[Thematic
Issues]
Thematic research is being introduced within the WeD project in order
to ensure cross-country comparisons can be made as well as ensuring
that important issues and diversities of each country are represented.
Themes proposed so far are:
Collective action
Education
Health
Migration,Occupations and Livelihoods
These themes are common in all four of the WeD
countries and each country project will take responsibility for
hosting a conference on one of the particular themes. WeD Thailand
will lead the research on local organisations. Thematic study enables
the Thai WeD project to use our research expertise as well as to
facilitate greater cooperation with the other WeD country teams in
Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Peru.
[Research Methodology]
[Community Profiles]
The WeD
project is committed to analysing individuals, households, communities
and nation states within an international context. The community
profiles are insights into the community level whilst linking this
level to both households and wider national contexts.
The profiles
illustrate the main historical, physical, social, cultural, political
and economic characteristics of each community. The ethnographic
description provided by these profiles give heeded background
information necessary for deciding further study whilst also providing
data to compare with the other WeD field sites. The criteria for
village selection is that it must be representative of the Isaan
region. Data collection methods being used are secondary data, key
infromants interview, surveys, observation, focus group discussion, wealth ranking, etc
The methods
used by WeD are not only some of the most contemporary tools available
but they also provide a way for WeD team members to gain the trust of
villagers which is necessary for building strong relationships.
[RANQ]
The aim of the Resources
and Needs Questionnaire (RANQ) is to give an overall profile of the resources
households and individuals have and how these resources are
distributed. It is also an insight into villagers’ perceptions of
what their needs are and what needs they feel are not being met. The
methodology is an in-depth survey/questionnaire conducted as a
structured interview.
Data
collected through this method gives a baseline study of household
profiles. This is important information when selecting households and
individuals for Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and interviews in the PRANQ phase.
The RANQ not only includes human, material, social, cultural and
natural aspects of wellbeing, but it also includes objective and
subjective components when investigating needs.
[PRANQ: (Post RANQ)
The Main Fieldwork]
The next
step from RANQ is the main fieldwork phase for the WeD project. This
builds on both the community profiles and also the data collected from
the RANQ survey.
The objective
of the main fieldwork phase is to capture the diversity of voices
within and between communities. This would provide additional
discoveries that the RANQ survey could not provide. Main fieldwork
methods will generate data on what people haveand what people can
and cannot do with these resources. This will provide
explanations of people’s subjective perceptions on quality of life and
how values are changing with globalisation and development.
The main
fieldwork methodology will use both qualitative and quantitative
analysis. These are more in-depth methods on samples of individuals,
households, social networks, institutions and key events over time.
Methods being used are in-depth interviews, key infromants interview, focus group dicussion, observation and family trees.
These
techniques will provide a range of viewpoints, both objective and
subjective, reflecting not a single view but multiple realities on
perceptions of wellbeing and quality of life
[Urban Study]
Nai Muang is selected to be an urban study site. It was chosen in the rapidly
growing provincial centre of Khon Kaen city. An urban study site was chosen to capture the
transformation of Thai society. Although Khon Kaen, like Thailand
generally, has experienced rapid growth over the past few decades,
this wealth has been unequally distributed. Slum areas have
developed, and whilst most urban studies have focused on Bangkok, the
urban study in Khon Kaen will provide needed data on urban poverty,
inequality and quality of life in contemporary Thailand.
This will
capture the diversity in Thai society and will allow the WeD project
to compare rural and urban communities and households, illuminating
the distinctiveness of the ways in which people construct their
wellbeing.
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