The Application of the Principles of Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Living: A Case Study of Ban Wang Nokhai Community, Samut Sakhon

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to; 1) study the application levels of the principles of sufficiency economy philosophy for living by using a case of Ban Wang Nokhai community, Samut Sakhon province; 2) compare the application levels of the principles of sufficiency economy philosophy based on the classification of individual traits; and 3) investigate life styles of the community on sufficiency economy philosophy. This mixed design research employed a questionnaire and an interviews as research tools. For a quantitative research method, the data were collected from 119 households and analyzed by using a statistical package program to determine frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, F-test, and paired variables by Scheffé method.  For a qualitative research method, an in-depth interview was administered to 30 prototype households.

The research results revealed as followed;

1. Overall, the application of the sufficiency economy philosophy for living in the community exhibited a high mean level, while the moderation showed the highest mean. On separate domains, the question on how to brainstorm and applied the sufficiency economy philosophy to the community demonstrated the highest mean among questions in this group, while the next lower levels concerned virtuousness, knowledge, reasonableness, and self-immunity. In virtuousness, the question on a good role model of the community in sufficiency economy application showed the highest mean among questions in this group. The question on the support of new knowledge to the application of sufficiency economy in the community had the highest mean among questions in this group. In reasonableness, the question on an improvement of the application of the sufficiency economy relevant to the context of the community exhibited the highest mean among questions in this group. Finally, in self-immunity, the least level mean, the question on risk management planning of the community reported the highest mean among questions in this group. The findings of the qualitative research method showed that the prototype households employed the Civil Society Forum to formulate paths of the community development and to brainstorm feasibility of activities for the moderation of living.


2. The results of the analysis on difference of individual traits with the application levels of sufficiency economy revealed that the sample groups with different sex, different occupations, different educational levels, different ages, different incomes, different marital status, different awareness of sufficiency economy, and different sources of information awareness had no significance level in the application of the sufficiency economy at the .05 level, while the sample group who resided out of the community had a significance level in the application of the sufficiency economy at the .05 level.


3. The findings from life styles relevant to the application of the sufficiency economy in the community showed that the village had established the financial bureau for loaning and funding supports in careers and in case of emergency, as well as a solution to the informal debt.