พลวัตของการควบคุมจัดการพื้นที่ตลาดชายแดนไทย - สปป.ลาว จังหวัดหนองคายภายใต้กระแสโลกาภิวัตน์

Dynamics of Control and Management in the Thai - Laos Border Marketplace, Nong Khai Province in Globalization

Abstract

                 This article primarily deals with the dynamics of Thai-Lao border control at Nong Mon Village Border Trade Checkpoint in Nong Khai Province. Based on qualitative research methodology, the data employed in this article were drawn from reviewed documents as well as fieldwork. The data collection techniques used during the fieldwork comprised        in-depth interviews and participant and non-participant observations. The selected key informants included community seniors, Thai government officials, trans-border Laotian petty traders, load carrying workers, tricycle riders, and transported boatmen.

                 According to the research, upon the end of the Cold War era, the notion known as New World Order was created in order to promote international cooperation in different aspects such as human rights, environments, free trade, copyright and patentability. The aforementioned New World Order has spread throughout the world, including the area of Nong Mon Village Border Trade Checkpoint. Nong Mon is a border community, which people from the both sides of the borderline--the Mekong River-have been closely linked on the basis of kinship as well as ethnic origin. Socio-cultural and economic relations between the people from the both sides of the river have been established for a long time. Since Thailand has been a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Greater Mekong Subregion has emerged, the border regime has played a vital role in controlling and monitoring transborder mobilities of people and goods. The functioning of border regime are made possible through the "border trade checkpoint," which was established in the replacement of the "natural trade channel".  Such a border regime reflects how the Thai state tries to control and monitor the border zone. As the border area where local people use traditional norms to maintain their crossborder relationship, however, the Thai state cannot exercise its power to control and monitor entire transborder mobilities of people and goods.