Articulation of agricultural landscape and touristscape in the commoditization of rural society in Mueang Kaen Pattana Community, Mae Taeng District, Chiang Mai Province
Abstract:
This research examined the articulation of agricultural production and tourism service business in Mueang Kaen Pattana community. It considered and analyzed the transitions of rural society through emerging tourism sector as the conceptual lens including the contestation between agricultural landscape and touristscape in the multi-contextual settings. Moreover, it investigated several benefits and negative impacts derived from the multiple interactions of involved actors. The research processes were operated through the conceptual framework of landscape changes. A qualitative research approach and several methods were applied to collect the data including direct observation, semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews of nine key informants in the community, community leaders, and businessmen. Besides, a survey of 160 farmers in the community was employed and the results were presented by descriptive statistics. Afterwards, I analyzed and interpreted the field data by contextualization and conceptualization. Then, presentation of research results and findings was largely written in the forms of description, explanation and discussion illustrated with tables, maps, and photos. The research found that a discourse of development"" was a driving force in the changes of Mueang Kaen Pattana community towards modernity while some identities of traditional cultures were in tact. Agricultural landscape and Touristscape articulations represented such changes. For instance, farmers in the community have become de-agrarianized through engagement of non-agricultural careers such as trades, services, and daily employment that were similar to an urban society. However, at the same time, the re- agrarianization processes also occurred as a result of transformation of the community, in the forms of commercial agriculture under the contextual conditions of political and technological factors. Nevertheless,the agricultural society of Mueang Kaen Pattana community was still powerless in negotiation processes with the business and government sectors, in terms of crop prices and development projects in general. Therefore, the solution at that time has led to the production of ""Touristscape "" in order to add the value to the agricultural products and free themselves from the domination of the capitalist power. In 2010, the community leaders mobilized local resources and traditional culture to organize the festival called ""Nhao Nee Tee Mueang Kaen"" (Winter Times at Mueang Kaen) to be engaged with emerging commoditization of rurality. However, this initiative, as it was found out later, become a watershed of an inequity among the villagers due to the arrival of outside investors looking for land occupation. To some extent, the investors took this chance to speculate on the lands by depriving it from the farmers and altered them into be a tourist attraction. Despite the shifting rural community, the beneficial contribution of touristscape changes were still limited to fewer villagers because the major means of production such as land and capital were not available for most of the farmers grab for landscape change. At this point, the forces of tourism development have not affected tremendous transformation on the rural life and agricultural landscape of the community. This study noted that spatial changes in this community were not fixed in one direction but alternated between agricultural landscape and touristscape. Sometimes, they even overlapped in multiple lavers. The findings tended to implicate the imbalance of development policies and the livelihood of the community and provide vital lesson for other community-based tourism, which also needs further related research.