An archaeology of Thailand's public discourses of HIV/AIDS and the Thai national AIDS plan, 1997-2001: The role of Thai Buddhist monks in the two spheres
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was two-fold: First, to explore what constitutes the gap between the Thai government's appropriation of the paradigm of community mobilization and the practices associated with it. Second, to examine the role of the Thai Buddhist monks in the public discourses of AIDS and the national AIDS plan. Three data sets were collected and analyzed: an archive of the Bangkok Post newspapers between 1996 and 1997 (136 news articles altogether); 20 in-depth interview reports of the UNAIDS; and 14 in-depth interviews conducted by this researcher between November and December, 1997. The data sets were then analyzed according to the Foucauldian method of archaeology. The analysis showed that the gap between the government's appropriation of the paradigm of community mobilization and its associated practices may be constituted by several elements: different conceptions of community mobilization; competing interdiscursive formations; displacement of the real objects of concern; differing regimens of prevention and care; and the relative absence of the Thai Buddhist monks in the public discourses of HIV/AIDS and the Thai national AIDS plan. The relative absence of the monks in the latter spheres may be seen as an effect of two obstacles—the process of circumscription and the existence of competing discourses. These findings were discussed within the framework of the concepts of governmentality, resistance and transformation, from which a typology of four publics was constructed: circumscribed, coopted, critical and circumventing publics.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Mumby, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Mass media|Religious education|Welfare
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