Abstract
There have been attempts to develop and employ tools for measuring development that shifted away from economic growth. In Thailand, a number of alternative indicators to measure the progress of development were created and employed. However, the indicators and measurements of development continued to be challenging, partly because of the dynamic changes of socio-economics, and partly due to the inconsistency between aggregated and local, or individual units of measurement. This paper aims to study meanings and develop wellbeing indicators of a community in the Northeast of Thailand. The data was derived from qualitative research conducted during 2013–2014. Focus group discussions with thirty-five formal and informal community leaders were used, and in-depth interviews were applied to collect data from thirty key informants. The results showed that the indicators of community wellbeing are classified into four groups, namely objective community wellbeing, community trust, community security, and community strength. The objective community wellbeing indicators were consistent with those that are used to guide policy and practice in Thailand. However, based on the local meaning of community wellbeing, new dimensions of indicators were found and proposed. This study recommended that these indicators should be developed further, to be employed as a tool to monitor progress, especially by local government.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the related organization which is financial support from the Thailand Research Fund through the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. Program (Grant No. PHD/0264/2552) to student’s initials and advisor’s initials is gratefully acknowledged and this paper is a part of the study entitled, “the Development of Community Wellbeing Indicators of Rural Community in the Northeast of Thailand”, Ph.D. Development Science program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. We thank the Research Group on Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (WeSD), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University for the helpful advice and kind support, and thank Miss Veena Cute-ngarmpring, Mr. Richard Nicholas Gordon and Mr.Stephen John Deakin for assistance with the English language presentation of this manuscript.
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Weeranakin, P., Promphakping, B. Local Meanings of Wellbeing and the Construction of Wellbeing Indicators. Soc Indic Res 138, 689–703 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1692-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1692-3