Bottom-Up Decentralization Moments

This study challenges the top-down view of decentralization, arguing for the need to incorporate a bottom-up counterpart. It explores how glocal scholars and practitioners negotiate with the Thai state’s top-down approach to decentralization. Using glocalization as a theoretical lens, the article examines how global ideas are adapted at the local level, drawing on empirical case studies in Isan and Khon Kaen — specifically, the conceptions of New Isan, the Khon Kaen Model, and Khon Kaen’s Smart City initiative — through literary criticism and historical analysis. These examples of glocal ideas and practices reveal “bottom-up decentralization moments” in both mind and practice that reflect a romanticized glocal spirit that resists the dominance of the Thai-style top-down decentralization model. Ultimately, the study suggests that these glocal initiatives offer a critique of the political processes shaped by the Thai state’s mainstream top-down decentralization paradigm. Furthermore, the use of critical social theory offers an alternative lens for culturally understanding public administration theory

Criticism · Decentralization · Glocalization · Mainstream · Negotiation · Politics · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Urban Planning and Governance