Change And The Everyday Politics Of Community Based Organisations

Membership based organisations are an increasingly important institutional form, encountered both in the social theories we use and in the practices of people we study. An examination of these organisations brings to the fore the importance of the relational in the construction of well-being. Using ethnographic insights into a pro-poor organisational form active in Bangladesh, the paper argues that the success of the organisation can be traced to its ability to become the primary location and expression of agency for its members. The paper then proceeds to explore the form of agency facilitated through the organisation and demonstrates how this is imbued with traces of relations of power that are more characteristic of clientelistic practices. This creates a conundrum: can you exercise greater agency from a position that encourages the persistence of clientelistic behaviour? In exploring ways in which the conundrum might be fruitfully answered, the paper links three key themes: embeddedness, autonomy and well-being.