This book is about Thai politics and how its practice becomes necessary, particularly for people who are poor and excluded to remake their lives. The author refers to a period between 2007 and 2019 and his research takes place in Khon Kaen, the capital of  Northeastern Thailand (Isaan). There is a community who have built their homes along the railway tracks of that city and are now facing eviction justified by new rail projects.  This theme of exclusion is explored through the study of the interactions between residents of this community, city officials, NGO activists, and community architects.  “Citizen Designs” is a concept Eli developed to bring together a range of future-oriented political visions of social and political belonging acted upon in Khon Kaen (Gibson,  2021). 

It is relevant to consider the author’s background which led him to this work. While he was studying abroad in the region, he found these people living along the railway tracks which was something that, at first, intrigued him. At that time, he started to make connections with NGOs and working with the community organizations development institute (Elinoff, 2019). That’s how he became a familiar face in that environment. He was interested in developmental studies, solutions to poverty, and social justice matters (Elinoff, 2019). When he understood it was also a case of political exclusion as well as a citizenship matter, he gave even more importance to the subject. Throughout the book, Eli Elinoff added transcripts of dialogues he participated in or witnessed between people from the region, which gives more dynamics and realism to his work. 

After introducing the ethnographic context in the first chapter, Citizen Designs is divided into three parts. The first one is entitled “Prototypes”, where one can find a historical overview of state developmental efforts and infrastructure projects in Thailand, namely the role of state railway in the nation-building process (Shelby, 2022). Residents who are part of communities far from Bangkok are targeted by these projects. Thai government aims to recognize everyone who was born in Thailand as a Thai citizen, regardless of their ethnicity. In this case, we are looking at people who have Lao ethnicity and speak a dialect almost identical to Lao language. Naturally, it could be possible that some of these people feel closer to Laos than to Thailand, especially if they were to be overlooked by the Thai government.  

And there comes the important reflection on what it is to be a Thai citizen. How do we design a Thai citizen? What should a Thai citizen ideally look like? These questions reflect an aesthetic view of citizenship, which the author talks about throughout the book. Making people feel more connected to the Thai state is crucial. In this sense, the railway-making project can be seen as a citizen-making project as well (Shelby, 2022).  

The second part is “Assemblies”, where residents’ attempts to form communities are discussed. They aspire to combine democratic aspects such as inclusion, equality, and equal treatment to build their own community (Meechan, 2021). What will be encountered is disagreement while doing it. The author talks about “the importance of disagreement itself as a way of living together.” (p.130). And that “these disagreements were (…) instead expressions of residents’ citizen designs.” (p.130). These people started to become involved in politics which can be seen for them, in this context, as a “messy and unpleasant struggle for rights” (p.130), but that was what made their vision of democracy emerge. The author argues that disagreements and exclusions are the mechanisms to build communities and that is what democracy feels like in practice. 

The third part, “Fragmentations”, still mentions the ongoing disagreements from the last part. However, here Elinoff writes about changes in urbanization and the political situation after the 2014 coup. He uses the term “despotic urbanism” to explain the transformations in this new paradigm. While political expression was more restricted,  more commercial development took place through land appropriation: “As Isaan’s urban spaces have increasingly become scenes of investment, dispossession has grown” (p.200). This acceleration of mass infrastructure and policy shifts from “participatory planning” to “participatory dispossession” created new questions about the visions of citizenship in Khon Kaen (Elinoff, 2021). This is going to affect the design of citizens.  One main policy is called Baan Mankong (“Secure Housing”) which was supposed to assist residents in their attempts to negotiate land rights with landowners, in this case, the  State Railways of Thailand (SRT) (Elinoff, 2012). However, after the coup, it only served to encourage acceptance of their relocation, without giving them any other option.  

It is important to understand the relationship between politics and design: citizens are designed by participatory processes. Not only is it about improving houses, but it should also be about improving the quality of Isaan’s people's citizenship so that they do not feel so marginalized (Chatinakrob, 2023). As Elinoff states: “Design without politics is not democratic at all, but instead another mode of policing” (p.235). 

