ABSTRACT

Fifty Years of Bangladesh portrays the multi-faceted dimensions of Bangladesh’s development journey, its economic and social transformation and political and cultural contestations.

The book presents new empirical data supplemented with critical analysis of processes, actors and actions that have been the drivers of Bangladesh’s transformation and offers new ways of understanding Bangladesh. Organized in six sections, the book provides a multi-disciplinary, holistic and interrelated narrative of the Bangladesh story covering its economic and social transformation, the political history and changing cultural landscapes. It presents new empirical data and proposes new theoretical and analytical frameworks to explain the country’s complex and paradoxical developments. Capturing the vast landscape of changes that have taken place in different sectors of Bangladesh during the last fifty years, the contributors analyse the variety of Bangladesh’s experiences, its achievements as well as the shortfalls and mistakes. They propose new models and perspectives to ground Bangladesh’s developments, identify persistent and emerging challenges and suggest ways forward.

A valuable addition to scholarship on Bangladesh, this book can be used as a reference in universities, research institutions and international development agencies interested in Development Studies, South Asian Studies and studies of the Global South.

chapter 1|18 pages

Introduction

Transformation, contestation and challenges in Bangladesh

part 1|70 pages

Economic transformation

part 2|48 pages

Costs and challenges of development

chapter 5|19 pages

Fifty years of development experience of Bangladesh

An employment and labour perspective 1

chapter 6|16 pages

Inequality and human development

The Bangladesh perspective

chapter 7|11 pages

Bangladesh between world system and green growth

Past trends, future trajectories

part 3|32 pages

Social transitions

part 4|33 pages

Cultural contestations

chapter 11|11 pages

Building Bangladesh

Critical orientations in architecture

chapter 12|11 pages

The changing faces of culture

Notes from a time of crisis

part 5|64 pages

State, society, politics

chapter 14|18 pages

Islamist politics in Bangladesh

The nature, scope, and the pathway

chapter 15|14 pages

State-making, violence, and political muscle

Bangladesh as a polycratic state 1

part 6|14 pages

The challenge ahead

chapter 16|12 pages

Democratising the ‘middle-income’ dream

The coming challenge for Bangladesh at 50