พระสงฆ์ในชนบทภาคอีสานกับการพัฒนาตามหลักการพึ่งตนเอง / พินิจ ลาภธนานนท์ = The monks in the northeast and the development of the people's self-reliance in rural communities / Pinit Lapthananon
Rural Development of Thailand is characterized by the centralized role of the Government in development planning in the identification of the policies and development strategies which are implemented by the government officials. Moreover, the main criteria in the programmes and projects proposals are primarily based on whether such proposals are consistent with the policies of the Government while often lacking in the consideration on whether these programmes and projects are consistent with the people's needs and appropriate in view of the development goal to improve the quality of life of the people in the rural areas in terms of promoting self-reliance at the individual and community levels. It is therefore hardly surprising that the rural development policies of the Government have hitherto met with very little success. In contrast, the development pursuits carried out by the Government has created a situation where the people are becoming more dependent on external assistance, particularly the rural people in the Northeastern Region. In this context, the academics of various disciplinary backgrounds have proposed the concept of rural development which aim primarily at improving the quality of life of the people. This new conceptual approach took the form of "Rural Development Plan for Poverty Areas." This led to the focal point of interest of this study which is the improvement of the quality of life of the people through development agents other than those in the official channels. A review of the role of the leadership in the various communities studied highlighted the significant role of the monks as change agents leading to self-reliance development of the rural people. Self-reliance here refers to a condition in which the rural people meaningfully participate in solving the problems both for their individual and for the collective benefit of the community rather than wait for the assistance of the Government. However, this perceived role of the monks needs to be validated. It is therefore the objective of this study to assess the extent to which these contributions of the monks in the Northeast actually led to the creation of self-reliance of the rural people. The study is carried out in two phases: The first phase include the field surveys to collect primary data on the role of 38 monks in development activities in 9 provinces. The roles of these monks can be classified into 4 categories: (1) The monks act as social workers; (2) The monks assume the leadership roles; (3) The monks act as the co-ordinators of the development activities; (4) The monks assume only the advisory roles; One example from each category mentioned is selected for case studies in the second phase of the study using participant observation and in-depth interview techniques. Baseline information of the communities selected were studied as well as the roles of the monks and the villagers in development activities. Results from both phases of the study pointed out to a uniformity of goals in the development activities of the monks, that is, to allieviate the social and economic problems of the people. However, the activities of the monks rarely led to the creation of self-reliance of the rural people. The main obstacle is the leadership role assumed by the monks which acted as barrier to the active participation of the people. According to the findings of this study, self-reliance development is seen as the most appropriate means in the pursuit of development and in solving the problems of the rural people. This involves primarily the development of the potential of the people through a process of conscientization to create an awareness of the needs to be self-reliant. Among other things which are seen as essential are the effective transfer of correct understanding of development concepts to the people, to the community leaders and monks. The encouragement of activities which lead to meaningful participation of the people in all stages of community development activities, and other support in terms of resource allocation are also necessary. It is essential that these needs be voiced from the people themselves and not from community leaders or others agencies. Hitherto, the diversity of the roles played by the various institutions at the grassroot level create confusion as to the roles they themselves should undertake. To overcome this problem, rather than carrying out development tasks in an ad hoc manner, all parties involved in the development of the Northeast i.e., the Government, the NGOs, the monks etc., should cooperate in the pursuit of the mutual goal in order to avoid the conflict as well as the danger of going about their tasks in completely different directions. Moreover, the institutions involved in development should all encourage people's participation. At the initial stage, the various agencies should review and clarify their own roles and their past performances in terms of the contributions to the promotion of self-reliance of the people, the problems and obstacles confronted and the ways of overcoming those obstacles. In short, the various development agencies should first develop their own qualities and potential as effective change agents before commencing their development tasks. Without this, rather than alleviating the problems of the people in the rural areas, rural development pursuits would only lead to the aggravation of those problems.
SUBJECT
สงฆ์ -- ไทย (ภาคตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ)
การพัฒนาชนบท
สงฆ์กับการพัฒนาชนบท
religion
rural development
LOCATION
CALL#
STATUS
Thailand and ASEAN Information Center (6th Floor) : Thesis
