VOICES AND VISIONS: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

ENGLISH AS A CATALYST FOR THAILAND’S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THREE HURDLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT PATHWAY

2026-02-24T09:25:09+07:00

English has consolidated its status as a critical catalyst for sustainable development in the 21^st century across various domains, including education. Recognizing this strategic role, Thailand has implemented sustained reforms to improve national English proficiency. Despite these efforts, empirical evidence consistently indicates that Thai learners’ English proficiency remains unsatisfactory. This article examines Thailand’s English language education landscape during the past decade by focusing on three major turning points that have shaped the trajectory of English education in Thailand: the nationwide adoption of the CEFR in 2016, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rapid emergence of generative AI use in education. Analyzing these developments as interconnected “hurdles,” the article argues that they have simultaneously constrained and reshaped the capacity of English to operate as a catalyst for Thailand’s sustainable development. The CEFR reform sought to align national standards with international benchmarks but revealed persistent gaps in teacher preparedness, assessment practices, and contextual adaptation. The pandemic forced a rapid shift to online and hybrid learning, exposing digital inequities and learning losses affecting English development. More recently, generative AI has expanded opportunities for personalized learning while raising concerns regarding accuracy, ethics, academic integrity, and technological access. Drawing on policy documents and empirical research, the article identifies key lessons and proposes policy orientations, including strengthening teacher capacity, enhancing AI literacy, investing in inclusive digital infrastructure, and establishing responsible governance of educational technologies. Addressing these issues is essential if English is to function as a sustainable and equitable force in national development.

DEVELOPING A CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK OF EXPERIENTIAL TOURISM

2026-02-10T08:47:56+07:00

In the current era of tourism, destinations are increasingly chosen for the experiences they offer rather than just services. However, crafting high-quality, memorable experiences is challenging because the concept is abstract and multidimensional. This study aims to develop a confirmatory factor analysis framework for experiential tourism. A qualitative meta-analytic approach was employed, reviewing and synthesizing relevant literature to identify key experiential components. Five core dimensions of experiential tourism emerged from the analysis: Local Experience, Memorable Experience, Learning Experience, Participation Experience, and Feeling Experience. These dimensions form the basis of a proposed conceptual model for experiential tourism experiences. The findings provide a structured lens for understanding and measuring tourist experiences. Academically, the framework addresses the lack of validated models by offering clearly defined factors for confirmatory analysis. Practically, it offers destination managers and planners a guideline to design and evaluate tourism offerings that foster deep personal engagement, lasting memories, learning opportunities, active participation, and emotional fulfillment. Future research should test this model with empirical data to confirm its reliability and validity.

STRANGERS IN PARADISE: ESTRANGEMENT AND WORKING-CLASS EMOTIONAL CONVERGENCE IN LUK THUNG SONGS (1970s–1980s)

2025-12-23T17:12:31+07:00

This article examines how Luk Thung songs, popular Thai songs commonly associated with rural life, from the late 1970s-1980s articulate working-class subjectivity among rural-origin men and women entering urban and industrial wage labor through three interrelated affective modes: rural estrangement, transitional desire, and working-class emotional convergence. Rather than treating these subjects as rural-urban workers in a formal or institutional sense, the analysis focuses on how rural individuals experience emotional transition as they move into wage labor in Bangkok and its industrial peripheries. The study analyzed four influential songs from the period of 1970s-1980s —Sao AM, Num Na Khao Sao Na Kluea, Chanthana Thi Rak, and Chanthana Top Rak—performed by major Luk Thung singers. Together, these works illuminate an affective continuum: from rural defensiveness toward Bangkok-centered modernity, to anticipatory rural-urban encounters, and finally to the intimate emotional negotiations of industrial factory workers. Through this progression, the Luk Thung music genre emerges as a sonic archive that not only reflects but actively shapes emotional trajectories of migration, labor, and belonging. Methodologically, the study employed qualitative analysis of lyrics, sound recordings, and performance practices, combining close reading, sonic interpretation, and sociohistorical contextualization. Drawing on theories of affective circulation and aurality, the study treats Luk Thung music genre not merely as a representational genre but as a site of affective production, demonstrating how songs actively organize estrangement, aspiration, and emotional convergence during Thailand’s late-twentieth-century industrial transformation.

VALUE CO-CREATIVE GASTRONOMIC TOURISM AND SUSTAINABLE DESTINATION VALUE: EVIDENCE FROM A UNESCO CREATIVE CITY OF GASTRONOMY

2026-03-16T11:35:34+07:00

Gastronomic tourism has gained increasing attention as a pathway for sustainable destination development, particularly in cities recognized for their culinary heritage. However, empirical research has paid limited attention to how everyday interactions among local actors’ shape sustainability outcomes and destination value in practice, especially in secondary cities in the Global South. This study examined how co-creative processes among diverse stakeholders contributed to sustainable gastronomic tourism in Phetchaburi, Thailand, the country’s first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 32 key informants representing local food producers, tourism entrepreneurs, community representatives, and public-sector actors, complemented by field observations and document analysis. The findings showed that sustainable gastronomic tourism emerged through three interrelated social processes: the integration and negotiation of culinary knowledge, the co-design and enactment of participatory food experiences, and shared forms of local governance. These processes shaped tourism experiences grounded in authenticity, interaction, and learning, while reinforcing cultural continuity, social cohesion, and locally embedded economic practices. Importantly, the study demonstrated that sustainability outcomes derived from co-created experiences accumulated into destination value, reflected in stronger place attachment, positive destination image, visitor loyalty, and local value retention. By foregrounding the lived experiences and agency of local actors, this research conceptualized co-creation gastronomy tourism as a socially embedded and governance-dependent process through which gastronomic tourism became meaningful and sustainable. The findings offered practical insights into creative gastronomy cities seeking to align heritage preservation with inclusive and context-sensitive tourism development.