The Institutional Dynamics of the Contemporary Thai Sangha - A New Research Agenda

Studies of the Thai sangha as an institution have fallen out of academic fashion in recent decades, despite the fact that during this same time Thai public life has been characterized by widespread organizational ferment and innovation. Accordingly, a renewed and reoriented analysis of the organizational milieux underpinning everyday monastic life is overdue. Nine themes worth examining in research on the monastic order as a public institution are proposed. The empirical and analytic benefits of a revitalized research agenda along these lines are then discussed, as well as the demographic, geographic and social factors that should be taken into consideration when pursuing such research.