Discriminated Migrants or Success Stories?
Despite a history of prejudice from Bangkok, Isan’s parched landscape has given rise to numerous success stories. Skills and lifestyle values rooted in geographical oppression are adapted continuously by the Isan people as they migrate to Bangkok and across the world.
Creativity and Economic Deprivation
Saline soil and uncertain climate has made many parts of Isan a context of economic deprivation. Up close, Isan's village house reveals both the region's lack and its resourcefulness. Many of the implicit structures and practices of Isan - based on values of sharing, mental strength, self-knowledge, humour and problem-solving - are a response to this deprivation.
Five Cultural Values of Isan
From social rituals, religious beliefs, collective memory and imagination, to indigenous ways of thought, the Isan communal village lifestyle is in fact highly (if invisibly) 'designed'.
The potential of Isan as a creative resource in design can be discovered through five cultural values:
- a natural sense of intimacy and sharing, reflected in the high number of Isan professionals in the country's renowned hospitality industry,
- animistic values, showing profound strategies to manage fear and uncertainty,
- a strong sense of self, which has propagated the Isan sensibility around the world,
- a sense of humour, which had inspired the whole Thai entertainment industry, and
- a strong common sense, expressed in plain thinking, open-mindedness and adaptive practicality.
'Value Creation' Through Design
Isan remains an exciting source of unique cultural assets, from which designers and entrepreneurs can create value. This move towards 'value creation' in the Thai economy is as much a design issue as an economic necessity.
Value creation is loosely defined as the integrated process of identifying comparative advantage, interpreting cultural uniqueness, building on cultural strengths, adapting to new consumption contexts, and innovation.