Gilbert 2018 accepted pre-proof FOCAAL.pdf (169.87 kB)
Class, complicity & capitalist ambition in Dhaka’s elite enclaves
This article draws on ethnographic work carried out in London and Dhaka as part of a multisited project exploring the production of investment opportunities for (predominantly British) companies in Bangladesh. Focusing on the ready-made garments (RMG) sector in the run-up to, and in the wake of, the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, I trace aid-funded attempts to improve Bangladesh’s investment climate and engagements with these initiatives by brokers seeking to “rebrand” Bangladesh as an investment destination and by RMG factory-owning businesspeople based in Dhaka. Writing against the “post-critical turn,” I suggest that responding to the explicit recognition by business elites of their own complicity in the exploitation of garment workers provides an entry point for a critical account of private sector development that enhances, not curtails, ethnographic understanding.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
FocaalISSN
0920-1297Publisher
Berghahn JournalsExternal DOI
Issue
81Volume
2018Page range
43-57Department affiliated with
- International Development Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-05-31First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-06-01First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-05-30Usage metrics
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