Power and Precarity of Tactical Performance in Thailand’s Political Movements

This paper examines the relationship between playfulness and political constraint in Thailand’s youth-led protest movements in 2020-2021, with a focus on the strategic use of costume, satire, and performance. Drawing on L. M. Bogad’s concept of “tactical carnival,” it argues that the carnivalesque operates as a powerful—though precarious—mode of civic expression in contexts where speech and assembly are restricted. While such performances can open temporary spaces for collective imagination and emotional solidarity, they are often enacted under conditions of surveillance and legal risk. In the Thai context, symbolic gestures in public space have, in some instances, led to serious personal consequences, highlighting the complex visibility-performance nexus. The paper proposes that collective, decentralised forms of carnivalesque protest may help to diffuse individual vulnerability while fostering affective bonds and cultural memory. Tactical carnival is thus considered not only a method of protest but also a performative archive—a living form of memory-making that resists forgetting and affirms the right to speak through play.