Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh

Wellbeing is gaining prominence in international development discourse as an alternative means of conceptualising and assessing progress against human development goals. This paper operationalizes the concept of social wellbeing (comprised of interlinked material, subjective and relational dimension...

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Main Author: Belton, Ben
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Elsevier 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/75816
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author Belton, Ben
author_browse Belton, Ben
author_facet Belton, Ben
author_sort Belton, Ben
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Wellbeing is gaining prominence in international development discourse as an alternative means of conceptualising and assessing progress against human development goals. This paper operationalizes the concept of social wellbeing (comprised of interlinked material, subjective and relational dimensions) as a framework for understanding the effects of agrarian change, as experienced by inhabitants of two villages in rural Southwest Bangladesh. Production of two ostensibly similar high value export crops (tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn) resulted in radically different trajectories of agrarian change and social wellbeing outcomes in the two villages. These were broadly positive in the village producing prawn, but broadly negative in the village producing shrimp. The paper links these divergent wellbeing outcomes to the ways in which peasant livelihoods became commodified in each village. Different patterns of commodification are shown to be linked to differences in the biological characteristics of the two organisms farmed. The paper demonstrates the theoretical, methodological and analytical utility of integrating social wellbeing and political economy of agrarian change perspectives in the study of rural development.
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spelling CGSpace758162025-03-25T17:21:21Z Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh Belton, Ben aquaculture fish Wellbeing is gaining prominence in international development discourse as an alternative means of conceptualising and assessing progress against human development goals. This paper operationalizes the concept of social wellbeing (comprised of interlinked material, subjective and relational dimensions) as a framework for understanding the effects of agrarian change, as experienced by inhabitants of two villages in rural Southwest Bangladesh. Production of two ostensibly similar high value export crops (tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn) resulted in radically different trajectories of agrarian change and social wellbeing outcomes in the two villages. These were broadly positive in the village producing prawn, but broadly negative in the village producing shrimp. The paper links these divergent wellbeing outcomes to the ways in which peasant livelihoods became commodified in each village. Different patterns of commodification are shown to be linked to differences in the biological characteristics of the two organisms farmed. The paper demonstrates the theoretical, methodological and analytical utility of integrating social wellbeing and political economy of agrarian change perspectives in the study of rural development. 2016-06 2016-06-23T16:45:25Z 2016-06-23T16:45:25Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/75816 en Limited Access Elsevier Belton, B. 2016. Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh. Journal of Rural Studies 45:230–242.
spellingShingle aquaculture
fish
Belton, Ben
Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh
title Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh
title_full Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh
title_fullStr Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh
title_short Shrimp, prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural Bangladesh
title_sort shrimp prawn and the political economy of social wellbeing in rural bangladesh
topic aquaculture
fish
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/75816
work_keys_str_mv AT beltonben shrimpprawnandthepoliticaleconomyofsocialwellbeinginruralbangladesh