讲座：The Socio-Economic Origins of Thailand`s Political Conflict

主讲嘉宾(Guest Speaker): Prof. Andrew Walker, Acting Dean, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University

主持人(Moderator):彭勃教授，BETVLCTOR伟德唯一官网副院长，(Prof. PENG Bo, Vice Dean, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

时间(time)：2014年05月20日（周二)上午11点至12点，(11am-12am, May 20, Tuesday)

地点(location)：新建楼3005大会议室， (Room 3005, Xinjian BLD)

主讲人简介(Bio): Andrew Walker is the Acting Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. He is an anthropologist who has been working in mainland Southeast Asia since 1993 when he conducted PhD research on cross-border trading links between northern Thailand, northern Laos and southern China. For the past 12 years he has been working on issues of rural development, resource management and modernisation in northern Thailand. His new book Thailand's Political Peasants, based on ethnographic fieldwork in Chiang Mai province, was published in 2012 by University of Wisconsin Press. Andrew is the co-founder of the New Mandala blog which provides anecdote, analysis and new perspectives on mainland Southeast Asia. It is required reading for all serious scholars of the region.

讲座内容简介(Abstract)：In this talk Professor Andrew Walker, author of Thailand’s Political Peasants (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), will explore some of the socio-economic origins of Thailand’s current political crisis. Focusing on rural Thailand, where Thaksin Shinawatra and his political allies derive much of their support, Professor Walker will examine changing living standards, agricultural productivity, inequality and the relationship between rural people and the state. His presentation will show how some core elements of the current crisis can be understood in terms of the emergence of a politically assertive “middle-income peasantry” that is determined to defend its electoral and financial relationship with the modern Thai state.