Building Programmatic Linkages in the Periphery: The Case of the TRT Party in Thailand

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232922110399
Author(s):  
Illan Nam ◽  
Viengrat Nethipo
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Informal Social Networks ◽  
Organizational Mechanisms

Did the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party of Thailand, the first party in the country’s history to gain parliamentary dominance in 2001, represent a departure from traditional clientelistic Thai parties or was it old wine in a new bottle? This article argues that the TRT represented a new hybrid party that successfully established programmatic linkages in rural parts of the country by systematizing its use of informal social networks in local communities. By routinizing recruitment, training, and evaluation of its parliamentary candidates and their vote-canvassing networks, the TRT imparted midlevel politicians with the incentives and ability to promote the party’s policy agenda to rural voters and to cultivate new policy-oriented linkages alongside traditional clientelistic ones. By identifying specific organizational mechanisms by which the TRT combined programmatic and clientelistic linkages with rural voters, this study contributes to literature that examines hybrid party strategies as well as informal party organization.

scholarly journals Tacit networks, crucial care: Informal networks and disaster response in Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha earthquake

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocio Carrero ◽  
Michele Acuto ◽  
Asaf Tzachor ◽  
Niraj Subedi ◽  
Ben Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Gorkha Earthquake ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
2015 Gorkha Earthquake ◽  
Informal Social Networks

It is often reiterated that a better understanding of local networks and needs is key to risk reduction. Nevertheless, the crucial role of informal social networks and actors in the catering for human needs in disaster circumstances remains largely under-explored. If we have to rethink the ‘work’ that informality does for our understanding of urban areas, its contribution to resilience, and take it seriously in the ‘full spectrum of risk’ in urban and peri-urban centres, better and more balanced methods are needed. This paper attends to this gap. Examining the mechanisms of aid provision in the aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal, it details an experimental set of quantitative research methods to explore the role of informal social networks in the provision of critical human needs in natural disasters. Relying on a sample of 160 households across four districts and 16 villages in the built environment affected by the Gorkha earthquake, the paper reveals that, overall, a wide disparity exists in the comparative importance of organisations in the provision of aid and resources. Much crucial after-disaster care is catered for by a mix of relatives, temples, friends, neighbours and local clubs. It highlights the importance of informal networks in understanding, and theorising, governance (of disaster and of the ‘urban’ more in general), and calls for greater attention to its role. It is time, it argues, to revalue informal disaster governance networks as a crucial, not tacit, component of disaster response.

scholarly journals Doing research with police elites in Ghana

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 537-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Addo Sowatey ◽  
Justice Tankebe
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Informal Social Networks ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Senior Officers

Much of our methodological insights from researching policing in sub-Saharan Africa comes from studies of frontline officers. Consequently, many important methodological questions about research on senior police officers remain unanswered. This article addresses this gap by drawing on insights from interviewing senior officers in Ghana. It focuses on the challenges and opportunities in negotiating access, establishing trust during interviews and dealing with ethical dilemmas. We highlight the role of informal social networks and cultural practices of surprise visits, what we have termed strategic ambush, in securing formal approval for our research. However, this represented mere or putative access for which deference towards institutional gatekeepers was key to its actualization. Deference towards officers and extensive knowledge of the policing environment helped to put the senior officers at ease, and enhanced the chances of a successful interview. Finally, we offer reflections on our responses to unexpected ethical dilemmas that we faced in the field.

scholarly journals Merit-Making Activities and the Latent Ideal of the Buddhist Wat in Southwestern Cambodia

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-57
Author(s):  
Matthew O'Lemmon
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Temple Community ◽  
Community Relationships

The divergent experiences surrounding merit-making acts represent the distinct backgrounds of individuals and communities that have emerged in postwar Cambodia. This article examines merit-making activities in two Buddhist temples in southwestern Cambodia and the influence of political patronage on temple–community relationships. This influence elicits images of a latent ideal of the Buddhist monastery that are used by local communities to form a social critique both of such political involvement within temples and of the destabilising effect it has on local people's merit-making activities. This ideal also reflected the political economies and social networks created within the temples that comprised two different models of patronage and means of accessing resources.

Utilizing Volunteers to Enhance Informal Social Networks

1986 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 290-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manzall Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Effective Intervention ◽  
Direct Service ◽  
Informal Social Networks ◽  
Socially Isolated

A framework for utilizing volunteers as direct-service tools to enhance certain socially isolated clients' informal social networks is presented. The client-worker and client-volunteer relationships are compared in relation to qualities of effective intervention, and practice implications are offered.

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