Chris Baker Research Articles

Chris Baker’s Kokopu Dreams: A Prophetic View of a Disrupted Post-Pandemic World

The global pandemic, with its multiple and far-reaching disruptions, has forced us to rethink and rewrite the world we live in. Chris Baker’s novel Kokopu Dreams (2000) sounds somehow prophetic today in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis. His work could be labelled as “speculative fiction” and placed among the umbrella categories of magic realism, science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction. Set in Aotearoa New Zealand, the story focuses on the life of the few human survivors of a rapidly-spreading deadly illness caused by the rabbit calicivirus, illegally introduced into the country. The calicivirus has mutated and killed almost all the human population, who is now living in a land controlled by animals and spirits. The novel is also a template of transcultural writing, mixing Māori creation stories, Christian and Celtic mythologies, scientific issues and aspects of everyday life. Having grown up in a contact zone of different cultures―Baker is of Polynesian (Samoan), Anglo-Saxon and Celtic origin, but regards himself as a “Pacific” person―he shares that multiplicity of belonging which is a typical condition in the Pacific region today. Baker deals with a physical and cultural collective trauma, and the process of re-signification of the ethos in a bi-cultural country made of people of mixed ancestry, European and Māori. The re-elaboration of the epidemic experience is therefore based on both a Western rational representation and an indigenous mythical one.

Detection of Incidental Pulmonary Embolism on Conventional Contrast-Enhanced Chest CT: Comparison of an Artificial Intelligence Algorithm and Clinical Reports.

BACKGROUND. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have shown strong performance for detection of pulmonary embolism (PE) on CT examinations performed using a dedicated protocol for PE detection. AI performance is less well studied for detecting PE on examinations ordered for reasons other than suspected PE (i.e., incidental PE [iPE]). OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of an AI algorithm for detection of iPE on conventional contrast-enhanced chest CT examinations. METHODS. This retrospective study included 2555 patients (mean age, 53.2 ± 14.5 [SD] years; 1340 women, 1215 men) who underwent 3003 conventional contrast-enhanced chest CT examinations (i.e., not using pulmonary CTA protocols) between September 2019 and February 2020. A commercial AI algorithm was applied to the images to detect acute iPE. A vendor-supplied natural language processing (NLP) algorithm was applied to the clinical reports to identify examinations interpreted as positive for iPE. For all examinations that were positive by the AI-based image review or by NLP-based report review, a multireader adjudication process was implemented to establish a reference standard for iPE. Images were also reviewed to identify explanations of AI misclassifications. RESULTS. On the basis of the adjudication process, the frequency of iPE was 1.3% (40/3003). AI detected four iPEs missed by clinical reports, and clinical reports detected seven iPEs missed by AI. AI, compared with clinical reports, exhibited significantly lower PPV (86.8% vs 97.3%, p = .03) and specificity (99.8% vs 100.0%, p = .045). Differences in sensitivity (82.5% vs 90.0%, p = .37) and NPV (99.8% vs 99.9%, p = .36) were not significant. For AI, neither sensitivity nor specificity varied significantly in association with age, sex, patient status, or cancer-related clinical scenario (all p > .05). Explanations of false-positives by AI included metastatic lymph nodes and pulmonary venous filling defect, and explanations of false-negatives by AI included surgically altered anatomy and small-caliber subsegmental vessels. CONCLUSION. AI had high NPV and moderate PPV for iPE detection, detecting some iPEs missed by radiologists. CLINICAL IMPACT. Potential applications of the AI tool include serving as a second reader to help detect additional iPEs or as a worklist triage tool to allow earlier iPE detection and intervention. Various explanations of AI misclassifications may provide targets for model improvement.

