Living with Risk: Precarity and Bangkok's Urban Poor

Chapter 5: The Urban Lower Class and Their Residences

The Urban Lower Class and Their Residences 133 133 Chapter 5 The Urban Lower Class and Their residences Housing is a basic human need. The first challenge faced by migrants arriving in a city is to secure residence. In this chapter, I focus on the issue of residence in the communities that are the subject of this investigation . In the case of inner-city community S, this chapter deals with residences prior to the occurrence of the 2004 fire. I clarify the current status and historical formation of individual housing units, which were mostly self-built, and the ways that they define each community as a whole. In this chapter, I describe day-to-day life in the communities. Next, I provide an overview of co-residence patterns and household composition . Finally, I focus on the construction process of individual housing, the creation of living space, and the function of communities as residential spaces. The characteristics of residential arrangement are deeply linked with survival strategies in the city. I expand the analysis from the composition and structure of individual households to housing as a whole and, then, to community as a space where residences aggregate. However, these communities do not simply represent collections of buildings that serve as housing. They are, rather, spaces with multiple functions where people reproduce their labour, conduct their daily lives, and, for some self-employed workers, utilize as places of production. From the perspective of community analysis, this chapter sheds a light on the abundant multi-functionality of residence, from the perspective of the urban lower class. Day-to-Day Life in the Communities Let us first try to imagine day-to-day life in these communities. Morning comes early. Well before dawn, street vendors and peddlers head to the 134 Living with Risk markets for supplies and then begin to prepare side dishes and pastries for morning meals. Some residents set off by bus or bike to large markets to purchase materials for the day, while others are able to get their stock at nearby local markets. In former-fringe community U, most individuals must travel outside the community to purchase materials for the day. This provides opportunities for residents such as A, whose primary job is a singer in hotels, but who moonlights in the morning by driving people around in a Subaru. The fee is only ten baht per person and the service is popular with community residents who do not own a bike. Just before six in the morning, as the sky starts to get lighter, the sound of crowing roosters fills the air. In every community, there are households with roosters, which are perhaps used for cockfighting. By the time the sky is completely light, the community is bustling with individuals heading for work, children setting off for school, and peddlers and street vendors pushing carts full of side dishes and pastries to tempt the morning rush of workers in the business district. Food carts and bikes wind their way through narrow alleys already packed with people. By this time, the doors of most houses are open, and the sounds of televisions and radios spill out into the streets. Even after the morning rush has slowed, the streets are by no means deserted. Women and elderly workers do piecework under the eaves of houses, nightshift workers return home, and elderly stop to visit with one another. Many street vendors operate within the community; some do most of their business in the early morning and others are just beginning their workday at nightfall. Taxi drivers on daytime duty grab coffee and breakfast at their habitual stalls before setting off to work at four in the morning. Children buy soymilk and fried foods to eat for breakfast before heading to school. Long-standing delis and made-to-order shops know the likes and dislikes of their regular customers and even provide home delivery. Such customers pay when they return the empty dishes. Anyone can do business simply by putting a table out in front of their house. Even if profits are lower than if they might be outside the community , it is not uncommon to see high school students, elderly people, or women with young children in their arms selling things to earn a little extra spending money. In the evening, resident street vendors, peddlers, and garbage collectors return to the community pushing two-wheeled carts or handcarts. As theft is common, houses have safe spaces for storing these carts. Throughout the...