Publication Date : 30 December 2025

Author: Wipawadee Phanyangnoi

For further details on the article, visit the journal at

https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/eascramJ/article/view/282550

Abstract

Ranong Province, located in southern Thailand, is endowed with rich and diverse coastal and marine ecosystems, traditional economy reliant on artisanal fisheries, and a service sector rooted in eco-tourism and health-based industries, has been designated as a strategic site for national-scale infrastructure development. However, this top-down spatial designation reflects a development trajectory primarily shaped by macroeconomic imperatives, rather than by ecological, socio-economic, or cultural specificities of the area. Drawing from a political economy perspective, this trajectory reveals how centralized state planning privileges capital accumulation and investment-led growth while marginalizing local needs, knowledge, and livelihoods. Moreover, by incorporating the everyday politics, this paper highlights how local communities experience, contest, and negotiate development interventions in their daily interactions with state institutions and local's sociopolitical context. This paper advocates for a place-based development approach and place-sensitive strategies in shaping sustainable development trajectories for Ranong Province. Such an approach not only acknowledges local socio-ecological contexts but also recognizes the agency of subaltern actors in co-producing more just and equitable futures. The analysis is situated within broader concerns of community rights, spatial equity, and the capacity of local actors to meaningfully participate in defining their own development pathways.