Slip Trip Tumble: Determining Landlessness in Rural Bangladesh

Studies on the landless and of landlessness in Bangladesh have been carried out mostly by the economists, sociologist and the anthropologists but seldom by a geographer. This book is a geographical analysis of landlessness on a micro level, where dynamics of rural landlessness has been investigated at the household level under varied ecological conditions. Synthesizing empirical findings and secondary information the study attempts a causal explanation of connections and interrelations of reasons behind landlessness. The actual and also perceived reasons have been analyzed through such traits and household conditions like needs, well-being, capability, constraints, motivations, options, and opportunities. Rural (landless) households experience land loss and also at times, land gain. These changes in land ownership are in response to household needs and the capability to cope with needs that change over time. The importance of time, location and individual disposition in the study of household landlessness has been highlighted here. People young of age, illiterate and unskilled, occupied mostly as agricultural wage labour, were presently heading the fragile floodplain households under study. One third of these households have already experienced lifetime landlessness and a vast majority remain vulnerable, little slips are liable to make them trip and tumble. With its nuanced insights into theory and methodology, readability and comprehensive coverage, this book will attract wide readership among students and scholars of rural development, social ecology, anthropology, livelihood, and environmental studies.