
Photo by victoriapeckham via Flickr Creative Commons
Bangkok
Thailand
With its sparkling skyscrapers and sprawling slums, Bangkok is a city caught between worlds. It’s a place where wealthy cruise ship passengers disembark in Klong Toey, one of the city’s largest slums, and where upscale neighborhoods are connected by a Skytrain system that breezes past informal settlements filled with tin-roofed shanties. And even as Bangkok evolves into one of Southeast Asia’s most important global business hubs, a large portion of its workers still make their living in the city’s informal economy. This informal sector generates solutions where the government falls short. For instance, even with its state-of-the-art Skytrain, private motorbikes and taxis still provide much of the city’s public transportation.
Over the past several decades, the government has carried out periodic slum evictions, often without sensitivity to the lives of the people who call those settlements home. But recent signs indicate that Bangkok is taking a more enlightened approach to its slums, working with NGOs to ensure orderly relocations that attempt to preserve the residents’ communities and livelihoods. At the same time, Thailand has been moving to extend social protections to its informal labor force – more than 2 million people could benefit from a program aimed at providing life insurance and pensions to informal-economy workers. Such efforts could serve as a model for other cities and countries with high levels of informality, and solidify Bangkok’s status as a leading innovator in its part of the world.
MEET OUR BLOGGER
Witchaya Pruecksamars
Tay is a researcher based at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He graduated from University College London with a B.A. in urban planning and a master’s degree in development administration. He has been researching the history of Southeast Asian shophouses and has contributed to an online newsletter called Trendnovation Southeast. He lives opposite the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, and prefers to use the city’s two-wheeled taxis for public transport.
Featured Entries
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The D.I.Y. Disaster Plan: How Informal Networks Battled Bangkok’s Worst Flood
When a devastating flood struck Bangkok in 2011, many citizens had only their informal networks to rely on. In the first Forefront of the Informal City Dialogues, Dustin Roasa reports on how those networks helped save lives — and the city itself.
Bangkok Entries
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Dispelling the Myth that “On Paper” Always Works Well on the Street
In his final post for the Informal City Dialogues, our writer in Bangkok returns to the site of his first blog post and finds traders ready to engage the city in a dialogue of their own.
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Striving for an Integrated Society That Looks Out for Its Most Vulnerable
Will Bangkok fracture or integrate, and how will its citizens fight for their rights? A summary of the futures scenarios created for Bangkok at the Informal City Dialogues workshops.
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Two Weeks in Photos
Our fortnightly roundup of photos from our bloggers. This week: Beer-brewing in Accra, juice-squeezing in Bangkok, slum-touring in Nairobi and water-hunting in Chennai.
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Vendors Squeeze a Profit Out of Office Workers Seeking Chemical-Free Juice
Western-style cartons of artificially flavored juice may pack the shelves of supermarkets in Bangkok, but the real stuff is still to be found on the streets.
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Two Weeks in Photos
Our fortnightly roundup of photos from our bloggers. This week: A mountaineer’s commute in Lima, urban gardening in Manila and a teachers’ strike in Nairobi.
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Bag by Bag, Janitors and Housekeepers Keep Bangkok’s Waste System Green
At the base of a pyramid that extends all the way up to a major global waste-export industry are hundreds of thousands of janitors and housekeepers, selling bottles and cans one kilo at a time.
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Two Weeks in Photos
From stolen electricity in Nairobi to blind masseuses in Manila, our fortnightly roundup of photos from our bloggers.
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A Plan to Recruit Community Lawyers to Represent Informal Workers
At Bangkok’s Innovation Workshop participants generated more than 20 ideas, but the one that emerged the winner could provide legal help for those who can’t afford it.
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Two Weeks in Photos
Our fortnightly roundup of photos from our bloggers, from a bustling harbor in Chennai to a traditional Thai massage in Bangkok.
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Bridging the Language Gap: Three Bangkok Stories Now Available in Thai
Read a Thai translation of our first long-form Forefront story for the Informal City Dialogues, and watch our documentary films exploring informal housing and street vending in Bangkok with Thai subtitles.