Contested histories, participatory movements and the making of memories in Bangladesh

This is the text of the Keynote presentation for the 2016 CIRN Conference, at Prato, Italy

Resistance, rootedness and mining protest in Phulbari

This thesis is concerned with the dynamics and social morphology of resistance to mining in Bangladesh. Using the case of on-going resistance to a government supported open-pit coal mine project proposed by Asia Energy Corporations in Phulbari, Northwest Bangladesh, it considers the resistance within a particular context while investigating how the ideas held by various groups intersect and conflict in developing networks of resistance. Through ethnographic engagement in a particular ‘community’, as well as with the activism at the national level, the research attempts to explore how and to what extent the connection and disjuncture of observations and experiences of particular groups shape the resistance movement. The aims of this thesis are two fold. Firstly it expands on anthropological accounts of social movements’ rootedness in patterns of daily life. As such I examine how local resistance to mining initiatives emerges in specific contexts and around such located concerns that often remain unexpressed in the public discourse of protests. I show how resistance builds around anxieties of losing ‘home’ and accompanying rights and claims. Secondly, this research contributes to the anthropological analysis of ‘connection’ and ‘network’ in this ‘global’ era. Through an ethnographic study of the resistance movement against mining I show how the movement’s network is not a smooth integration of groups and actors; tension and ambiguity is central to it. I look at the ways in which friction of disparate ideas attached to different level of analysis, i.e. ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘universal’, pave way for the formation of tentative alliances as the differential observations come to fit into the common discourses of protest

The new trans-national politics of LGBT human rights in the Commonwealth: what can UK NGOs learn from the global South?

How should struggles for decriminalisation, human rights and equality in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity be taken forward? The chapter discusses this issue in a context where the British Empire’s legal legacy of criminalisation persists in most Commonwealth states. The chapter examines contemporary relationships between activisms in Britain and in those states, in the context of colonialism, imperialism and sexual nationalisms. The new London-based transnational politics of decriminalisation is analysed, led by NGOs such as Kaleidoscope, Human Dignity Trust, Peter Tatchell Foundation and Stonewall - increasingly seeking influence through the Commonwealth. The chapter then compares findings from this analysis of UK-based NGOs to themes from the findings of previous cross-national comparative analysis of struggles in Commonwealth states, and hence argues that UK activists have much to learn from the Global South. For example, African activists have criticised moves to link LGBT human rights to British development aid. Caribbean activists emphasise that regional international strategising existed prior to London-based transnational legal interventions; and the Voices Against 377 coalition in India suggests much to learn about innovative formation of alliances among social movements. The chapter thus presents a critical analysis of the new London-based transnational politics of LGBT human rights

The Making of Political Forests in the Cittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh: The State, Development and Indigeneity

This dissertation offers an anthropological and genealogical account of forests and social forestry, in particular the way they came to be constituted over time in one particular social-ecological context of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork to examine how discourses of forest and forest relations in CHT since British rule have changed and shaped agrarian relations of the hill peoples and their relations to power. As such, this dissertation explores forest history in relation to an ‘ethnically’ different and ‘small group’ of population living within a nation-state so as to understand how nature/environment is constituted as a terrain of governmental power, subject formation, and state building. The analysis is informed by Michel Foucault’s ideas of discourse, power and knowledge; Peter Vandergeest’s and Nancy Peluso’s theory of territorialization and political forests; K. Sivaramakrishnan’s critical work on the production of colonial state, society, and knowledge in a forested region of colonial Bengal, and Tania Li’s and Arun Agrawal’s theoretical and ethnographic work on governmentality, indigenous communities, and resource struggles. The chapters of this dissertation are organized around the political regimes of Britain, Pakistan and Bangladesh, highlighting continuities and discontinuities in the making and remaking of political forests. Throughout the chapters, there run several underlying themes: opposition to jhum cultivation; development; environmental change; and social forestry. These overlapping themes take distinct forms in relation to the discourse of political forests at each conjuncture of a particular historical development. Through this analysis, this dissertation argues that the ethnic conflicts in CHT are rooted in the policies and practices of political forests, in particular industrialization of forest resources that resulted in the dispossession and marginalization of hill peoples. However, the persistence of the conflict is primarily due to counter-insurgency developments, especially ‘social forestry.’ The dissertation illustrates how hill peoples’ political opposition to the state and forestry programs through insurgency and alternative development have, in fact, helped to create and expand political forests. While many scholars write accurately but too generally about the land issue as the crux of the prolem ethnic conflict and insurgecy in CHT, this dissertation explains not just that land is problem, but why and how land is problem. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the rich scholarship in South Asian historical political ecology, with a focus on Bangladesh and the emerging field ‘Zomia Studies.’ The dissertation aims to deepen our understanding of the relations between violence, forests and development in CHT and addresses the absence of ethnographic research on ethnic conflict in the CHT in general, and on issues of its forests and lands in particular in Bangladesh

