Activist Forest Monks, Environmental Adult Education and the Construction of Civil Society in Thailand

Abstract: Situated at the intersection of adult learning in social movements, the construction of civil society, and environmental adult education, the grassroots movement of Buddhist “forest monks ” in Thailand has much to teach us. This paper charts the movement’s history, philosophy, and practice in the construction of Thai civil society. New Social Movements, Adult Learning and Civil Society The most comprehensive recent consideration of the role of adult education in New Social Movements (NSM) is probably John Holst’s (2002) Social Movements, Civil Society and Radical Adult Education. In the book, Holst makes a strong case for a critical Marxist analysis of NSM (the environmental, peace, feminist, and identity movements) and their role as agents of social change in the construction of civil society. Holst (2002, pp. 5-6), following Gramsci, argues for NSM and the learning activities within them as “educational work for politics, ” in the sense of building class solidarity for revolution, much in the tradition of labor unions and revolutionary workers ’ parties (Old Social Movements). He proposes that theorists of NSMs, as “radical pluralists ” or “post-Marxists, ” have over-estimated the transformative potential of wha