Abstract LB-390: Intratumoral electroporation of plasmid-encoded IL-12 and membrane-bound anti-CD3 increases tumor immunogenicity and augments the function of T cell subsets

Abstract Intratumoral (IT) delivery of plasmid IL-12 (tavokinogene telseplasmid; tavo) via electroporation (EP), collectively referred as IT-tavo-EP, generates immunologically-relevant levels of localized IL-12, triggering regression of both treated and distant tumors with minimal toxicity in preclinical and clinical studies. Our previous clinical trial data from melanoma patients treated with IT-tavo-EP identified a treatment-related increase of infiltrating T cells and transcripts related to immune activation, as well as a significant increase in the IFN-γ score of patients with a clinical benefit, suggesting that CD3+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) may be critical in maximizing the anti-tumor effects of IT-tavo-EP. Furthermore, in-house biomarker data have identified an abundance of non-tumor reactive TIL that, if mobilized could additionally contribute to a clinical response. Accordingly, a plasmid-encoded membrane-bound polyclonal T cell-stimulating anti-CD3 (αCD3) hybrid antibody (scFv) was developed and used in combination with tavo (IT-tavo-αCD3-EP) to broaden the scope and depth of the T cell response. We previously demonstrated that membrane expression of αCD3 on neoplastic and stromal cells could activate CD3+ TIL, driving enhanced proliferation and cytotoxicity in a B16-OVA murine model. Here, using immune profiling of the tumor microenvironment (TME), we have demonstrated that this membrane-bound αCD3 therapeutic can significantly upregulate frequencies of CXCR3+CD8+ T cells and short-lived effector T cells, while reducing PD-1 expression on CD8+ T cells in vivo. Critically, naïve T cells, Treg cells, and exhausted T cells (subsets not typically associated with strong anti-tumor responses) displayed enhanced effector function (IFN-γ and granzyme B release) with engagement of membrane-bound αCD3 and IL-12. Furthermore, we found that this therapeutic approach could equally enhance proliferation of T cells regardless of the affinity for their cognate peptide:MHC, suggesting a TCR independent mechanism. Collectively, these observations demonstrate that IT-tavo-αCD3-EP can mobilize broad subsets of T cells beyond dominant anti-tumor effectors demonstrated. Thus, while enhanced cytolytic function is associated with this therapy, inclusion of additional atypical anti-tumor T cell subsets may also promote reshaping of the TME by production of effector cytokines upon engagement of surface-bound αCD3. Moreover, functional restoration of TIL isolated from a melanoma patient with active clinical progression on anti-PD-1 therapy, was possible with engagement of membrane-bound αCD3 in the presence of IL-12. Collectively, these data continue to support the utility of IT-tavo-αCD3-EP as a promising therapeutic approach for patients with melanoma and other accessible solid tumors. Citation Format: Mia Han, Anandaroop Mukhopadhyay, Bianca Nguyen, Jack Y. Lee, Erica Browning, Jon Salazar, Reneta Hermiz, Lauren Svenson, Chris Baker, Daniel O'Connor, Kellie Malloy, David A. Canton, Christopher G. Twitty. Intratumoral electroporation of plasmid-encoded IL-12 and membrane-bound anti-CD3 increases tumor immunogenicity and augments the function of T cell subsets [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-390.

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker . Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2016. xv, 186 pp. ISBN: 9789814722001 (paper).

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker . Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2016. xv, 186 pp. ISBN: 9789814722001 (paper).

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World.

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit have already proved themselves one of the most creative and complementary marital partnerships in the business of interpreting Asia. While they eschew partitioning responsibility, suffice it to say that together they offer both an elegant Cambridge style of historical analysis and great empathy for the Thai sources and context. Following their innovative and successful A History of Thailand (2005), Baker and Pasuk have recently turned their attention to elegant English editions of some crucial Ayutthaya texts. The scholarly effort of rendering into poetic English two colorful epic poems, Tale of Khun Chang Khun Phaen: Siam’s Great Folk Epic of Love and War (2010), and Yuan Phai, Defeat of Lanna: A Fifteenth-Century Thai Epic Poem (2016), was accompanied by a study and translation of The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam (2016). These works provide a cultural depth lacking in earlier surveys, and are drawn on liberally throughout Baker and Pasuk’s A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World. The Palace Law, for example, provides a vivid picture of the military style of court culture that the authors see as characteristic of the sixteenth century in Siam (105–111).

