Dictatorship and democracy: Competing social imaginaries

In making a choice to move from their hometowns and villages to Bangkok and to take on factory work, the Bang Khen workers had already shifted outside their accepted traditional roles. Modernisation had made that choice available to them and they saw it as an opportunity for achieving a better life, principally for themselves as individuals but also in relation to the greater assistance they could provide for their families. Their new experiences were what expanded this understanding and forged the link for them between their desire for a good life and the broader need for a good society. Despite