ABSTRACT
Recent contributions to ‘statistical political ecology’ have identified political and economic formations associated with the killing, criminalization and intimidation of land and environmental defenders - as well as characteristics of successful resistance movements in which defenders play a part. This chapter is concerned with the land defenders who have mobilized against resurgent coal power in Bangladesh over the last decade and a half. Many of these defenders have been subjected to violence within the context of conflicts and movements that fit emerging global patterns. However, an analysis of the political economy of coal power in Bangladesh reveals particular contradictions in the measures of ‘corruption’ and ‘rule of law’ that facilitate cross-national comparison of the contexts in which defenders face violence. This chapter concludes by highlighting the degree to which efforts to promote good governance and rule of law can facilitate the expansion of violent extractive operations that put land and environmental defenders at risk. It calls for greater attention to the ‘violence footprints’ of transnational corporations and donor agencies with whom the sovereign power of the Bangladeshi state is entangled.
