The international tour continues! This week we interviewed Hayden Shelby, Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati, about her research into the Baan Mankong (“Secure Housing”) program in Bangkok, Thailand. Built on the principles of community organizing, finance, and ownership, Baan Mankong has been celebrated as a global model of participatory slum/settlement upgrading for developing countries. But for all its successes, the program is not without its drawbacks, raising difficult questions about the balance between empowerment of poor residents on one hand, and the shirking of state responsibilities on the other. The lessons being learned in Thailand also have implications for community land trusts, tenant opportunity to purchase, and related programs in the U.S. and beyond.

Show notes:

• Shelby, H. (2021). Empowerment or responsibility? Collective finance for slum upgrading in Thailand. International Journal of Housing Policy, 21(4), 505-533.
• Dowall, D. E. (1989). Bangkok: a profile of an efficiently performing housing market. Urban Studies, 26(3), 327-339.
• Dowall, D. E. (1992). A second look at the Bangkok land and housing market. Urban Studies, 29(1), 25-37.
• Elinoff, E. (2021). Citizen Designs: City-Making and Democracy in Northeastern Thailand. University of Hawaii Press.