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We demand work! ‘Dispossession’, patronage and village labour in Bibiyana, Bangladesh

Gardner, Katy (2018) We demand work! ‘Dispossession’, patronage and village labour in Bibiyana, Bangladesh. Journal of Peasant Studies, 45 (7). 1484 - 1500. ISSN 0306-6150

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Identification Number: 10.1080/03066150.2018.1442326

Abstract

This paper critically appraises the usefulness of idioms and theories of ‘dispossession’ to describe changes taking place in rural Bangladesh, where rapid industrialization and ‘development’ have led to profound shifts in the agrarian economy. On the basis of long-term fieldwork in north-eastern Bangladesh, where the multinational company Chevron operate a large gas field, I argue that rather than political and economic struggles in the area involving access to land, it is access to work which is now all important for livelihoods and, as such, has become the basis for local patronage and political power. Theories of ‘accumulation by dispossession’, still widely cited in the anthropology of neo-liberal development in South Asia, are thus of limited help in explaining the changes and continuities which animate local political and economic struggles.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fjps20
Additional Information: © 2017 Informa
Divisions: Anthropology
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Date Deposited: 25 Jan 2018 13:55
Last Modified: 30 Jan 2024 05:21
Projects: RES-167-25-0297
Funders: Economic and Social Research Council, Department for International Development
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86541

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