Moments of Notable Calamity :
THE ADHOCRACY OF BANGKOK
by Jimmy Lepore Hagan
I
’ m charting the remaining steps to the American consulate , panting on the pedestrian bridge , gulping down plumes of car exhaust . Though my destination seems to be just 500 meters away , I ’ m not sure I can make it .
Sticky and stymied , I ’ m growing frustrated with everything around me . Why do the sidewalks disappear without warning , stranding me alongside a highway ? Why are motorbikes swarming in all directions ? And why is it so damn hot ? It ’ s anarchy on the streets of Bangkok .
This walk was my woozy welcome to Thailand , my own version of a story most expats tell when they first arrive here . Most travelers claim to be open for new experiences , cultures and ways of life — aren ’ t these reasons why we travel in the first place ? But under trying conditions , not everyone ( including myself ) is adept at reserving judgement . When things go wrong , we have a tendency to be quick to blame and criticize a country and its people , instead of accepting the strangeness .
At some point after my fraught first day , I found the zen to simply sabai sabai — which roughly means sit back and relax — just like the locals do . And then a question emerged . Is there some kind of chaotic rationale , if you can call it that , which actually underpins the entire city of Bangkok ? I spent the next two years trying to find out . What I discovered was a new way of looking at mayhem — an impromptu urban rhythm .
LIVING IN THE NOW
My investigation into the Bangkok way of life began with the concept of Ad Hoc , one I had encountered from studying urban design and architecture . Adhocracy , as Charles Jencks and Nathaniel Silver described it in 1972 is recognized as “ the art of living and doing things ad-hoc — tackling problems at once , using materials at hand , rather than waiting for the perfect moment or ‘ proper ’ approach .”
In his 1999 work , New Organizational Designs , Bob Travica identifies some helpful examples of
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