Education for disaster resilience : lessons from El Niño

Funding: Scottish Funding Council GCRF funding enabled us to build our Peru-Scotland team. Two Arts and Humanities Research Council projects (AH/T004444/1: “Fishing and farming in the desert'? A platform for understanding El Niño food system opportunities in the context climate change in Sechura, Peru”; “El Nino a phenomenon with opportunities: learning history and valuing community assets for an empowering digital curriculum in northern Peru” AH/V012215/1) enabled us to consolidate and deepen our initial research.This paper calls for greater attention to the role of youth and children as development actors in the context of education for disaster management. Drawing on debates in disaster studies and children’s geographies, we explore the possibilities offered by everyday formal education spaces, often overlooked in disasters management practice, to engage children in disaster preparedness and resilience planning. Using the case study of Peru, we examine the extent to which national responses to the restrictions that the COVID-19 pandemic placed on in-person teaching, opened-up opportunities to engage with disaster management in new ways. We draw on the case of an innovative digital curricula that uses intergenerational storytelling about the El Niño phenomenon to investigate livelihood opportunities and climate change pressures in northern coastal Peru, exploring how the phenomenon benefits desert populations. We assess the role of participatory virtual learning in facilitating disaster knowledge and climate adaptation awareness among students and critically examine the youth subjectivities that are constructed through these processes. We conclude calling for greater engagement with children’s formal education spaces in climate adaptation strategies, while cautioning against conceptualising children and young people as only ‘adults in the making’, rather than as impacted individuals with current agency and everyday capacities.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Shabag, a critical social moment: a collective agency capabilities analysis

This thesis sets out an approach to understanding the impact of change oriented ‘social moments’ on social practices and structures. The empirical case on which the thesis draws to develop this argument is the Shahbag protests in Bangladesh. At the theoretical level, the thesis suggests that ‘Social Moments’ oriented to change (as differentiated from social movements) can be triggered by latent injustices occurring within a given society. Using a Critical Theoretical lens and the Capability Approach, the thesis sets out a Being-Doing-Impact Model oriented to an understanding of the conditions necessary for a Social Moment to occur. These moments occur where individuals from different parts of the social habitus come together, to create a scene, as a critical mass in order to effect change. Such moments can lead to shifts in systems and practices, and ultimately to a more just society. The research assesses in detail the conditions that made the Shahbag Moment possible. These conditions include: the presence of the necessary agency capabilities of individuals; the effective mobilisation of instrumental freedoms; the substantive presence of networks of social support and solidarity (all of which bring into play an important affective dimension). The wider social context is also viewed as a crucial component. The thesis shows how, for example, the atmosphere at Shahbag can be considered as cultural, positive and safe. It also shows a willingness on the part of Government to listen and respond to the will of the people. Moreover, the role of the media and social media, which shared the Moment’s messages, and offered an open and transparent information platform to debate and discuss the issues was significant. An analysis of the case histories of the Shahbag Moment in Bangladesh allows for the further development of the theoretical approach in a concrete empirical contex

Civics and Citizenship Education in India and Pakistan

The idea of citizen and the school discipline of civics, which is entrusted with the responsibility to create an ideal citizen, have colonial imprints. Both citizenship and civics have traversed through postcolonial histories of nation-building, state formation, modernity, and democracy/authoritarianism in South Asian nation-states of India and Pakistan. In the context of globalization, the idea of a citizen has also been marked with discourses of global citizenship, identity-based movements, and a reassertion of nationalism. This chapter situates civics in the context of these histories and transitions. Drawing on existing research, it also analyses the contestations over inclusions and exclusions from citizenship as represented in the school subjects of civics, social studies, and citizenship education. The dominant pedagogic practices of the subject and alternatives to them, along with a discussion of gaps in existing research and potential news areas of study are highlighted

Crossing Conceptual Boundaries VIII

PhD annual yearbook for the School of Social Sciences at UE