Development of a Learning Process for Creating Community Identity: Results from Rayong, Thailand

Abstract

Creating community identity needs a learning process to help communities identify, recognize and cultivate awareness of their identities, but few models exist. This study, which utilizes the participatory action research approach, highlights a 10-step learning process developed using a social capital-based community empowerment concept to create community identity. Results reveal that bonding social capital and basic capital have the highest potential for empowerment, but human capital and bonding social capital are significant. Mutual planning and decision-making, promoting leadership, encouraging collaborative learning, internal communications, continuous operations, and self-reflecting and evaluating were methods used to empower the community. Community study, analyzing social capital, and determining the community identity were extremely important processes. The most significant factor is people, especially community leaders and local intellectuals. This learning process can be used and applied to other communities with similar contexts. For different areas, indicators in a community study process should be carefully considered and specified in order to make use of resources that currently exist in the target community.