A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit

A History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, trans. and eds. The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, trans. and eds. <i>The Palace Law of Ayutthaya and the Thammasat: Law and Kingship in Siam</i>

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power. Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015. Pp. 208. Inequality is a much-debated and controversial issue in the social sciences. Academic and public discourse on inequality is usually confined to advanced economies and rarely includes the developing world, despite rising inequality in economies such as China, India, or Southeast Asia. This volume, dedicated to inequality in the case of Thailand, is the first comprehensive study of its kind. The book highlights that the repeated crises and coups d'etat in Thailand are rooted in inequalities. Thanks to the quality and multifaceted contributions, this edited volume will surely become a key reference book for students of Thailand and of inequality. Phongpaichit and Baker's introduction presents their analysis of how economic inequalities underpin inequalities of power, social positions and access to resources. Using extensive time series data (1962-2015), they show that income inequality has worsened sharply during the development era. Thailand's inequality was one of the highest level in the world when it peaked in 1992. The authors point to several political-economic factors to explain this rising trend in contrast with neighbouring countries. For example, while rising inequality in Thailand is due to the benign neglect of authorities, in Malaysia, the government targeted inequalities after the riots of 1969 by implementing a policy of positive discrimination in favour of the Malays, which also provided it a source of durable legitimacy. It was only in the 2000s that the Thai government enacted a set of policies, including its universal healthcare scheme, that income inequality declined (though nonetheless remaining the highest in Southeast Asia). The remaining chapters look at different sources of inequality in Thailand. In Chapter 2, Laowakul analyses the skewed distribution of wealth based on the analysis of household surveys and the distribution of landholding based on the first ever study of a database of the Land Department. She shows that the concentration of land owning is indeed very high. She attributes this to the under-supply of public goods and services. However, public money is lacking, not because Thailand is a poor country, but because of the low rate of taxation. She proposes a tax on wealth which would fall on relatively few people--given the very high concentration of resources--while generating much-needed public revenues for the supply of public goods. Chapter 3 is dedicated to inequality in education and wages. Lathapipat highlights that overall progress in education has been accompanied by growing disparities in the access to tertiary education. Household income plays an even more important role in limiting continuation to the tertiary level. This explains the widening wage gap between those with secondary and tertiary education as well as between those receiving different standards of tertiary education. The author suggests that providing fair access to good-quality tertiary education will be key to reducing social inequality in the long run. Chapter 4, authored by Achavanuntakul, Rakkiattiwong and Direkudomsak, examines how capital markets affects inequality. First, the stock exchange exacerbates the inequality between those who have access to stock exchange and those who do not because the Thai government has never seriously taxed financial gains and has even granted tax exemptions to investors. Second, the stock exchange advantages the 200 richest families with access to inside information--such as loopholes in regulation or from the non-enforcement of rules --over the vast majority of investors which depend on public information. To support this claim, the authors tracked fifty-seven political stocks at the time of three general elections between 2005-11 and found abnormal returns in all cases. …

Akira Nozaki and Chris Baker (eds), Village communities, states, and traders: essays in honour of Chatthip Nartsupha, Bangkok: Thai-Japanes Seminar and Sangsan Publishing, 2003, xix+315pp.

Akira Nozaki and Chris Baker (eds), Village communities, states, and traders: essays in honour of Chatthip Nartsupha, Bangkok: Thai-Japanes Seminar and Sangsan Publishing, 2003, xix+315pp.

