Memory, Democracy and Urban Space: Bangkok's 'Path to Democracy'

Since the 1960s a particular string of urban spaces through central Bangkok have become appropriated by the democracy movement. This path extends from a sacred bo tree at Thamassat University through the 'royal ground' of Sanam Luang and along the 'royal road' of Ratchadamnoen Klang Avenue to the Democracy Monument—a paradoxical relic of 1930s' dictatorship which has been reappropriated. This stretch of urban space has been (and remains) the site of complex practices of resistance and violence, liberation and repression. This paper is about struggles over meaning and memory in urban space in a cultural context where the meanings and names of public places are highly fluid. Urban design constructs 'master narratives' which at once legitimate authority yet become available for reappropriation and semantic inversion.