A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1985

The study of the Role and Functions of Community Committees in slum upgrading in Bangkok was carried out on four slum and squatter settlements. The study is mainly based on interviews with community residents and community committee members and supplementary information from observations and secondary materials. 219 community residents and 59 community committee members were selected for the interview. Chi-square tests have generally been applied for test of significance in opinion related findings. On the basis of perception of both the community residents and the committee members, five functions for the community committee emerged important, these being: (1) dissemination of information, (2) identifying and solving problems of the community, (3) stimulating people, s participation, (4) mobilizing people's ideas and (5) coordinating with agencies. Several problems are found to be constraining the performance of these functions, these are: (1) lack of people's participation, (2) lack of participation of committee members, (3) lack of resources, and (4) unreadiness of sponsoring agencies to support programmes. The study makes several recommendations for actions to overcome the problems. These include: (1) implementation more communication between agencies and community residents mainly by introducing more social workers, (2) providing training for group dynamics for the committee members, and (3) development agencies should more formally recognize the status of community committees.