Circular rural-urban movement and development planning in Northeast Thailand

This paper examines relationships between rural-urban movement and spatial planning in Thailand, in the light of recent advances in both the migration and spatial planning literature. Patterns of circular rural-urban movement from six villages in Northeast Thailand are described, illustrating the high and increasing rate of movement; the predominance of Bangkok, 750 km distant, as the main urban destination; and the implications of current patterns of movement for labour supply, the availability of cash and prospects for development within the villages. These processes are discussed in the context of the planned decentralisation of urban development in Thailand; arguments are put forward for encouraging shorter-distance, intra-regional movement in place of moves to the primate city, in the interests of local and regional development. The paper concludes with an account of a successful field experiment designed to introduce information about urban opportunities in order to change spatial patterns of movement.