WALKS - Wellbeing, Alternative Livelihoods and Knowledge Systems

Purpose and Approach

The WALKS program focuses on improving well-being and livelihood opportunities of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups.

We use a combination of approaches from participatory action research, partnerships with others through to capacity building activities aimed at grass-root and local government actors.

We have looked carefully at economic and social issues in low-income households paying special attention to interactions between innovation, science & technology, emerging markets and practical knowledge.

Most empirical studies have been conducted in two distinct and widely separated areas of Thailand: (1) rural communities in Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand; (2) coastal fisher and aquaculturalist communities in Nakhon-sri-thammarat, Surat Thani, Phang Nga, Trang and Krabi provinces in southern Thailand. This later work has included studies of recovery process following the Indian Ocean Tsunami.  We have also carried out several comparative studies in collaboration with research groups in neighbouring countries.

Our theoretical contributions have focused on integrating the idea of sustainable livelihoods with the application of resilience-style system analysis at the household level. We have found these concepts helpful in operationalizing ideas about sustainable livelihoods in volatile and otherwise dynamic social, political and ecological contexts.