Interview

interview

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power ed. by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker

Reviewed by: Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power ed. by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker Thanet Aphornsuvan1 Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (eds) Singapore: NUS Press, 2016. 208pp. ISBN: 978-981-4722-00-1 This is a book about the political economy of Thailand in the globalized era, focusing especially on the sensitive and much concerned issue plaguing the nation for a long time: inequality. What makes Thailand so conspicuous on this issue is the central theme of the book. The authors studied sources of money income and the social structure, which generate a kind of power that enables the privileged to be richer and more powerful while spelling an unfortunate future [End Page 161] for the working population. The book chapters are the fruits of a research project on ‘Towards a More Equitable Thailand: A study of Wealth, Power, and Reform’. In the tumultuous years during which the nation was divided into two colours of yellow and red with sharp differences in political ideologies, the authors of these chapters were moved to take a more serious look at the phenomenon of inequality in Thai society. Unequal Thailand persuasively argues that the increase in inequality is a product of oligarchy, the rule of the few, one that involves the political system as well as the driving of economic forces creating a new and modern society in which people’s lives have improved in many ways. Yet the small elite were, and are, in control of the vision and reality of the future of the country. In this timely and much-needed book on the sensitive issue of inequality in Thailand, the authors analyse unequal practices and the policies and politics that reproduce the Thai oligarchy. The editors of Unequal Thailand, Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit are well-known scholars of Thai political economy and political history. Their meticulous approach to the study of political economy and careful analyses of the connections between economy and politics in Thailand are evident here in the first chapter. The introductory chapter gives the volume cohesion and persuasively argues that the increase in inequality has been a product of oligarchy, the rule of the few. Based upon the Gini index (a measure of income distribution in which a higher figure means greater inequality), Thailand became one of the most unequal countries in thirty years of economic development from the 1969s to 1990s with the index rising from 0.413 to 0.536. The prominent factors which contributed to this trend included government policies that favoured capital while repressing working people, the concentration of growth mainly in and around Bangkok, the prices, profits, and salaries for some adjusted towards international levels as well as the increase in value of property as globalization enveloped Thailand. From the mid-1970s onwards, world agricultural prices fell relentlessly, bringing down farmers’ income. On top of these factors Thailand lacked strong political will to resolve this growing problem of inequality among the country’s political and bureaucratic leaders. The rest of the book has eight chapters, which make use of government data to show how inequality in economics, politics, and education is sustained in Thailand. The second chapter by Duangmanee Laovakul on ‘Concentration of Land and Other Wealth in Thailand’ is a revelation about the main problem of equity and social justice in a country where agriculture has dominated the economy for so long. Land has been the most fundamental means of production in Thai society since at least the beginning of the formation of the Bangkok Empire under the Chakri dynasty in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Historically, the Ayutthaya king was the ‘lord of the land’ and ‘lord of people’s lives’ to whom all land in the kingdom belonged; no individual ownerships were ever granted to the nobility and phrai (commoners) of the kingdom except usufruct rights or use rights over designated land. The fact that the researcher of the chapter accessed data from the Land Department, a first in the study of land ownership, also tells us about the nature of politics and power involving the management of land in Thailand. The study clearly...

