Reconfiguring Social Capital through Community-Based Beekeeping: From Livelihood Practice to Collective Agency in Southern Thailand

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This study re-examines the role of social capital in rural development by investigating how community-based beekeeping reconfigures social capital and contributes to the emergence of collective agency in Southern Thailand. Challenging conventional perspectives that treat social capital as a pre-existing resource, the study conceptualizes social capital as a dynamic and relational process that is continuously produced through everyday livelihood practices. Drawing on Husserlian phenomenology, qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, non-participant observation, and document analysis with beekeepers and community stakeholders in Na Bon District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. The analysis focuses on participants’ lived experiences and the relational processes through which economic activities generate social connections, shared meanings, and collective action. The findings reveal that beekeeping functions not only as a livelihood activity but also as a social arena in which trust, reciprocity, knowledge exchange, and institutional linkages are actively cultivated. Through these processes, social capital is reconfigured through new forms of participation and collaboration, strengthening community capacities and fostering collective agency. Community members gradually develop the ability to coordinate actions, negotiate identities, and engage with external actors such as state agencies and market institutions. At the same time, the study highlights uneven access to networks and resources, suggesting that community-based development may generate both inclusion and exclusion. The study argues that participation should be understood not merely as an outcome of social capital but as a generative mechanism through which social capital is produced and reconfigured. By linking social capital theory, community economy perspectives, and phenomenological inquiry, the research offers a process-oriented framework for understanding grassroots rural development in the Global South.

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Related topics: Social Capital and Networks · Community and Sustainable Development · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management