The sufficiency economy philosophy as an approach to social innovation: case studies of local governments in Thailand

The late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej formulated the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP). “Sufficiency” means balancing reasonable moderation in production against the need for protection from sudden internal and external shocks. SEP follows the middle path as a guiding principle for all classes of society and government. Knowledge, thoughtfulness, prudence, and ethical integrity are essential to achieve the middle path. This paper explores the use of SEP as a method of social innovation for enhancing delivery of public services and for localizing the process of sustainable development. Such innovative use of SEP is illustrated by three exploratory case studies of local administrative organisations (LAOs) in Thailand. The first case shows how a local administration built a program to produce renewable energy (household cooking gas) from pig farm waste while earning revenue from carbon credits. The second involves a local administration setting up a community welfare fund to reduce an inequality of people whose basic welfare needs had not been met . The third study focuses on a local administration’s encouragement of residents in building their own recycling project rather than waiting for top-down government action. All three LAOs have mayors with significant entrepreneurial talent useful in teaching entrepreneurial action to their residents, their staff, and other local leaders. Together, these cases show the potential of SEP as a method of bottom up social action and sustainable development. A brief discussion of the wider need for and use of innovation, including social innovations, and underpinning entrepreneurahip, is included prior to the Thai case studies. There is also a short section examining similar types of activities to those observed in the cases in the European context by way of comparison.