Professor of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka.
Bio
Author Biography
Ferdous Jahan is a Professor of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka. She has authored journal articles on governance, poverty, development and women’s empowerment issues which have been published in renowned national and international academic journals. Ferdous’ current academic interests and research include: pro-poor governance; public service; urban governance and climate change; and women’s empowerment issues in developing societies. She has been the lead country researcher in Bangladesh for the research project Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility.
Executive Director of the Development Research Initiative (dRi).
Bio
Author Biography
Mamun-ur-Rashid is the Executive Director of the Development Research Initiative (dRi). For more than a decade, he has been engaged in diversified social research projects. From the beginning of food price volatility research, Rashid has been playing the key role in research and team management for longitudinal data collection in Bangladesh.
BRAC University.
Bio
Author Biography
Sharif A. Wahab is a former Research Associate of BRAC University and the Development Research Initiative (dRi). Sharif has contributed to writing research reports for the Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility project. His research interests include urban poverty, political ecology, climate change and gender. Wahab is currently pursuing his MA in International Development Studies at Ohio University.
Volume 46
Number 6
Published: November 15, 2015
Millions of people in Bangladesh suffer from hunger, unpredictable and unstable livelihoods, precarious living conditions and social injustice. Yet they survive and become resilient. However, the resilience achieved by the poor is minimal and incremental in nature and does not result in their wellbeing. Based on three years of qualitative research, this article attempts to understand the nature of and pathways to ‘resilience of the poor people'. The article argues that poor people's approach to ‘resilience’ is twofold. First, they perceive their poverty and associated problems as ‘Allah's will', with not much to be done about it. At the same time, they engage in continuous innovative practices to survive. These two worldviews together ('fatalism’ and ‘self-help') make the poor ‘resilient'. This also ‘partially’ explains the absence of strong activism, collective action and protests within a context of state failure (in terms of ensuring rights and entitlements to its citizens).
Keywords:
- Food security
- food prices