Owners of the Map: Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility, and Politics in Bangkok

On May 19, 2010, the Royal Thai Army deployed tanks, snipers, and war weapons to disperse the thousands of Red Shirts protesters who had taken over the commercial center of Bangkok to demand democratic elections and an end to inequality. Key to this mobilization were motorcycle taxi drivers, who slowed down, filtered, and severed mobility in the area, claiming a prominent role in national politics and ownership over the city and challenging state hegemony. Four years later, on May 20, 2014, the same army general who directed the dispersal staged a coup, unopposed by protesters. How could state power have been so fragile and open to challenge in 2010 and yet so seemingly sturdy only four years later? How could protesters who had once fearlessly resisted military attacks now remain silent? Owners of the Map provides answers to these questions—central to contemporary political mobilizations around the globe—through an ethnographic study of motorcycle taxi drivers in Bangkok. Claudio Sopranzetti advances an analysis of power that focuses not on the sturdiness of hegemony or the ubiquity of everyday resistance but on its potential fragility and the work needed for its maintenance.

Politics & Social Sciences

Sopranzetti, Claudio

Anthropology

University of California Press

The King of Bangkok (EthnoGRAPHIC)

Review\n"The artwork is at least as important as text. Sara Fabbri’s colored line drawings give the tale an urgency that words themselves cannot convey." -- Peter Gordon ― Asian Review of Books\n"This book is a triumph." -- Chris Baker ― Bangkok Post\n"Shades of hope and humor glimmer amid the forces of inequity and impunity depicted in this memorable book that homes in on the rich lives of ordinary people, those who the country's rulers are meant to serve." -- David Hopkins ― Nikkei Asia\n"Thailand’s rural and migrant workers have been disenfranchised, left in the margins of state-sanctioned history and development. This acute and enlightening graphic novel provides a voice to the silenced and substance to their invisibilized, broken bodies." -- Nicolas Verstappen, author of The Art of Thai Comics\n"The King of Bangkok sheds light on the life of the Thai urban poor, migrants from rural areas who seek better opportunities in Thailand’s capital, whose lives were disrupted by political turmoil when they arose to demand democracy. They have been awakened as never before." -- Thongchai Winichakul, author of Moments of Silence\n"An expansive use of the graphic novel format to tell an important story about Thailand's rural and migrant workers. The innovative combination of narrative and images offers an exciting way to make ethnographic and historical research come alive. Inventive and illuminating." -- Margaret Crawford, coauthor of Everyday Urbanism\n"In this witty but tragic graphic novel, we see carefully orchestrated smiles mask the crushing burdens of deep and increasing economic and political inequality. We viscerally experience the injustices faced by Thailand’s rural poor as they seek paths out of penury in the unforgiving capital." -- Michael Herzfeld, author of Siege of the Spirits\n"An unresolved chapter in Thailand’s troubled history becomes vividly accessible through the perspective of one country-born newcomer to Bangkok. Insightfully written and inventively illustrated, The King of Bangkok makes hard truths and political questions individual and empathetic." -- Paul Gravett, author of Comics Art and Mangasia\nThe English translation of this bestselling graphic novel tells the story of Nok, an old blind man who sells lottery tickets in Bangkok, as he decides to leave the city and return to his native village.Through reflections on contemporary Bangkok and flashbacks to his past, Nok reconstructs a journey through the slums of migrant workers, the rice fields of Isaan, the tourist villages of Ko Pha Ngan, and the Red Shirt protests of 2010. 
Based on a decade of anthropological research, The King of Bangkok is a story of migration to the city, distant families in the countryside, economic development eroding the land, and violent political protest. Ultimately, it is a story about contemporary Thailand and how the waves of history lift, engulf, and crash against ordinary people.

Arts & Photography

Fabbri, Sara

Natalucci, Chiara

History & Criticism

University of Toronto Press

Product Description 
The English translation of this best-selling graphic novel tells the story of Nok, an old blind man who sells lottery tickets in Bangkok, as he decides to leave the city and return to his native village. Through reflections on contemporary Bangkok and flashbacks to his past, Nok reconstructs a journey through the slums of migrant workers, the rice fields of Isaan, the tourist villages of Ko Pha Ngan, and the Red Shirt protests of 2010. 
Based on a decade of anthropological research, The King of Bangkok is a story of migration to the city, distant families in the countryside, economic development eroding the land, and violent political protest. Ultimately, it is a story about contemporary Thailand and how the waves of history lift, engulf, and crash against ordinary people. 
 Review 
"Thailand’s rural and migrant workers have been disenfranchised, left in the margins of state-sanctioned history and development. This acute and enlightening graphic novel provides a voice to the silenced and substance to their invisibilized, broken bodies." -- Nicolas Verstappen, author of 
The Art of Thai Comics\n"The King of Bangkok sheds light on the life of the Thai urban poor, migrants from rural areas who seek better opportunities in Thailand’s capital, whose lives were disrupted by political turmoil when they arose to demand democracy. They have been awakened as never before." -- Thongchai Winichakul, author of 
Moments of Silence\n"An expansive use of the graphic novel format to tell an important story about Thailand's rural and migrant workers. The innovative combination of narrative and images offers an exciting way to make ethnographic and historical research come alive. Inventive and illuminating." -- Margaret Crawford, coauthor of 
Everyday Urbanism\n"In this witty but tragic graphic novel, we see carefully orchestrated smiles mask the crushing burdens of deep and increasing economic and political inequality. We viscerally experience the injustices faced by Thailand’s rural poor as they seek paths out of penury in the unforgiving capital." -- Michael Herzfeld, author of 
Siege of the Spirits\n"An unresolved chapter in Thailand’s troubled history becomes vividly accessible through the perspective of one country-born newcomer to Bangkok. Insightfully written and inventively illustrated, The King of Bangkok makes hard truths and political questions individual and empathetic." -- Paul Gravett, author of 
Comics Art and Mangasia 
 About the Author 
Claudio Sopranzetti is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Central European University. He is the author of 
Owners of the Map, winner of the 2019 Margaret Mead Award.\nSara Fabbri is an illustrator and editorial designer, currently working as Art Director for 
Linus, an Italian comics magazine.\nChiara Natalucci is an interpreter and translator of Russian and English, currently teaching English at a secondary school in Italy.

Rama X: The Thai Monarchy under King Vajiralongkorn

Raymond, Gregory

Ferrara, Federico

Chachavalpongpun, Pavin

Streckfuss, David

Handley, Paul

Ruffles, Michael

Prakitnonthakan, Chatri

Politics & Government

Yale University Southeast Asia Studies

Red Journeys is a firsthand account of the emergence and expansion of the red-shirt protests in Bangkok that took place in 2010. It traces the origins of the protest, focusing on the unique voices, stories, and motives of those who participated in the movement.Based upon hundreds of interviews and weeks spent alongside the red shirts in the middle of the protest, Sopranzetti vividly depicts daily life in the heart of the movement: its personalities, routines, rumors, and organization. As the peaceful occupation descended into violence and neared its tragic end, he describes the final moments of the protest when red shirts faced off with the Thai military.Styled engagingly between ethnography and daily blog, Red Journeys offers an unprecedented analysis of the biggest social movement in Thailand to date and highlights the discrepancies between the "official" media portrayal of the protest and the reality on the ground.

Red Journeys: Inside the Thai Red-Shirt Movement

History

Asia

Silkworm Books

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