Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T20:50:18.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exchanges of Professionals between the Public and Non-Governmental Sectors: Life-work Histories from Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2010

David Lewis
David Lewis*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics & Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom Email: d.lewis@lse.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using recently-collected ethnographic life history data, this paper analyses in historical context the shifting boundary between governmental and non-governmental ‘worlds’ in Bangladesh. First, the paper explores the ways in which this boundary is an ambiguous one, and aims to show how it is constructed and maintained, through an analysis of new types of ‘boundary-crossing’ professionals who cross between the two sectors in the course of their career trajectories and their social relationships. Second, it suggests that such movements across this boundary throws light on changing professional identities in Bangladesh, such as what it means to work as a public servant or a development worker. High-achieving university graduates are now less likely to choose civil service careers than they once were, because new opportunities exist for them to work more flexibly as ‘non-governmental professionals’ in roles that may allow them to combine professional, consultant and activist identities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 735 - 757
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper is based on data collected in Bangladesh during 2005 and 2006 as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) supported research project on the life histories of individuals who move between the non-governmental and public sectors in their professional lives. The research formed part of the ESRC's Non-Governmental Public Action Programme, and the Grant Reference was RES-155–25-0064. This paper draws only on data from the Bangladesh component of the research, which was also undertaken in the Philippines, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

References

1 BRAC was originally an acronym that stood for ‘Bangladesh Rural Advancement Group’, but since the organisation has grown and diversified ‘BRAC’ is no longer an acronym but is simply the name of the agency. See Smillie, Ian (2009). Freedom From Want: The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, the Global Grassroots Organization That's Winning the Fight Against Poverty. Stirling VA: Kumarian PressGoogle Scholar.

2 Hashemi, Syed M. and Mirza, Hasan. (1995). ‘Building NGO legitimacy in Bangladesh: the contested domain’. In Lewis, D., ed., International Perspectives on Voluntary Action: Reshaping the Third Sector, pp. 124–131, London: EarthscanGoogle Scholar; White, Sarah C. (1999). ‘NGOs, civil society, and the state in Bangladesh: the politics of representing the poor’. Development and Change, 30, 3: 307–326CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 For example, Stiles, Kendall. (2002). ‘International support for NGOs in Bangladesh: some unintended consequences’. World Development, 30, 5: 835–846CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hossain, Naomi. (2005). Elite Perceptions of Poverty in Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Press LimitedGoogle Scholar.

4 Lewis, David. (2004). ‘On the Difficulty of Studying “Civil Society”: NGOs, State and Democracy in Bangladesh’. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 38, 3: 299–322CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewis, David. (2005). ‘Actors, ideas and networks: trajectories of the non-governmental in development studies’. In A Radical History of Development Studies ed. Kothari, Uma, London: Zed BooksGoogle Scholar.

5 BRAC (2006)The State of Governance in Bangladesh 2006. Centre for Governance Studies, BRAC University, DhakaGoogle Scholar.

6 Hossain, A. et al. (2005). ‘Developmentalism as a disciplinary strategy in Bangladesh’. Modern Asian Studies, 39, 2: 349–368Google Scholar.

7 Lewis (2005); Lewis, David. (2006). ‘Elusive spaces and organisational forms: a partial recovery of the history of the “third sector idea”’. Unpublished Paper for the Manchester ESRC seminar series on Rethinking Economies, University of Manchester, 15th December.

8 Lewis (2005), ‘Elusive spaces and organisational forms. . .’.

9 Chatterji, Joya. (1994). Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition 1932–1947. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Chatterji, Joya. (2007) The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947–1967. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 20CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Chatterji (2007), pp. 21–22.

12 Van Schendel, Willem. (2005) The Bengal Borderlands: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia. London: Anthem Press, p. 2.

13 Van Schendel (2005), p. 4.

14 Cf. Sidel, Mark. (2004). ‘States, markets and the nonprofit sector in South Asia: judiciaries and the struggle for capital in comparative perspective’. Tulane Law Review 78,5: 1611–1669Google Scholar.

