Shelley Feldman

Land expropriation and displacement in Bangladesh

This paper examines land grabbing in Bangladesh and views such seizures through the lens of displacement and land encroachment. Two different but potentially interacting displacement processes are examined. The first, the char riverine and coastal sediment regions that are in a constant state of formation and erosion, are contested sites ripe for power plays that uproot small producers on their rich alluvial soils. The second examines new patterns of land capture by elites who engage gangs, corrupted public servants and the military to coerce small producers into relinquishing titles to their ever more valuable lands in and near urban areas. These historically specific and contingent land grabs draw attention to in situ displacement, where people may remain in place or experience a prolonged multi-stage process of removal. This contrasts with ex situ displacement, a decisive expulsion of people from their homes, communities and livelihoods. In both the char and peri-urban case, we signal new forms of collective action in response to involuntary alienation of land resources in a rapidly and violently transforming political economy. We conclude with a caution against naturalizing displacement, casting it as an ‘inevitable’ consequence of changing weather conditions in the former and population dynamics in the latter.

Exploring theories of patriarchy: a perspective from contemporary Bangladesh.

n 1984 I visited Bangladesh to begin research on female garment workers. The image that remains deeply embedded in my consciousness is the dramatic change that characterized the streets of Dacca since I had left the country only eighteen months earlier. Perhaps most striking were the number of women who now walked along the road, often in groups of six or more, especially after a shift change at the recently opened garment factories that dotted the streets throughout the city. The image of women dressed in cotton saris leaving work in the early evening was in stark contrast to my earlier experience when I was one of only a few, if any, women walking quickly along these same roads. It also was a change from the time when I was the only woman in a government or commercial office, or in some of the smaller fresh produce or fish markets, unchaperoned by either an older or younger male companion. At first I could hardly make sense of this now strange and different place that had been my home for five years. Was I mistaken? Did I remember incorrectly? Did I get caught by the Western image of Bangladesh and Bangladeshi women dominated by purdah (female seclusion), only to confront the everyday lives of young women struggling to make a living? How was I to understand this apparently fantastic change in the course of a mere eighteen months? I have been challenged ever since to make sense of this dramatic reorganization of womens lives. Certain facts were self-evident: a growing number of garment factories were now part of the city, Dacca was an internationally recognized export-processing enclave, and thousands of women

Purdah and Changing Patterns of Social Control among Rural Women in Bangladesh.

Using data gathered in 1966 and between 1975 and 1982 this paper shows how changes in womens productive activities and in the demand for female wage labor have affected the accoutrements and expression of purdah among Bangladeshi villagers. Purdah is defined as the specific pattern of exchange between the sexes. Purdah incorporating as it does patterns of social control in combination with religous justification changes in saliency as social conditions change. 1 reason is that the ability of a society to institutionalize and perpetuate particular forms of social behavior depends on the continuation and stability of particular patterns of social organization. Traditional patterns of social control encompassed by the purdah system enhanced the status of the families of women who observed purdah as well as providing the basis for the personal status of individual women. The traditional observance of purdah was generated and maintained by a distinctive sexual division of labor and the status and condition of rural families contributed to the form of purdah observed in earlier periods of Bangladesh. An illustration of the changing nature of the purdah system was the advent and popularization of the burkha in perindependent Bangladesh. This garment which conceals a woman from head to toe actually increases the mobility of Muslim women thereby enhancing their social participation and visibility this paper argues with mixed results. In the more recent period as the ability of 1 person to support a family has decreased and the household itself is threatened women and children are increasingly forced to provide for their own subsistence. Having few skills except those related to agriculture they seek employment close to their homes in areas related to agriculture. While it is apparent that old forms of repression and control have passed away what has replaced them has had mixed effects on women. Greater mobility and freedom of movement have been gained because of deteriorating socioeconomic conditions; along with this great mobility however has come even greater personal responsibility for ones subsistence.

The use of private health care providers in rural Bangladesh: A response to Claquin

This study examines the distribution and differential use of private health care practitioners in one area of Bangladesh. It highlights the importance of gender, age and class factors as these impinge upon the utilization of different health care providers. Based on the complexity of these factors in influencing the utilization of health services, the feasibility of Claquins recommendation to employ a palli chikitshok cadre of fee-for-service doctors in rural Bangladesh is reassessed. It is concluded that, as presently envisaged, the employment of these health providers would serve to solidify the rural elite structure and further remove quality health care from poor rural villagers.

