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More Than Meets The Eye: Re-Reading Forest Policy Discourse In Bangladesh

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  • Niaz Ahmed Khan (University of Dhaka)

Abstract

This article attempts to deconstruct the Bangladesh forest policy discourse by examining its key purport, narrative structure, and underlying messages. By examining the country's principal forest policy documents from a discourse perspective, the study argues that the Bangladesh state's policy response to the 'problems' and 'development of forestry sector' has been rhetorically loaded but politically cautious, covert and calculated. Under the conditions of governmentality, the policy and plan prescriptions, as part of discursive regime, are presented as technical instruments for promoting efficiency and effectiveness in the forestry sector. The power and politics inherent in this exercise are constantly cloaked; yet these are pervasive, and find expression in their ability to serve certain practical systematic purposes. These are: as classificatory devices to categorise and name target groups and services rendered; as narratives to justify (or condemn) a particular scenario and course of action; as rhetorical devices and discursive formations that function to empower some (e.g. public forestry officials) and silence others (e.g. restrictions put on 'land grabbers' and 'encroachers'); as political technologies to depoliticize and shape 'target group' conceptions and distribution of services; as escape hatches to hive off difficult responsibility and accountability questions; and as a lever to muster and wield power on the part of the state. Ultimately, the policy discourse and the associated formulation exercise may contribute both to the depoliticization and the bureaucratization of the development process. The paper concludes with a call for increased research on this relatively less-explored area of study.

Suggested Citation

  • Niaz Ahmed Khan (University of Dhaka), "undated". "More Than Meets The Eye: Re-Reading Forest Policy Discourse In Bangladesh," QEH Working Papers qehwps177, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps177
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    File URL: http://workingpapers.qeh.ox.ac.uk/RePEc/qeh/qehwps/qehwps177.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Blair, Harry W., 1985. "Participation, public policy, political economy and development in rural Bangladesh, 1958-85," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(12), pages 1231-1247, December.
    2. Roe, Emery M., 1991. "Development narratives, or making the best of blueprint development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 287-300, April.
    3. Barbara Harriss-White, "undated". "Development, Policy and Agriculture in India in the 1990s," QEH Working Papers qehwps78, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    4. Blair, Harry W., 1978. "Rural development, class structure and bureaucracy in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 65-82, January.
    5. Louise G. White, 1994. "Policy analysis as discourse," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(3), pages 506-525.
    6. Marion Glaser, 1985. "The Use of Labelling in Urban Low Income Housing in the Third World Case–Study of Bogota, Colombia," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 409-428, July.
    7. Bernard Schaffer, 1985. "Policy Makers Have Their Needs Too: Irish Itinerants and the Culture of Poverty," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 375-408, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Leipold, Sina, 2014. "Creating forests with words — A review of forest-related discourse studies," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 12-20.
    2. Rahman, Md Saifur & Sadath, Md. Nazmus & Giessen, Lukas, 2016. "Foreign donors driving policy change in recipient countries: Three decades of development aid towards community-based forest policy in Bangladesh," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 39-53.
    3. Sadath, Md. Nazmus & Rahman, Sabrina, 2016. "Forest in crisis: 2 decades of media discourse analysis of Bangladesh print media," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 16-21.
    4. Sadath, Md. Nazmus & Krott, Max, 2012. "Identifying policy change — Analytical program analysis: An example of two decades of forest policy in Bangladesh," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 93-99.

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