1994 Survey
Background
In Nang Rong district, Thailand, the decade between 1984 and
1994 witnessed a major fertility decline, increased use of
contraception, electrification, the extension and improvement of the
road network, increasing frequency of bus service, more widespread use
of tractors (mostly “walking tractors”) for land
preparation, an increase in the number of mechanized rice mills, and
improvements in sanitation and water storage. In 1994, there were 31,216
people living in 7,331 households in 76 villages in Nang Rong district.
Purpose
The 1994-95 Nang Rong Project’s research purpose was to
study the effect of rapid social and environmental change upon the
lives of people in Nang Rong district as well as those who had
migrated from Nang Rong. Important aspects of the research were to
understand fertility and contraceptive behavior, life course choices,
and migration processes within the context of rapid social and economic
change. Other important aspects were to examine a variety of social
networks and analyze their effect on individuals. Finally, data were
designed to be integrated with geographic and environmental data to
analyze the relationship between population and the environment.
Scope of Work
The data collection effort in 1994-95 was carried out by the
Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol
University, Salaya, Thailand, and the Carolina Population Center. The
research team included researchers, students, and programmers at both
institutions.
The 1994-95 data collection had three components: a community profile,
household survey, and migrant follow-up. Investigators returned to
villages, households, and individuals surveyed in 1984, with a greatly
expanded research agenda. At each level of observation interviewers
collected information about socioeconomic characteristics, migration,
and social networks.
• The 1994 community profile gathered information in
all 310 villages in Nang Rong, including but not limited to the 51
villages part of the original 1984 survey.
• The 1994 household survey was a complete
household census in each of the 51 villages that were part of the 1984
survey. (Because of administrative splits of villages, the original 51
villages expanded to 76 in 1994.)
• The 1995 migrant follow-up collected data from
1781 out-migrants from 22 of the 51 villages. The 22 villages were
selected randomly within strata created by cross-classifying general
location (quadrant) and distance from major paved roads in 1984.
Persons resident in 1984 but no longer resident in 1994 were candidates
for follow-up if they had gone to one of the four most popular
destination areas: Bangkok and surrounds, the Eastern Seaboard (a focus
of rapid growth and development), Korat (a regional city), or Buriram
(the provincial city).
Data Collection Methods
At all levels of observation a team of interviewers gathered population
survey data from informants, at least one person from each household. A
group of village informants (including the village headman,
headman’s helpers, head of the housewives group, and others)
provided information about village characteristics. Investigators
succeeded in finding and interviewing about 70 percent of the migrants.
Land use and land cover data are derived from satellite spectral
classifications, and terrain and associated landscape data are
digitized from basemaps and derived through spatial and ecological
models. All data sets are integrated within a Geographic Information
System (GIS).
Data Available
Most of the 1994 household census and 1995 migrant follow-up
can be downloaded from the
public use area on our web site or from the
Data Sharing for Demographic Research (DSDR) project of ICPSR at the University of Michigan.
The
entire longitudinal data set from 1994 (as well as 1984 and 2000) are also available by contractual agreement with the DSDR project. These data are available only to researchers with an IRB-approved plan for handling and storing sensitive data who agree to keep the data confidential.
The 1994-95
questionnaires are included here in their original
Thai form as well as English translations.
Codebooks and
appendices are
also included.
The data provide a detailed account of villagers’ lives, both in 1994-95 and retrospectively.
• The 1994 community profile collected
information in each of the Nang Rong villages about population size and
composition, cropping, water sources, agricultural technology,
electrification, transportation and communication, health and family
planning services, village groups and committees, and perceptions about
deforestation. The village data include information on social relations
among villages based on sharing temples, schools, labor, equipment,
water sources, bus routes, and access to major highways.
• The 1994 household survey obtained social and
demographic facts about current members; yearly life history data for
18- to 35-year-olds, including occupation and migration patterns;
sibling networks for 18- to 35-year-olds; household characteristics,
including land, agricultural equipment, crop mix, planting and
harvesting of rice, cassava, and sugar cane; household socioeconomic
status and debts; labor exchange networks; visits and exchanges of
goods and money with former household members. The household data
include information on social relations with other households based on
sibling relationships, rice harvest, shared agricultural equipment, use
of local rice mills, and membership in village organizations.
• Migrant data include occupation and migration
patterns, life history data, and household information. The migrant
network data include information on contact with other migrants from
the origin villages, visits and exchanges of money and goods with
origin households, sibling ties, and friends and acquaintances in the
place of destination.
Data from the 1994-95 surveys are incorporated into a GIS. The result
is an integrated and flexible data base, linked by geographic referents
as well as individual, household, and community IDs, that can be used
to address a variety of questions about population and the environment.
Contribution to the Field
The largest data collection of its kind, the Nang Rong data set
is notable in several aspects: longitudinal data on individuals,
extensive
social network data, and integrated spatial and environmental
data.
• The ability to match individuals across time
is one of the essential aspects of the Nang Rong Projects. Successful
matches yield a longitudinal data set that provides a valuable basis
for understanding many different social phenomena during a period of
very rapid social change. The Nang Rong Projects are unique in the size and
scope of the effort to follow migrants and provides very important
insights into migration processes.
• Another distinctive feature of the Nang Rong
data is the availability of data on complete
social networks. Nang Rong
investigators undertook a difficult, but very innovative, task to
identify both social and kinship networks among the residents,
households, and villages of Nang Rong. These ties are measured directly
through kinship, labor exchanges, and agricultural equipment exchanges
and indirectly through the shared use of resources such as rice mills
or participation in community social groups. Many important measures of
network structure and position, such as subgroups and their membership,
indirect connections between network members via intermediaries, and
some kinds of network positions can be calculated only from complete
networks. A strength of the data is the rich information on
characteristics of households (e.g., size and composition,
contraceptive choices of married women, agricultural activities) and
villages (e.g., resources, social institutions, health care) that can
be used to help interpret network patterns and to understand variation
in network patterns across villages. The social network data is
valuable to social scientists seeking to understand how everyday life
is influenced by interactions with others. The Nang Rong study is the
first to incorporate social network data in a survey and has attracted
considerable attention from social scientists in Thailand and
internationally.
• Linking spatial data with population survey
data allows examination of population-environment and yields insights
into patterns of network ties. The spatial analytic capabilities of the
GIS also make it possible to assess the impact of the administratively
defined district boundary and to evaluate whether rivers and perennial
streams create barriers to network ties between villages. The
integrated spatial/social data set is being used to explore dynamic
interrelationships among land use, population, and social and economic
change. Topics under investigation include the impact of international
commodity markets on land use; the extension of road networks,
settlement patterns and deforestation; and population change in
relation to the extensification and intensification of agriculture. The
mapping capabilities of the GIS are particularly crucial for these
descriptive analyses.
Funding
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded this effort (R01-HD25482).