Patriarchy and economic development : women's positions at the end of the twentieth century

At the end of the twentieth century, after four world conferences on women, debates on the impact of economic development on the lives and status of women - including their life-options and opportunities for betterment - continue unresolved. Is patriarchy on the decline, or is it merely its form that is changing? What effect does development have on gender relations, and how do patriarchal structures affect the development process? The chapters in this book were written for a UNU/WIDER research conference convened to explore two parallel phenomena: the changing position of women and gender relations and the relevance of the concept of patriarchy, and the impact of development-and especially industrialization and wage work-on women and gender. They address questions through theoretical, historical, and empirical approaches, and provide critical analysis and macro- and micro-level data for Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian sub-continent, the Nordic region, and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Following an introduction and overview (Part 1), the book is divided into two main parts. Part II offers historical and theoretical perspectives on the evolution of womens positions in the course of development, with contributions by Sylvia Walby, John Lie, Elizabeth Dore, Sheila Carapico, Leela Kasturi, and Jane Parpart. Part III focuses on industrialization, state policies, and women workers, with contributions by Ruth Pearson, Helen Safa, Rita Gallin, Valentine Moghadam, Guy Standing, and Tuovi Allen. The book ends with an appendix of statistical tables providing descriptive data on women in the countries under consideration and others. The contributors are well-known academics and researchers who utilize the methods of economics, sociology, history, and feminist analysis in their case studies of economic development and womens positions.

Persistence of the smallholder, withering away of the small farmer: Comments on Bhaduri, Rahman and Arn

Bhaduri, Rahman and Arns article on the persistence of small farms in the April 1986 issue of The Journal of Peasant Studies is reviewed. The article raises a number of critical points for understanding the effects of capitalist penetration of land‐holding patterns in Bangladesh. It is argued that the discussion would benefit from a refined methodological and definitional focus to avoid misrepresenting processes of polarisation. Particular attention in this review is given to a critique of the construction of the land stability ratio and to the conceptualisation and definition of the term ‘small farm’.

Overpopulation as crisis: redirecting health care services in rural Bangladesh.

This article examines the consequences of a “population-as-crisis” theme on the institutional configuration and resource endowments of health care services in an integrated Ministry of Health and Population Control in Bangladesh. The Ministrys focus on women as child bearers and its emphasis on sterilization supported by incentives has contradictory consequences as women become vulnerable to a limited health service and incentives encourage a focus on meeting sterilization targets. Both undermine peoples access to and use of primary health care services. Findings from three studies, undertaken between 1978 and 1983, support the argument that despite international concern with preventive and promotive primary health care, simultaneous support for and emphasis on population control inhibits meeting the goals of a broad-based rural primary health care service.

International Shifts in Agricultural Debates and Practice: An Historical View of Analyses of Global Agriculture

This paper reviews the changing issues that shape understandings of agriculture, agroecology, rural landscapes, and food production over the course of the last 50 years. While we will highlight the specific changes that characterize the last two decades, we will situate current conditions and shifts against the longer backdrop of the post-World War II period. Providing a historical context for ongoing debates and practices will enable us to show how current debates respond to, challenge, extend, and at times, reproduce ideas and strategies of an earlier period. Thus, this review will have two interrelated goals: First, to outline the backdrop against which we can understand current shifts in agricultural debates and policy choices; and second, to show how these debates feature in contemporary understandings of the status of global agriculture.

Conditions influencing rural and town women's participation in the labor force: Some important considerations

Abstract This paper suggests that changes in the basic conditions of subsistence of Bangladeshi families, particularly increasing destitution and landlessness, are prime factors in forcing increasing numbers of rural and urban women into the wage sector of the economy. It has been found that as an initial step towards womens control over their own lives, participation in the labor force may be considered an advance for women in comparison to previous forms of labor. It is suggested, however, that the patterning of wage labor in less developed capitalist countries, to the extent that it follows Western trends, has every possibility of duplicating in Bangladesh the structures of womens exploitation and differential income earning opportunities hindering womens development in other countries, It is also suggested that traditional forms of social control legitimating and governing the subordination of women in Bangladesh are being undermined by worsening socio-economic conditions. It has been found that the traditional system controlling womens subordination, which is known as purdah, may be losing saliency for increasing numbers of rural families. This leads one to conclude that the development and extension of a wage economy brings new forms of social control involving contradictory results, exploitation, and dependence on the one hand, and changing conditions of independence and control on the other .

Community-making in times of displacement: The place of marriage and religious identification among young Muslim men and women

This concluding essay integrates the various contributions of this special volume to conceptualize how South Asian migrant communities, whether in the UK, Bangladesh, or the US, respond to and negotiate multiple experiences of displacement and resettlement. I draw attention to the place of Islam – as religion, institutional context, social connection, and moral community – among young men and women in these multiple sites to highlight the salience of religious networks in the meaning of family, the identification of marriage partners, and the making of a moral compass to guide social and personal life. These networks unfold in a particular historical context where forms of Islamic othering and economic insecurity shape relations of social engagement and belonging among Muslim immigrants youth.