SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION POLICY CHANGE IN THAILAND (1997-2022): IDEAS, DISCOURSE AND POLITICS

Abstract

The thesis inquires into the process of fundamental policy change from an ideational theoretical perspective. The primary objective is to understand how and to what extent ideas impact policy change. In order to explore the process of idea-driven policy change, the research draws on discursive institutionalism and policy translation literatures with the special emphasis on the complex interplay of idea, discourse, institutional meaning-making practices and politics in shaping policy change. The theoretical framework developed in this thesis aims to capture the contents, contexts, and mechanisms that shape the unfolding of policy change. Its central conceptualising category is a meaning structure which characterises policy change as an ideational re-ordering process. The thesis mobilises a longitudinal qualitative case study method to explore science technology and innovation policy change in Thailand from 1997 to 2022. The empirical data utilised in this research comprise interview data and archival documents. The findings of the research suggest that the combination of cognitive and normative mobilisation of new policy ideas transposed from abroad to Thailand by politically empowered change agents animates the re-ordering of the dominant meaning structure. This ideational process reflects fundamental policy change. In the case of STI policy change in Thailand, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, scientocrats (e.g., senior scientists and engineers who hold high political offices) and practicademics (e.g., career science technology and innovation policy specialists) mobilised the transposed policy idea of national innovation system approach to analyse the competitiveness and innovation performance of the country. Simultaneously, political actors drew on this idea to legitimise their ‘national upgrading’ vision. Such ideational work contributed to the rise of the re-ordered national innovation system-based meaning structure, marking the fundamental change of STI policy in Thailand. From the period between the mid-2000s and 2014, the national innovation system-based meaning structure became institutionalised and receded to the ideational background as a taken-for-granted assumption underpinning the prevailing STI policy conducts. From 2014 to 2022, this dominant meaning structure underwent hybridisation as it continued to interact with other transposed ideas from abroad such as the helix model and innovation ecosystem. While this demonstrates the ideational convergence between background and foreground ideas, recent developments in STI policymaking in Thailand also hint at the potential tensions between the dominant meaning structure and the recently articulated new innovation policy ideas with competing theoretical assumptions. The thesis concludes by highlighting two major contributions to the idea-focused policy change literature. Firstly, it helps to clarify the impact of ideational work on policy change by pinpointing the constellations of change agents, enabling mechanisms, and favourable opportunities that generate the defining forces undergirding the policy idea that can powerfully impact policy change. Secondly, it refines the conceptualisation of the process of change by orienting the analytical focus to the changing manifestations of the dominant meaning structure through times of crisis and relative stability.

Date of Award	3 Jul 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Kate Barker (Supervisor), Kieron Flanagan (Supervisor) & Jakob Edler (Supervisor)