SPIRe Seminar Week 12: “Public Relations Unit and the formation of anti-narcotic ideology.”

SPIRe’s week twelve seminar will feature SPIRe PhD student Thitiwut Boonyawongwiwat presenting his research on “Public Relations Unit and the formation of anti-narcotic ideology.” from 12:00-13:00 Wednesday, April 24th  in G316 Newman Building, UCD Belfield.  All are welcome.

Abstract

The anti- ethno-narcotic ideology is the newly created ideology that could explain the phenomenon of the war on drugs on the Thai-Burmese border. This article explores how this ideology is formed and adapted by the state apparatus. It argues that the Thai state uses the public relations unit as the state apparatus to work against drug networks at the community level. This operation comes up with the anti-narcotic ideology that was significantly transformed from the official ideology to be the communal ideology through the cooperation between soldiers, community leaders and the villagers. The social boundary is also affected by the anti-narcotics ideology in four social spaces; individual, family, community and state. Interestingly, the impact on the community level relates with the construction on the precise ethnic identity in terms of ethnic identification, namely anti-ethno-narcotic identity.

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