Living with Risk: Precarity and Bangkok's Urban Poor

Conclusion

Conclusion 279 279 CONCLUSION This book has analysed the lives and labour of the urban lower class by focusing on the aspects of their residence and occupation in the context of the rapidly changing city of Bangkok. Its pillars of analysis, risk encounters and the risk response process underscore the importance of dynamic analyses and multilayered viewpoints, which informs the specific method of focusing on analysing the life course of individuals and class stratification. In conclusion, I recapitulate the findings of this study in light of the issues it has addressed. The long-term field surveys of two urban lower class communities The long-term field surveys of two urban lower class communities form the core of this study. This does not mean, however, that it confines discussion to these communities in isolation. Rather, it analyses these communities within the context of changes that come to the urban landscape. At the same time, it looks at the labour and lives of the urban lower class from their own perspective, rather than an external, macrooriented one. Case studies help delineate internal stratification and paths to upward mobility rather than theory or policy-based assumptions. In the end, this method of risk response process analyses sheds significant light on the realities and functions of the informal economy in these communities. Both traditional development economics and policies intending to Both traditional development economics and policies intending to support the informal economy are premised on the notion of linear modernisation and do not completely capture the various and increasingly multilayered phenomena and new dynamics developing within the informal economy that have resulted from the advancement of globalisation. Although there are differences between the policies that supported the informal economy in the 1990s, when mixed measures for poverty reduction and economic growth accompanied the progress of neoliberalism, and those in the 2000s, both failed to address the stratification that existed among the urban lower class. In fact, both sets of policies targeted only the class’s upper strata. 280 Living with Risk As discussed in Chapter 2, expectations grew for the urban lower As discussed in Chapter 2, expectations grew for the urban lower class communities to become key actors in their development. However, the stresses of development and soaring land prices in the city created strong pressure against them to move away. At the same time, many of these people returned to the inner city, causing overcrowding in existing communities. For the urban lower class, these dynamic changes to their urban environment manifested as a challenge to two aspects of residence and occupation. In these times of increasing instability, they face various risks; how individual and household conditions interact, with the support of other actors, shapes the risk response process they employ to address the risks they encounter. As changes have occurred, inequality within the urban lower class has continued to widen. Support policies based on efforts to encourage self-reliance and competition among stakeholders pay insufficient attention to such a gap. These measures may not only fail to fix internal disparities but also risk further widening them by offering benefits to the upper sub-class and not others. This potential hazard justifies the need to carefully examine internal stratification within the urban lower class. Risk Response of the Urban Lower Class and Stratification: Change of Residence, Change of Occupation This book has highlighted two risks—fire and layoffs. The fire in the inner-city community S dealt a hard blow not only to people’s homes but also to their occupations. As late as a year and a half after the fire, a survey of households showed that incomes remained lower than they were before the disaster, indicating the longevity of the fire’s depressive effects on the community. It brings to light other important implications as well. First, the impact of the fire manifested in a stratified manner. �eedFirst , the impact of the fire manifested in a stratified manner. �eedless to say, the government dedicated significantly different quantities of time to the reconstruction process in the affected communities compared to that spent on rebuilding nearby public housing for policemen or a condominium, whose cost required fire survivors a several-fold increase in income to afford. Here, I draw attention to the various stratifications that exist within the urban lower class and their reconfiguration through the risk response process. �irectly after the fire, stratification within the community, between �irectly after the fire, stratification within the community, between homeowners and renters or dependant households...