The military regime of Prayuth Chanocha, after 2014, came into power to bring social harmony and stability to a country that was previously divided into two groups: Yellow shirts (pro-monarchy) and Red shirts (pro-Thaksin). People from rural areas, such as  Khon Kaen, were affiliated with the Red Shirts movement, which is against military rule in politics, and supported Thaksin Shinawatra and his family members in politics (Saowanee, 2019). This figure was once seen as a threat to the monarchy and that is the main reason why he was set aside. The military coup was justified to save people from disorder and give peace especially to the poor but without giving voice to them (Saowanee, 2019). Their actions have shown that they think “the poor are incapable of thinking or acting politically” (p.236). The middle classes and the well-born believe that, if given a political voice, the poor will follow their bad instincts and not be rational (Saowanee,  2019). People from Isaan can vote in elections as any other Thai citizen, but interestingly many who do so have their address registered somewhere else (Saowanee, 2019). Isaan has been associated with political movements and parties that may not always align with the central government's interests. By registering their votes in the Bangkok area, Isaan individuals might be attempting to influence electoral outcomes in the capital. As  Alexander Saowanee concludes in his article “Isan: Double Trouble”: “The people of Isan want to show the Bangkok-based establishment how they want the country to be, and what they want as citizens of the country”.

Eli Elinoff’s work challenges this mentality about the poor. Throughout the book, he shows how Isaan people’s politics “advanced through unfinished contestations taken up in multiple complex acts of disagreement” (p.236). The book demonstrates how deep and complex conversations about democracy have been occurring in places that many others would assume to have a lack of capacity for such discussions (Saowanee, 2019). It is true that some residents saw themselves as a part of a movement for social justice and were involved in activism, while others were just worried about their own land and housing rights (Chatinakrob, 2023). In my opinion, this is natural because as in every society, there will always be people who involve themselves more in political movements,  while for others that interest does not manifest itself. However, it is important to bear in mind that, even those disinterested in political movements are objects to politics every day and should have their rights secured. As for the present, the promise of equality remains unrealized in Thailand but the possibility for political developments remains real  (Elinoff, 2021). 

In conclusion, Citizen designs compare residents’ aspirations for political and social equality with policymakers’ notions of harmony (Chatinakrob, 2023). The author challenges conventional notions of democracy as a conflict-free system. Instead, he presents a more nuanced understanding of it as a living system that evolves through ongoing contestations and negotiations (Shelby, 2022). These communities can find democracy between them, with all its discomforts and tensions. This book reflects on the possibilities and limits of democracy when contextualizing internalized conflicts of marginalized communities at the local level. It is contemporary not only because it refers to Thai politics in today’s world but also given the fact that it discusses what it means to be a Thai citizen in this century and to pursue a decent life as such. By putting together narratives of political exclusion, community building, and the impact of infrastructure projects, one can understand how citizens political identities are shaped. 

I believe that what is missing in Eli’s work is the exploration of the impact of the Baan  Mankong project on residents of the Khon Kaen railway community after the 2019 election. Despite being well-organized and providing good ethnographic context, the author occasionally relies heavily on anthropological terminology, which may pose challenges for some readers. 

I recommend this book to those interested in contemporary Thai politics, citizenship issues, and urbanization. Even those who do not have ethnographic knowledge of the region will not have difficulty acquiring it throughout the book. It opens a new Thai world outside the capital, which the reader can explore alongside the author himself.  

Editor: Maria Trumsi
Copy Editor: Ellen Anderson
Chief Editor: Anahita Poursafir

References

Chatinakrob T. (2023) “Book Review: Citizen Designs: City-making and Democracy in  Northeastern Thailand by Eli Elinoff”. LSE Southeast Asia Blog.  https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2023/05/25/book-review-citizen-designs-city-making-and democracy-in-northeastern-thailand-by-eli-elinoff/ Accessed on 25/02/24  

Elinoff, E. (2012). “Smouldering aspirations: burning buildings and the politics of  belonging in contemporary Isan”. South East Asia Research, 20(3), 381–398.  

Elinoff, E. (2019). “Subjects of politics: Between democracy and dictatorship in  Thailand”. Anthropological Theory, 19(1), 143-169.  

Elinoff, E. (2021) Citizen Designs: City-Making and Democracy in Northeastern  Thailand. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 310 pp. 

Gibson, L. (2021). “Book review: Citizen Designs (2021) by Eli Elinoff”. Anthropod:  Thoughts from a cultural anthropologist. https://anthropod.net/2021/08/23/book-review citizen-designs-2021-by-eli-elino Accessed on 25/02/24 

Meechan S. (2021) “Reviews”, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 23, 2: 121-126 

Saowanee, T. A. (2019). "Identity in Isan and the Return of the Redshirts in the 2019  Elections and Beyond". The Kyoto Review. 27. 

Saowanee, T. A. (2019). “Isan: Double Trouble.” Contemporary Southeast Asia, 41(2),  183–189. 

Shelby, H. (2022) “Review, Citizen Designs, by Eli Elinoff”. Society and Space.  https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/review-citizen-designs-by-eli-elinoff Accessed on 25/02/24