REVIEWER MEETS REVIEWED
SEMINAR SERIES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM’S ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTRE
Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh
Thursday 20 March at 10.00 am (tea & coffee served from 9.30 am)
Anthropology Library and Research Centre, British Museum
THIS IS A FREE EVENT
The British Museum’s Anthropology Library and Research Centre, in conjunction with the Royal Anthropological Institute, is pleased to present the sixth seminar in the 2013-14 series of ‘Reviewer meets Reviewed’, a discussion between Professor Katy Gardner, author of ‘Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh’, and Professor Janet Seeley, who reviewed the book for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
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, Discordant Development reveals the complex and contradictory ways that local people attempt to connect to, and are disconnected by, foreign capital. Everyone has a story to tell: 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, Discordant Development 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 industrialisation on global development.
Bookings/enquiries: Ted Goodliffe ( TGoodliffe@britishmuseum.org)
