The Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh (Anthropology, Culture and Society) by Katy Gardner


The Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh (Anthropology, Culture and Society)
Title : The Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh (Anthropology, Culture and Society)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0745331505
ISBN-10 : 9780745331508
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 216
Publication : First published October 11, 2011

What happens when a vast multinational mining company operates a gas plant situated close to four densely populated villages in rural Bangladesh? How does its presence contribute to local processes of "development?" And what do corporate claims of "community engagement" involve? Drawing from author Katy Gardner’s longstanding relationship with the area, The Gas Field reveals the complex and contradictory ways that local people attempt to connect to, and are disconnected by, foreign capital. Everyone has a story to whether of dispossession and scarcity, the success of Corporate Social Responsibility, or imperialist exploitation and corruption. Yet as Gardner argues, what really matters in the struggles over resources is which of these stories are heard, and the power of those who tell them. Based around the discordant narratives of dispossessed land owners, urban activists, mining officials, and the rural landless, The Gas Field touches on some of the most urgent economic and political questions of our time, including resource ownership and scarcity, and the impact of foreign investment and industrialization on global development.

The Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh (Anthropology, Culture and Society) Reviews

  • Jake

    Gardner's work is a fascinating investigation into the impact of a gas field on the life of those surrounding it in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Throughout the book she examines how local people's ability to call on support from local and transnational connections influences their social and economic status. She also looks at how the Chevron plant is viewed locally.

    What I found most interesting in this book is the difference in cultural paradigm between Chevron and the localised culture. Chevron was unable to successfully understand their local impact because they were looking in the wrong places to understand poverty. The CSR strategy they took was based on outdated and ineffectual methods of international development.

    It was interesting the way that Londonis, Sylhetis who live in the UK, sat between the two worlds and were able to move between the world of the West but were also sometimes bound by Bangladeshi social obligations.

    This book is useful in undertsnading the complex nature of CSR, development and transition in Development.