This book is a collection of eleven critical essays covering some of the implications of neoliberal development in Bangladesh. One of the major themes of this book is how the paradigm of neoliberalism, with its sole focus on free market, has transformed the very nature of the state. For the neoliberal states, market is both the ends and means of social wellbeing. While this ‘market-directed’ development approach can ensure certain levels of economic growth, it also brings out degrading quality of life, ecology and political governance. Bangladesh's experience with neoliberal development is an important case study because the country has already been recognized as a 'development paradox'. While some hail the development spree and bask in the glory of a fast-growing economy, critics of the traditional economic growth-oriented model of development point their fingers at the downsides of the same economy.

 

The topics discussed in this book, among others, include microfinance, energy, higher education, agriculture, gender and, corruption. The editors hope that this book will serve as a useful guide and resource for understanding contemporary critical scholarship on neoliberal policies in Bangladesh.

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Introduction

 

Chapter 1 The Contemporary Development Paradigm: Towards a Critical Understanding of Neoliberal Agency by Tony Lynch

 

Chapter 2 Development, Neoliberal Development and Microfinance: An Appraisal by Mohammad Jasim Uddin

 

Chapter 3 Interrogating the 'Peasant Question' in Post-Reform Bangladesh by Manoj Misra

 

Chapter 4 Neoliberalism, State, and Labor: Reflections on the Garment Industry by Shahidur Rahman

 

Chapter 5 State-Business Nexus and the Quick Rental Power Plants in Bangladesh by Maha Mirza

 

Chapter 6 Higher Education: Trapped in Neoliberal Reform by Ariful Haq Kabir

 

Chapter 7 Tourism and State Violence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh by Hana Shams Ahmed

 

Chapter 8 Neoliberalism and Gender: Are the Strong Womenof Madhupur Losing Strength? by Samina Luthfa

 

Chapter 9 Neoliberal Policies, Development Interventions, Primitive Accumulation and Peasant Resistance: The Case of Land Grabs in the Noakhali Chapter Chars of Bangladesh by Shapan Adnan

 

Chapter 10 Developmental Centralism, Rampal Thermal Power Plant, EIA, and the Sundarbans: Legitimacy Crisis in Perspective by Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan

 

Chapter 11 The Taka, Transparency, and an Alternative Politics of Seeing From Phulbari, Bangladesh Nusrat S. Chowdhury