Foreign investment, mining conflict, and contested development in Bangladesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the conflict over the most contentious resource development project in Bangladesh, a proposed coal mine in its northwest region. Moving beyond the rationale of place-based local struggles against transnational mining corporations, it examines the macro dynamics of resource extraction, i.e. the institutional context and deal-making culture, to emphasise the ability of popular power from below to confront extractive industry practices on the ground. Drawing on Overland’s theorising of the role of civil society in natural resource management, it argues that in a political context characterised by extractive institutions, robust debate in the public sphere and social mobilisation at local and national levels can strengthen popular power from below to safeguard the benefits of energy resources in a poor country.