Book Review: Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic

Among Thai traditional literatures, “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” is considered a star that has been widely mentioned and highly popular among readers. Such popularity means that it has engendered numerous adaptations in various forms, including screenplay, abridged prose, novel, movie, television series, comic, and animation. M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, a former prime minister who was also named a national artist in literature, has described in his collection of articles the value of “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” on studies of Thailand and the Thai people during a certain era that: “...“Khun Chang Khun Phaen” may as well be a record of the culture, the traditions, and the lifestyle of the Thai people - may I say, from the Ayuddhaya era to the reign of King Rama IV of the Rattanakosin era. This record is invaluable in the study of almost everything about the Thai people - from the form of government, the society, the culture, the traditions, and other details of life and lifestyle of the people in Thailand. “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” is, therefore, among the literatures that shall be preserved, and once preserved, studies should be conducted, and understandings sought, as much as possible from this literature... which can be compared to a great treasure.” “Five Studies on Khun Chang Khun Phaen: The Many Faces of a Thai Literary Classic.”, the latest book that collects articles about “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”, is edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, the latter of whom has translated “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” from Thai to English and won the A.L. Becker Southeast Asian Literature in 2010. The collection includes (1) “A Society Which Lacks Principle” by M.L. Boonlua Debyasuvarn, (2) “The Aggression of Characters in Khun Chang Khun Phaen” by Cholthira Satyawadhana, (3) “Khun Chang Khun Phaen and the Moral Landscape of the Three Worlds Cosmology” by Warunee Osatharom, (4) “Space, Identity, and Self-Definition: The Forest in Khun Chang Khun Phaen” by David Atherton, and (5) “The Revolt of Khun Phaen: Contesting Power in Early Modern Siam” the two editors themselves. Three out of five articles by Debyasuvarn, Satyawadhana, and Osatharom had been published before (in Thai and, in order to be included in the latest publication, translated into English by Baker and Phongpaichit), same as the piece by Baker and Phongaichit. Only the work by Atherton, which newly summarizes his master’s dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has originally been written in English. The pieces by Debyasuvarn and Satyawadhana, written in the 1970s, were among the first attempts to critique Thai traditional literatures in a way that Western modern literatures had been critiqued. On the other hand, the pieces by Osatharom and Atherton, written after the year 2000, were intended to understand the texts of “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” and what these texts would like to represent, such as the government’s religious ideology early in the Chakri dynasty, the identity and the subjectivity in defining areas called “forests”, and a political reinterpretation with regards to the opposition of power. As I had earlier studied “Khun Chang Khun Phaen” in “Political Implication in “Sae Pha Khun Chang - Khun Phaen”, I feel that this book, a collection of articles pertaining to “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”, is a good start and a necessity to read for people who have just become interesting in examining this important Thai traditional literature. The readers would be drawn to see the development and some examples of the many perspectives that can be reflected upon this one literature over the past five decades, and eventually unwittingly invited to discuss and perpetually offer new perspectives.

Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker, eds. Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, eds. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015, 216p.Does Thailand have an Oligarchy? If so, how do we define it for the national case of And most importantly for this collection of essays, what is the empirical proof of this in contemporary These are some of the main questions which pervade Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power, edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Translated and reworked from a Thai-language edition, Su sangkom Thai samoe na (Toward a more equitable Thailand) published in 2014 by Matichon, this volume is a timely and useful review of some of the political economy issues facing Thailand today.With nine chapters by Thai scholars and technocrats, the aim of the book is to provide contemporary data and analysis on those material foundations which have fostered a growth in inequality and a strengthening in in recent years. Some chapters do this better than others, but all provide insight into these issues. In terms of raw empirical analysis all of the research essays are a success, particularly the second chapter on land distribution as an indicator of both inequality and oligarchy. For those interested in the possible material foundations of recent turmoil in Thai political society, this volume is an absolute gem and is more than worth adding to one's library.Theoretically speaking, the introductory chapter by the editors utilizes very recent publications on inequality and to frame the research-based chapters which follow. Noteworthy out of this list are Thomas Piketty's bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and Jeffrey A. Winters' comparative political economy treatise (2011). Those familiar with either of Piketty's or Winters' ideation on these topics will find evidence for both within the volume. In terms of the latter's theory on oligarchy, however, the editors seemed to have disvalued the analytic nuance of Winters' repositioning of toward its original Aristotelian meaning-one which highlights the unique power position of agential material wealth without falling into the structural (or teleological) constraints of Marxist historical materialism. In its place, the editors create the moniker flexible oligarchy to mean any kind of group of elites (whether they be military, political, bureaucratic, royal, business, or so on) which in order to rule the nation. This is somewhat frustrating, because the insights on how wealth is defended, why oligarchs fight, and what this means for a political society are lost. At best then means any network of individuals that are somehow more powerful or more influential than the average Thai person. Networks there are in Thailand, but to elide the difference between an oligarch and an elite is to misunderstand the challenge which inequality and in Thailand pose.Yet to be fair, Winters' conceptualization of has been challenged-most directly in a collection of essays edited by Michele Ford and Thomas Pepinsky (2013, 8) on oligarchy's power within the Indonesian context. This critique has four areas of contestation against as a political force: explanatory capacity, political ontology, methodological orientation, and level of attention paid to non-material sources. And, indeed, within the discussion of theory itself, not everyone agrees on what means. For example, scholars like Richard Robison and Vedi Hadiz (2004) are more than willing to allow to stay within the boundaries of a Marxist understanding of materialism. Yet, the most direct application of Winters' approach to political society in Thailand, at least on the national-level, is by T. F. Rhoden (2015) in the journal article Oligarchy in Thailand? Here, Rhoden argues that Thailand does have an oligarchy, not in the sense of a regime or even as a class that rules everything within the country, but rather in the sense of an empirical fact of Thailand's political economy, which cannot be ignored. …

Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, eds. Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, eds. Singapore: NUS Press, 2015, 216p.Does Thailand have an Oligarchy? If so, how do we define it for the national case of And most importantly for this collection of essays, what is the empirical proof of this in contemporary These are some of the main questions which pervade Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power, edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker. Translated and reworked from a Thai-language edition, Su sangkom Thai samoe na (Toward a more equitable Thailand) published in 2014 by Matichon, this volume is a timely and useful review of some of the political economy issues facing Thailand today.With nine chapters by Thai scholars and technocrats, the aim of the book is to provide contemporary data and analysis on those material foundations which have fostered a growth in inequality and a strengthening in in recent years. Some chapters do this better than others, but all provide insight into these issues. In terms of raw empirical analysis all of the research essays are a success, particularly the second chapter on land distribution as an indicator of both inequality and oligarchy. For those interested in the possible material foundations of recent turmoil in Thai political society, this volume is an absolute gem and is more than worth adding to one's library.Theoretically speaking, the introductory chapter by the editors utilizes very recent publications on inequality and to frame the research-based chapters which follow. Noteworthy out of this list are Thomas Piketty's bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and Jeffrey A. Winters' comparative political economy treatise (2011). Those familiar with either of Piketty's or Winters' ideation on these topics will find evidence for both within the volume. In terms of the latter's theory on oligarchy, however, the editors seemed to have disvalued the analytic nuance of Winters' repositioning of toward its original Aristotelian meaning-one which highlights the unique power position of agential material wealth without falling into the structural (or teleological) constraints of Marxist historical materialism. In its place, the editors create the moniker flexible oligarchy to mean any kind of group of elites (whether they be military, political, bureaucratic, royal, business, or so on) which in order to rule the nation. This is somewhat frustrating, because the insights on how wealth is defended, why oligarchs fight, and what this means for a political society are lost. At best then means any network of individuals that are somehow more powerful or more influential than the average Thai person. Networks there are in Thailand, but to elide the difference between an oligarch and an elite is to misunderstand the challenge which inequality and in Thailand pose.Yet to be fair, Winters' conceptualization of has been challenged-most directly in a collection of essays edited by Michele Ford and Thomas Pepinsky (2013, 8) on oligarchy's power within the Indonesian context. This critique has four areas of contestation against as a political force: explanatory capacity, political ontology, methodological orientation, and level of attention paid to non-material sources. And, indeed, within the discussion of theory itself, not everyone agrees on what means. For example, scholars like Richard Robison and Vedi Hadiz (2004) are more than willing to allow to stay within the boundaries of a Marxist understanding of materialism. Yet, the most direct application of Winters' approach to political society in Thailand, at least on the national-level, is by T. F. Rhoden (2015) in the journal article Oligarchy in Thailand? Here, Rhoden argues that Thailand does have an oligarchy, not in the sense of a regime or even as a class that rules everything within the country, but rather in the sense of an empirical fact of Thailand's political economy, which cannot be ignored. …