15 Abrams, Philip. (1981). ‘On the Difficulty of Studying the State (1977)’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 1 (1): 58–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Lewis, David. (2008). ‘Crossing the boundaries between third sector and state: life-work histories from Philippines, UK and Bangladesh’. Third World Quarterly 29,1: 125–142CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Lewis, David. (2008). ‘Using Life-Work Histories in Social Policy Research: The Case of Third Sector/Public Sector Boundary Crossing. Journal of Social Policy 37, 4: 559–578CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Sanyal, Bishwapriya. (1991). ‘Antagonistic cooperation: a case study of NGOs, government and donors’ relationships in income generation projects in Bangladesh’. World Development, 19, 10: 1367–1379CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 White (1999).

20 Lewis (2008), ‘Using Life-Work Histories. . .’.

21 Ramamurthy, Anandi. (2006). ‘The politics of Britain's Asian youth movements’. Race and Class, 48, 2: 38–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Hulme, David. (2004). ‘Thinking small and the understanding of poverty: Maymana and Mofizul's story’. Journal of Human Development 5,2: 161–174CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Hulme (2004) ‘Thinking small. . .’, p.164; see www.chronicpoverty.org/toolbox/Lifehistories.php [accessed 17 March 2010].

24 Its conceptualisation and deployment is discussed in more detail in Lewis (2008), ‘Using Life-Work Histories. . .’.

25 Siddiqui, Kamal. (1996). Towards Good Governance in Bangladesh: Fifty Unpleasant Essays. Dhaka: University Press, p. 14.

26 World Bank. (2000). Bangladesh: The Experience and Perceptions of Public Officials. Washington DC: World Bank.

27 Ahmed, S. and Mahmud, W. (2006). (eds.). Introduction to Growth and Poverty: The Development Experience of Bangladesh. Dhaka: University Press Limited, p. 127Google Scholar.

28 Karim, Lamia. (2001). ‘Politics of the poor?: NGOs and grassroots political mobilisation in Bangladesh’. Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR) 24, 1: 92–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Wood, Geoffrey D. (1997) ‘States without citizens: the problem of the franchise state’. In Hulme, D. and Edwards, M (eds) Too Close for Comfort? NGOs, States and Donors. London: MacmillanGoogle Scholar.

30 Zafarullah, H., Khan, M.M., and Rahman, M.H.. (2001). ‘The Civil Service System of Bangladesh’ in Civil Service Systems in Asia, edited by Burns, J.P. and Bowornwathana, B., London: Edward Elgar, pp. 24–78Google Scholar.

31 World Bank. (2005). The Economics and Governance of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh. Washington DC: World Bank, p. 75.

32 Lewis (2008). ‘Crossing the boundaries . . .’.

33 Khan, Mushtaque H. (2000). ‘Class, clientelism and communal politics in contemporary Bangladesh’. In The Making of History: Essays Presented to Irfan Habib, edited by Panikkar, K.N., Byres, T.J. and Patnaik, U., New Delhi: TulikaGoogle Scholar.

34 Zafrullah et al. (2001), ‘The Civil Service System of Bangladesh’.

35 This is similar to the idea of ‘boundary spanning’ used by organizational theorists.

36 I have borrowed this approach to the concise presentation of ethnographic data from Fuller, C.J. and Narasimhan, Haripriya. (2007). ‘Information technology professionals and the new-rich middle class in Chennai (Madras)’. Modern Asian Studies 41, 1: 121–150CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Hilhorst, Dorothea. (2003). The Real World of NGOs: Discourses, Diversity and Development. London: Zed Books.

38 Uddin, Shahzad. (2005). ‘Privatisation in Bangladesh: The emergence of ‘Family Capitalism’. Development and Change 36,1: 157182CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Mosse, David. (2005). Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. London and Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press.

40 Lewis, David. (2010). ‘Disciplined activists, unruly brokers? Exploring the boundaries between non-governmental organisations, donors and state in Bangladesh’, in Varieties of Activist Experience: Civil Society in South Asia, edited by Gellner, David N.. New Delhi: Sage PublicationsGoogle Scholar.

41 Sidel, Mark. (2004). ‘States, markets and the nonprofit sector in South Asia. . .’.

42 Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (eds) (1992) Making A Difference: NGOs and Development in a Changing World, London: Earthscan PublicationsGoogle Scholar; Lewis (2005).

43 Kothari, Uma and David Hulme. (2004). ‘Narratives, stories and tales: understanding poverty dynamics through life histories’. Global Poverty Research Group, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), University of Manchester, p. 5.

44 Van Schendel, Willem. (2005) ‘The Bengal Borderlands. . .’.