Abstract
Women’s groups in the Deep South of Thailand, who are ethnically and religiously diverse, are significant stakeholders for peace initiatives. This study examines the roles of women in building sustainable peace, specifically through the establishment of the Peace Agenda of Women (PAOW) movement. PAOW is an umbrella of twenty-three women’s civil society organizations that successfully brought people together with different cultural identities to demand peace in their provinces. The three most southern border provinces of Thailand suffered from the long-term intra-state conflict still ongoing between the Malay resistance groups and the Thai royal military. In response to this conflict, women showed active engagement and participation during the ongoing peace process. Analysed by using theoretical approaches of women’s social movement, sustainable peace, and cultural peacebuilding, this study addresses further queries on how PAOW establishes its movement within a cross-cultural community? And to what extent are women involved in building sustainable peace? The analyses of this study justify that despites peace agreement not yet being signed in the Deep South, women’s movement through PAOW has proven that they could indicate a positive way in formulating inclusiveness and cross-cultural awareness towards building sustainable peace in the future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderlini SN (2007) Women building peace: what they do, why it matters. Lynne Rienner Pub
Antrobus P (2008) The global women’s movement: origins, issues and strategies. Bloomsbury Publishing
Askew M (2007) Southern Thailand: anatomy of an insurgency. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore
Benford RD, Snow D (2000) Framing processes and social movements: an overview and assessment. Ann Rev Sociol 26(1):611–639
Buranajaroenkij D (2017) Political feminism and the women’s movement in Thailand: actors, debates and strategies. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung-Asia
Buranajaroenkij D (2018) Women and the peace process in the deep south of Thailand. Peace Resource Collaboration
Coleman PT (2011) Conflict, interdependence, and justice the intellectual legacy of Morton Deutsch. Springer, New York
Coleman PT (2012) Psychological components of sustainable peace. Springer, New York
Deutsch M, Coleman PT (2016) The psychological components of a sustainable peace: an introduction. In: Handbook on sustainability transition and sustainable peace. Springer, Cham, pp 139–148
Enloe C (2014) Bananas, beaches and bases: making feminist sense of international politics. California University Press, Belmont
Funk NC (2007) Religious and cultural dimensions of peacebuilding. J Relig Conflict Peace 1(1). http://www.religionconflictpeace.org/volume-1-issue-1-fall-2007/religious-and-cultural-dimensions-peacebuilding. Accessed 13 Apr 2022
Galtung J (1996) Peace by peaceful means: peace and conflict, development and civilization. PRIO, Oslo
Goetschel L (2011) Neutrals as brokers of peacebuilding ideas? Coop Confl 46(3):312–333
Huang YH, Bedford O (2009) The role of cross-cultural factors in integrative conflict resolution and crisis communication: the Hainan incident. Am Behav Sci 53(4):565–578
Jitpiromsri S, Sobhonvasu P (2007) Unpacking Thailand's southern conflict: the poverty of structural explanations. in Duncan McCargo. Rethinking Thailand’s southern violence. NUS Press, Singapore
Kulnazarova (2020) Cultural peacebuilding: some considerations. In: Carey H (ed) Peacebuilding paradigms: the impact of theoretical diversity on implementing sustainable peace. Cambridge University Press
Lederach JP (1998) Building peace: sustainable reconciliation in divided societies. United States Institute of Peace Press, Washinton, D.C.
Marddent A (2017) Women political participation in peacebuilding in Southern Thailand. J Al Albab 6(6)
Marhaban S (2012) The reintegration of ex- combatants in post- war Aceh: remaining challenges to a gender- blind planning and implementation process. In: Dudouet V, Giessmann H, Planta K (eds) Post-war security transitions participatory peacebuilding after asymmetric conflicts, 1st edn. Routledge, London, pp 192–207
Melucci A (1966) Challenging codes: collective action in the information age. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne
Molnar AK, Pranee K (2016) Contemporary socio-cultural and political perspectives in Thailand. Springer, London
Rajasingham-Senanayake D (2004) Between reality and representation: women’s agency in war and post-conflict Sri Lanka. Cult Dyn 16(2–3):141–168
Snow DA, Soule SA et al (2004) The blackwell companion to social movements. Blackwell Publishing, USA
Spring UO, Brauch HG, Tidball KG (2014) Expanding peace ecology: peace, security, sustainability, equity, and gender perspectives of IPRAs ecology and peace commission. Springer, Cham
Acknowledgements
The completion of this study owes immense gratitude to the School of Liberal Arts, Mae Fah Luang University for its financial support for the presentation of this paper at the Hiroshima International Conference on Peace and Sustainability 2022, networking and facilitation support from the Centre of ASEAN Community Studies, Centre for Conflict Studies and Cultural Diversity, Civic Women and to all women activists, academia and scholars who are based in the Deep South of Thailand.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Suwardi, A.C. (2023). Women’s Movement Towards Building Sustainable Peace in Cross-Cultural Society: The Case of Peace Agenda of Women in the Deep South of Thailand. In: Sharifi, A., Simangan, D., Kaneko, S. (eds) Integrated Approaches to Peace and Sustainability . World Sustainability Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7295-9_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7295-9_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-7294-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-7295-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)