This study aims to investigate the economic and social changes that occur in rural communities in Thailand, primarily as a result of government development projects. Employing the social system approach, this research concentrates on the structural changes that occur within communities, focusing on the two interrelated processes of differentiation and integration. Differentiation is the diversification of functions and specializations in the community economic and social spheres, whereas integration is the mechanism that combines these parts of the community together. Both processes are observable through the presence of institutionalized patterns in the community. Differentiation is hypothesized to relate to population size and to the linkages of the community with the outside world, or vertical ties, which are made mainly through government intervention, commericalization, and the presence of transportation and communication systems. Nine elements comprise the vertical ties: number of trip destinations, accessibility of the village from the district and the provincial seats, benefits from irrigation projects, transportation and communication facilities, frequency of government officials' visits, sales calls, mail service, and the presence of supplementary programs. It is hypothesized that as the community becomes increasingly differentiated, informal social integration will decrease while formal social integration increases. / The research was conducted in 100 villages in two provinces--Ayudhya and Suphan Buri--in the Central Region. Scalogram analysis is employed to investigate the patterns of structural change. Crosstabulation, Pearson correlation, and partial correlation analyses are employed to test the relationships between differentiation, integration, and related factors. / The findings in the study indicate that (1) there are empirical patterns of structural changes in the rural communities; (2) the levels of differentiation in these communities are relatively low; (3) population size, number of trip destinations, and transportation and communication facilities are most likely to be accountable for these changes; (4) all the related factors tend to generate economic differentiation, rather than social differentiation; and (5) social differentiation tends to generate greater formal social integration but does not lower informal social integration. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-02, Section: A, page: 0666. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75278 |
| Contributors | THAVINPIPATKUL, DARANEE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 271 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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