Reading the present day Bangkok : changing attitudes to meanings of place

What we read is shaped by the way we read and interpret it, and vice versa. The dialectic associations between the theoretical and methodological concerns of the reading of place - what to read, how to read and how to interpret - have formed the framework for this thesis. Consequent on directionless development over the last few decades, the dramatic and arguably retrogressive changes to Bangkok evoke the need to revise one's understanding of Thai space and places in the present time. How have variously surviving and emerging qualities (re)shaped and (re)constituted the intermixed characteristics of `modern' Bangkok? The subtleties of Thai culture, which have been concretized and integrated into Thai spaces, people and their relationships at many levels, create difficulties in reading (whoever the reader might be) and in interpreting the `authenticity' of Thai space and place. The thesis investigates `authentic' qualities which contribute to the uniqueness of place, and methods of reading and interpreting them in Thai present-day contexts. Three case studies - Ban Bangraonok in Nonthaburi, Wat Paknam Fang Tai and its surroundings in Thonburi, and Soi On-nut 29 to Soi On-nut 33/1 in Suan Luang, Bangkok - were selected as sites to read the transformations of places in the present day. Various strategies, approaches and techniques were used to generate a suitable method of reading and interpreting place in Thai present-day contexts, comprising case study, qualitative research methods and field study, grounded theory, documentation, observation, in-depth interviewing, mapping analysis and content analysis of people's own accounts. The synthesis of professional and local wisdom as well as theoretical and methodological knowledge of place generates initial lenses for the reading and analysing of these actual places. The physical modifications of each place were compared with people's changing behavioural associations and ascribed meanings, gained from their experience of everyday living. The study confirms that place, its characteristics and its constituting processes, are dynamic and constantly changing over time - physical changes have affected the way residents associate with, perceive, and derive meaning from their environments. The constantly diversifying phenomena of Bangkok's space and the need for subtle understanding, and for specific vocabularies for its representation, are manifested in two main aspects. The first is the diversity of ways and degrees in which the richness and complexity of modern Bangkok (muang mai) in constituted in the surviving notions of the centrality of khlong and the unbounded, border-less nature of indigenous space. The second aspect presents different perceptions and formations (fragmentations) of space and place in the conceptual, practical, and political spheres of community life, which contribute to the well-rounded knowledge of place in various dimensions of its reading. Additionally, the readings also manifest ontological dilemmas in dealing with the reading of changes and deconstructing processes across time and space. The constituting processes of place, the overall qualities of place, and the methodological problem of reading changes over time through differences of spaces are highlighted as important aspects of reading that throw light on the comprehension of place and ideas of 'authenticity'. In contrast to much literature about place-making, this thesis has revealed that physical appearance is not a major concern for Thai people. Rather social, psychological and spiritual values, or the underlying meanings of place, are the keys to comprehending and achieving a deeper level of understanding of the cultural sensibility subsisting in a Thai sense of place. The research also accentuates that local viewpoints and insights should not be overlooked in the process of reading place. The bottom-up view offers some clues to how place, elsewhere in Thailand or arguably other places in other contexts and times, can be read and interpreted from local points of view in order to find implications for what places might be moving towards