Bruce Missingham
"My current research interests include globalisation, NGOs & grassroots movements in Thailand; environmental history in NE Thailand; transnational communities & change in rural Victoria; participatory teaching and learning for international development."
Lecturer
Research Interests
I am an anthropologist with interests in the study of development and environmental movements in Thailand and Southeast Asia. I have a long-standing interest in social justice and education for social change, but it was the experience of living, working and studying in rural Thailand that transformed me from a school teacher into a researcher and academic. In 1991 I first travelled to Thailand to spend eighteen months conducting ethnographic research on the role of village schools in community development for my Master of Education from the University of Queensland. For my PhD from the Australian National University I returned to Thailand in 1996 and 1997 to undertake groundbreaking anthropological research with the Assembly of the Poor, the first nation-wide grassroots social movement to emerge in that country.
I first joined Monash University in 2001 as the Project Officer on the Immigrant Communities Project, a research consultancy commissioned by the Victorian Department of Natural Resources and Environment (now Department of Primary Industries).
The Immigrant Communities Project researched the involvement of culturally and linguistically diverse communities in horticulture in northern Victoria and evaluated NRE's provision of services to them. The project contributed to improving service provision and extension for sustainable agriculture among immigrant-background farmers through a better knowledge of their experiences of settlement, farming knowledge and practices, and relationships with government agencies.
Since the beginning of 2003 I have been lecturer and student coordinator in the International Development and Environmental Analysis Program.
Teaching
- IDA4120 Community Development in a Globalising World
- IDA4230 Research and Analysis in Political Ecology (with Craig Thorburn)
- ENV4050 Environmental Governance and Citizenship (with Chris Cocklin
Research
My current research interests include globalisation, NGOs and grassroots movements in Thailand; environmental history in NE Thailand; transnational communities and change in rural Victoria; participatory teaching and learning for international development.
Publications
- Missingham, Bruce, Jacqui Dibden & Chris Cocklin (2004) Immigrant Communities Project: Enhancing Extension and Sustainable Natural Resource Management in Culturally Diverse Communities in Rural Victoria, DPI, Melbourne.
- Missingham, Bruce (2003) Forging Solidarity and Identity in the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand, Asian Studies Review, Vol 27, NO. 3, pp.317-340.
- Missingham, Bruce (2003) The Assembly of the Poor: From Local Struggles to National Protest Movement, Silkworm Books: Chiang Mai.
- Missingham, Bruce (2002) The Village of the Poor confronts the state: Place and protest in the Assembly of the Poor in Bangkok, Urban Studies, Vol. 39, No. 9, pp. 1647-1663.
- Missingham, Bruce (1997) Local bureaucrats, power and participation: A study of two village schools in the Northeast. In Political Change in Thailand: Democracy and Participation, edited by Kevin Hewison, Routledge, London, pp.149-162.
- Missingham, Bruce (1996) Internal Colonialism and Environmental Conflict: The Case of Northeast Thailand. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Thai Studies. Theme II: Cultural Crisis and the Thai Capitalist Transformation. Chiang Mai, Thailand, 14-17 October, pp. 187-204.
Edited Books
- John C. Caldwell, Pat Caldwell, I.O.Orubuloye, James P.M. Ntozi, Kofi Awusabo-Asare, John Anarfi, Bruce Caldwell, Christine Varga, Jacob Malungo, Bruce Missingham, Wendy Cosford and Elaine Hollings (Eds.) (2000) Towards the Containment of the AIDS Epidemic: Social and Behavioural Research , Health Transition Centre, ANU.
Under Review
- Bruce Missingham, Jacqui Dibden & Chris Cocklin, A Multicultural Countryside? Ethnic Minorities in Rural Australia, Rural Society.
Address
- Room No: S224, Menzies Building
- Telephone Number: +61 3 990 59874
- fax Number: +61 3 990 52948
- Bruce.Missingham@arts.monash.edu.au