Studying Appalachian Studies: Making the Path by Walking ed. by Chad Berry, Phillip J. Obermiller, and Shaunna L. Scott

Studying Appalachian Studies: Making the Path by Walking. Edited by Chad Berry, Phillip J. Obermiller, and Shaunna L. Scott. (Urbana and other cities: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pp. [xii], 240. Paper, $25.00, ISBN 978-0-252-08083-8; cloth, $95.00, ISBN 978-0-252-03929-4.) Chad Berry, Phillip J. Obermiller, and Shaunna L. Scott have compiled eight essays that evaluate the field of Appalachian studies. The contributors consider Appalachia's past, present, and future from a range of perspectives: history, sociology, regional and rural development, literary criticism, and economics. The collection is thus indicative of how interdisciplinary Appalachian studies has become since its incipiency in the late 1970s. Historians of the American South will find many of these essays informative. Barbara Ellen Smith recaps the significance of representation in this seemingly anomalous region. She calls on scholars to further disrupt the myth of Appalachia as an overwhelmingly white and homogeneous outpost. For Smith, historians must complicate the normative notions of gender and sexuality that have inflected even the most progressive interpretations of the region. While many studies illustrate the complexity of life and demographics in the mountain South, Smith argues that scholars can do more to locate the experience and the resistance of marginalized people who occupy multiple social positions across the region (p. 56). Two essays, one coauthored by Donald Edward Davis and Chris Baker, the other jointly written by Amanda L. Fickey and Michael Samers, survey the history of the dysfunctional development schemes that have defined much of Appalachia's relationship with state and federal governments, as well as nongovernmental organizations. In their sober assessment, Davis and Baker explain how ambitious and mostly well-intentioned programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and other public-private partnerships have yielded mixed results. Fickey and Samers explore the legacy of the Appalachia Regional Commission, still another developmental agency that promised prosperity in the hills. At their best, these programs alleviated poverty within some counties and communities. At their worst, outside developmental efforts reproduced top-down organizational structures and unresponsive bureaucracies, disempowering poor people, aggravating entrenched problems, and perpetuating systemic inequality. As the essays demonstrate, many of the same issues that animated activists and academics at the discipline's founding remain central to it today. With the proliferation of fracking and mountaintop removal mining, understanding the history of environmental spoliation in the region is as crucial as ever. …

Protecting Siam’s Heritage (Baker)

This work is a book review considering the title Protecting Siam’s Heritage edited by Chris Baker.

Somboon Siriprachai (edited by Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker). Industrialization with a Weak State: Thailand's Development in Historical Perspective. Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press, 2012, xii+183p.

