Akin Rabibhadana รพีพัฒน์ [M.R. Akin Rabidbhana with his royal title of Mom Rajawongse หม่อมราชวงศ์อคิน] (22 January 1933 — 16 Nov. 2018) was a Thai anthropologist, sociologist, and academic known for his studies on Thai social structure and rural development.
A member of the Thai royal family — through his grandparents Raphee Phatthanasak and Orn Rapheephat Na Ayutthaya, while two of his aunts were royal princesses -, he studied at Cornell University (New York) and taught at Thammasat University, Bangkok.
A renowned anthropologist, Akin Rabibhadana pioneered the study of agrarian and suburban families, the persistence of clientelism and hierarchical constraints in the Thai society. He proposed a novel approach of the Sakdina ศักดินา social system, a term often translated as “feudalism” used to define the relationship between elites and commoners.
Selected Publications
- The organization of Thai society in the early Bangkok period, 1782 – 1873, New York, Cornell University Southeast Asia Program (Data Paper no. 74), 1969.
- “Clientship and Class Structure in the Early Bangkok Period”, in Change and Persistence in Thai Society : Essays in Honor of Lauriston Sharp. G. William Skinner and A. Thomas Kirsch. Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press, 1975.
- Rise and Fall of a Bangkok Slum, Bangkok, Thai Khadi Research Institute, Thammasat University, 1978, 74 p.
- The Transformation of Tambon Yokkrabat, Changwat Samut Sakorn, 1980.
- สังคมไทยในสมัยต้นกรุงรัตนโกสินทร์ พ.ศ. 2325 – 2416, Bangkok, 1984, 359 p. ISBN 9789745711570.
- Social inequity : a source of conflict in the future?, Bangkok, TDRI [Synthesis Report Vol. IV], 1993, 66 p.
- ชีวิตและจุดจบของสลัมกรุงเทพฯ แห่งหนึ่ง, Bangkok, 1994, 64 p.
- [with Scott Christensen] “Exit, Voice, and the Depletion of Open Access Resources: The Political Bases of Property Rights in Thailand”, Law & Society Review, Jan. 1994.
- [with นิธิ เอียวศรีวงศ์, ปริตตา เฉลิมเผ่า กออนันตกูล] เจ้าชาวบ้าน: รวมบทความแปล เกี่ยวกับสังคมไทยโบราณ ครอบครัว พิธีกรรม และการเปลี่ยนแปลง. เล่ม 2, Bangkok, Sathāban Thaikhadīsuksā, Mahāwitthayālai Thammasāt, 1997, 269 p.
References
- Jacques Ivanoff, Akin Rabibhadana & Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool, “Conversation entre Akin Rabibhadana et Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool, enregistrée le 11 mars 2010 par Jacques Ivanoff” [ENG], in Olivier Ferrari, Narumon Hinshiranan Arunotai, Jacques Ivanoff & Arnaud Leveau, Thaïlande: Aux origines d’une crise, Bangkok, Carnets de l’IRASEC 13, 2010: 97 – 104. eISBN 978−2−35596−002−4.
