Entries tagged ‘Thailand’
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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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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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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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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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Lack of Smart Regulation Causes Tension for Thai Masseuses
According to the government authority that regulates the country’s famous massage industry, a masseuse with a lifetime of informal training is no better than one who’d crack your pelvis in half.
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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.
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Breaking Rules and Flouting Bans at Thailand’s Annual Nationwide Water Fight
At this year’s Songkran festival, preposterous bans on vending and booze were defiantly ignored, and Bangkok’s riotous informal spirit was on full display.
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Foreign Land Owners, Shoe-Repair Shops and Other Visions of Bangkok in 2040
In a surprisingly bold conversation between high-ranking formal participants and poorer informal ones, Bangkok’s Scenario Planning workshop was notable for its range of visions.
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The White-Knuckle Nights of Bangkok’s Volunteer Ambulance Squads
In a city with only 150 formal ambulances for 12 million residents, ragtag crews of informal first-responders save people from fires, shootings and 16-foot pythons.
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