Industrialization with a Weak State: Thailand's Development in Historical Perspective Somboon Siriprachai (edited by Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker) Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press, 2012, xii+ 183p.Over the past decade, Thailand has experienced constant political turmoil. Although fair evaluation of the reforms of the Thaksin government (2001-06) is not yet possible, there is little doubt that these reforms cut into Thailand's socio-economic fundamentals-long treated as a taboo subject-and affect the core factors that have stabilized and integrated the nation. Undoubtedly, Thaksin's growth strategies, various redistribution policies, and drastic rearrangements of vested interests (i.e. rents) enlarged the economic pie. But these also brought vast wealth to crony business factions, attracting serious complaints from groups that held opposing traditional vested interests. Since the coup d'etat of 2006, the political system has failed to adjust to conflicts in a democratic fashion and the last 10 years have seen the actual democratic process itself continually undermined. Public conflicts between competing groups have become a daily scene, leading to both the military and the judiciary asserting political control, even as the bureaucracy and monarchy do not show any signs of being in full control of the situation.Somboon Siriprachai's posthumous book, Industrialization with a Weak State, develops his observations on and analyses of long-term development in post-war Thailand until 1990s. Adopting a critical stance toward standard development theory, it describes the Thai as a weak state, one contrasted to the strong typically found in East Asian countries. Within such a context, the book discusses the characteristics and shortcomings of Thailand as well as the prospective challenges that the Thai economy faces. While the period the book focuses on is a little out of date (pre-1990), the argument nevertheless contains many insights which remain relevant for Thailand's present socio-economy.The author, Professor Somboon Siriprachai, was a prominent Thai economist, who had long engaged in academic work on Thailand's development in Thammasat University. Regrettably, he suddenly passed away in December 2008 while in Japan, on his way back home from a conference at Kyoto University, where he gave a talk based on one part of the manuscript that became this book, and this reviewer was his discussant. Carrying out his wishes, his friends in academia, Kaoru Sugihara, Pasuk Phongpaichit, and Chris Baker, edited his published journal papers and gathered them together in this book.Owing to the nature of the publication process, this book is a collection of the author's major journal papers, rather than a monograph. However, all chapters share a common concern: to shed light on the fundamental structure of the Thai economy. The seven chapters are divided into three parts. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the book and its basic questions. Chapter 2 focuses on export-led industrialization under the conditions of abundance; chapter 3 on demographic change, land cultivation, and deforestation; and chapter 4 primarily on the inconsistency of development policy. The second half of the book, chapters 5 to 7, revisits the question of East Asian development. These chapters offer a critical overview of modern development economics and focus on the nature of the state as a policy authority in East Asia and Thailand by pointing out the limitations of the applicability of the East Asian miracle to Thailand.Chapter 1 provides an overview of the trajectory of the development stages that took place between the 1940s and the 1990s. These were: the state-owned-enterprise-based economy of the Phibun regime in the 1940s; the private capital-led economy with national development plans and the conservative macroeconomic management of the Sarit regime in the late 1950s to 1960s; industrialization with primary product export and import substitution in 1960s; gradual conversion toward export-led industrialization while coping with the global recession of the 1970s; and serious macroeconomic imbalance and its recovery in the early 1980s. …

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Land and Loyalty: Security and the Development of Property Rights in Thailand by TomasLarssonCornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2012 Pp. xii + 208. ISBN 978‐0‐8014‐5081‐5 (hardback)

Asian-Pacific Economic LiteratureVolume 27, Issue 1 p. 159-160 Book Review Land and Loyalty: Security and the Development of Property Rights in Thailand by Larsson, Tomas Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2012 Pp. xii + 208. ISBN 978-0-8014-5081-5 (hardback) Chris Baker, Chris Baker Bangkok, ThailandSearch for more papers by this author Chris Baker, Chris Baker Bangkok, ThailandSearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 May 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/apel.12009Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume27, Issue1May 2013Pages 159-160 RelatedInformation

Cities for People, Not for Profit. Edited by NeilBrenner, PeterMarcuse &amp; MargitMayer (eds.), London/New York, 2011: Routledge. 284 pp., Paperback, 978‐0‐415‐60178‐8, $39.95. Hardback, 978‐0‐415‐60177‐1, $155.00.

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale GeografieVolume 103, Issue 5 p. 624-626 Book Review Cities for People, Not for Profit. Edited by Neil Brenner, Peter Marcuse & Margit Mayer (eds.), London/New York, 2011: Routledge. 284 pp., Paperback, 978-0-415-60178-8, $39.95. Hardback, 978-0-415-60177-1, $155.00. Chris Baker, Chris Baker William Temple Foundation and University of Chester, UKSearch for more papers by this author Chris Baker, Chris Baker William Temple Foundation and University of Chester, UKSearch for more papers by this author First published: 16 November 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.2012.00744.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume103, Issue5Special Issue: The design, experience and justice of mobility. Guest Editors: Huib Ernste, Karel Martens & Joris SchapendonkDecember 2012Pages 624-626 RelatedInformation