What is it about?
What is development? Looking at some recent examples from Bangladesh, one might think that development is all about economic growth, industrialization, and becoming part of the 'consumer society'. My article critically questions these assumptions by analyzing examples from Bangladesh's energy sector as well as other examples given by development practitioners in Bangladesh, showing how such narrow-minded ideas of development simultaneously reduce and impoverish development.
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Why is it important?
By drawing on in-depth interviews with development practitioners in Bangladesh, my article demonstrates how the allegedly 'benign' and neutral concept of development is not something ‘inherently good’ that can be taken-for-granted or as a natural fact, but something that exists through certain mechanisms and ways of thinking that privilege Western practices and knowledge and oppress alternative visions of development, leading to a form of mal-development.
Perspectives
With ever-increasing inequality across the globe and an ever-increasing impact of climate change, it is time to question the Western-based development model of pursuing endless economic growth. As many studies show, it is exactly this model of 'development' which leads to the aforementioned issues in the first place. I hope my work can contribute a small part to inspire more people to reflect on such an important issue and provoke the emergence of urgently needed alternative visions to the Western standard model of development.
MR Christoph Neusiedl
City University of Hong Kong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The deep marketisation of development in Bangladesh, Third World Quarterly, September 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2016.1229567.
You can read the full text:
Resources
`Development', capitalism, NGOs and people's movements in Bangladesh: an interview with Anu Muhammad
Anu Muhammad is a renowned academician from Bangladesh. In this interview, he talks about the politico-economic trajectory of Bangladesh in the context of capitalist globalisation, geopolitical changes in South Asia and the role of India, and assesses the significance of recent popular movements in the country.
Rampal coal plant: Indian coal dream fast becoming a nightmare for Bangladesh
It is becoming ever more apparent that if the proposed new Rampal coal plant is a ‘dream project' for India, then as currently conceived it stands to become a nightmare for Bangladesh.
Delusions of development: pro-market forces at work in the do-good industry
In this interview, Dr Toby Carroll, Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong, discusses the evolution of development programs by institutions such as the World Bank and its subsidiary the International Finance Corporation, and scrutinizes the outcomes of recent strategies involving public-private partnerships and explicitly pro-market approaches.
An Introduction to James Ferguson’s The Anti-Politics Machine
Western agencies have a “development fantasy” about less developed countries. But despite what they may think, their work should not be simply technical, providing better equipment and teaching new skills. Why? Because development projects often systematically downplay the political causes of and solutions to poverty. As a result, projects are often ineffective at alleviating poverty and may be a means for states to extend their reach and control. This short video from Macat explains Ferguson's key ideas in only a few minutes.
Working On, Through and Around the State: The Deep Marketisation of Development in the Asia-Pacific
This article describes an important new push by international financial institutions towards broadening and deepening capitalist social relations in the underdeveloped world in ways well beyond Washington Consensus structural adjustment or even post-Washington Consensus forms of institutionally-oriented “participatory neo-liberalism.”
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