2025/03/15 by Paul Chambers, Watcharapol Supajakwattana · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Philippine History and Culture #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/03068374.2025.2482793
openalex publication_date 2025/03/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/13
This study interrogates the concept of Thailand’s ‘Lower North’, asking whether the region possesses a singular political identity and examining the roles played by dynastic powerbrokers within each province. It argues that unlike the ‘Upper North’, the Lower North lacks any particular region-centred heritage and political identity. The Lower North’s apparent peripheral status has appeared to make it either an appendage of Bangkok or of Chiangmai. In recent years, politicians from the Lower North have tended to stress either provincial (rather than regional) identity or ‘pork barrel’ materialist politics. The political cultures of most Lower North provinces remain dominated by ‘strongmen’ rather than by well-rooted political parties.