An exploratory study of the discourse of the Islam and development: the case of the Islami Bank Bangladesh

The relationship between religion and development is a relatively new research area, complicated by the arguably "secular reductionism" and "materialistic determinism" of mainstream development theory and practice. Against this backdrop, this doctoral study examines the relationship between Islamic and mainstream development discourses, analysing the complex power relations at work within the discursive practices of the development field through a conceptual apparatus comprised of a Foucauldian notion of power and discourse and a Laclauan view of hegemony. The objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of how Islamic development policy making and makers have made meaning of the central issues of development and progress as expressed in the body of theory and practice that makes up the development field. Interestingly, Islamic thinkers were already criticising the Euro-centric nature of the development discourse in the 1950s and 60s. They proposed an Islamisation of knowledge, particularly in the field of economics, as a way of overcoming a perceived Western‘ domination. In pursuit of the question as to how "Islam" relates to the issue of development and progress, this thesis explores the genealogy of the mainstream and the Islamic development discourses, illustrated by a selected case study within the development field in Bangladesh