make up over a third of the book. The next chapter deals with critiques of contemporary Thai society and alternative views of Thai history as exemplified in a Chiang Mai University reader on Thai Society and Culture, with selections of the thoughts of prominent monk Phra Prayut Payutto, and passing reference to the social critic Sulak Srivaraksa. Chapter 5 is a commentary on newspaper coverage of selected public issues, and is followed by a chapter looking at a number of Thai novels and their themes on the current state of family and social relationships. Chapter 7 analyses Thailand in the '90s, a publication of the National Identity Office, offering the opportunity for Mulder to comment on official representations of Thai society , economy, history, and customs. Chapter 8 considers the origins of the modern Thai public world, drawing on the previous chapters, and with reference to the state, politics, the economy, and civil society. The conclusion attempts an integration of the book through talking about the " culture " of the public world, the production of public images, and