![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Based on narratives from civil societal actors that have been involved in some way in the conflict over Khao Phra Wihan, this paper concerns the construction of the Thai nation, and how that is resisted. The paper brings together social constructivist views on nationalism with research on everyday, low-scale, individual, non-organized, covert, low-profile forms of resistance. The way nationalism is resisted in the borderland can be categorized into three main themes: (1) Everyday resistance through evasion, (2) Everyday resistance through re-categorization, and (3) Everyday resistance through re-imagination.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In academic texts Thai names are often referred to by the first name instead of by surname. In this text all authors are referred to in the same way and listed in references by their last name, even if some Thai names are very long.
2. To call a group a ”minority group” might be reproducing the narrative of the state. In the view of the group itself they might be the majority in an area which does not necessarily correspond to the territory of the state, or any state. In this paper the term is therefore used carefully.
3. In translations of names from Thai to English different spelling of the same names are common. Variations of the spelling of ”Isaan” are Isan, E-san, and Esan.
4. In the case of Khao Phra Wihan all the three parts of the name can be spelled differently as ‘Khao’ or ‘Kao’, ‘Phra’ or ‘Pra’, and ‘Wiharn’, ‘Vihan’ or ‘Wihan’. In English translations of Khmer the temple is usually spelled Preah Vihear, which is also the most common way to name the temple in English. As this project is focusing on Thailand, the Thai appellation has been used in the interviews and in the written paper.
5. Due to the infamous strict lèse-majesté (the crime of insulting the monarchy) law (For more on the law see for example Ünaldi Citation2016, Winichakul Citation2014, Ivarsson and Isager Citation2010, or Handley Citation2006).
6. Interview 29, young academic in Political Science with a background in the borderland, Bangkok, 2016.
7. Interview 12, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
8. Interview 17, middle-aged person working for local authority, Khantaralak, 2016-03-06.
9. Interview 12, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
10. Interview 10, middle-aged human rights activist, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
11. Interview 23, middle-aged person working for local authority, Khantaralak, 2016-03-07.
12. Interview 24, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-07.
13. Interviews 5, young academic in Political Science with a background in the borderland, Bangkok, 2014-07-14, Interview 17, middle-aged person working for local authority, Khantaralak, 2016-03-06.
14. Informal interview with a nurse working in the borderland.
15. Interview 11, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
16. Interview 11, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
17. Interview 24, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-07.
18. Interview 10, middle-aged human rights activist, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
19. Interview 16, middle-aged member of Asoke, Sisaket, 2016-03-06.
20. Interview 7, middle-aged journalist with a background in the borderland, Bangkok, 2014-07-17.
21. Interview 12, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
22. Interview 11, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
23. Interview 5, young academic in Political Science with a background in the borderland, Bangkok, 2014-07-14.
24. Interview 10, middle-aged human rights activist, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
25. Interview 4, middle-aged human rights activist, Bangkok, 2014-07-14.
26. Interview 5, young academic in Political Science with a background in the borderland, Bangkok, 2014-07-14.
27. Interview 6, young human rights activist, Bangkok, 2014-07-16.
28. Interview 9, elderly academic in Human Rights and Peace Studies, Bangkok 2014-07-18.
29. Interview 15, middle-aged local merchant, Khantaralak, 2016-03-06.
30. Interview 16, middle-aged member of Asoke, Sisaket, 2016-03-06.
31. Interview 11, middle-aged farmer, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
32. Interview 10, middle-aged human rights activist, Bhumisarol, 2016-03-05.
33. Interview 23, middle-aged person working for local authority, Khantaralak, 2016-03-07.
34. Interview 29, young academic in Political Science with a background in the borderland, Bangkok, 2016.
35. Interview 9, elderly academic in Human Rights and Peace Studies, 2014-07-18.
36. Interview 2, young media worker, Bangkok, 2014-07-04.
37. Interview 35, elderly Asoke member, Bangkok, 2016-03-28.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Katrina Gaber
Katrina Gaber is currently doing her PhD in Peace and Development Studies. Her research interests concerns entanglements of power, resistance, and nationalism. The current project focuses on Thailand but earlier publications have been on nationalist developments in Sweden (under former surname Hirvonen).