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Geography in Bangladesh
Niche of the discipline in the context of global change
Sheikh Tawhidul Islam and Alak Paul
1. Introduction
The conceptual evolution of geography at a global level took place as a result of relentless introspective inquiry about âwhat is geographyâ and related responsive actions taken by geographers at different times. The answer to this question had led western geographers to be strongly based on theoretical outfits which were primarily borrowed from Marxism (Harvey 1984), philosophy (Philo 1992) and social theory (Peet and Thrift 1989). But the geographers working in the Global South like Bangladesh did not have the same luxury or opportunity for various reasons to develop theoretical frameworks that fit the geographical problems of their region. The local geographers rather focused on empirical works on different physical, social, economic, ecological functions and processes of the land because of the pressing needs to understand the problems associated with those domains. Potter et al. (2004) also indicated that geography as a discipline has evolved, especially after the Second World War around a UK/Europe/North America focus (popularly termed as core focus) and paid little attention to the systems and processes happening in the Global South (known as geography in the periphery). They advocated for more works on different issues of the Global South and recommended a new vision of geography where both theories and empirical studies will contribute simultaneously (Ibid.). This book, against this backdrop, presents geographical findings produced by Bangladesh geographers to show how local geographers contributed to the development of Bangladesh through production of knowledge. The strengths they show in the works and the challenges identified will help to develop partnership projects between geographers working in the South and geographers based in the North and contribute to the overall advancement of the discipline.
2. Summary reflections of chapters
2.1 Human geography
Five chapters are included in the book under the human geography section. Urbanization process and urban research, gender dimensions of Bangladesh, evolutionary process of population geography, research gaps in health geographic research and rural poverty and landlessness in Bangladesh are discussed in different chapters. The authors show how geography as a discipline provided methods and tools in conducting investigations and doing useful analysis of the problems. Nazrul Islam, a noted urban geographer of Bangladesh, provides a detailed discussion on urban research conducted by geographers in Bangladesh. The chapter shows wide variations in the scope of research and methodology used by urban geographers in Bangladesh. Rosie M. Ahsan, a renowned gender geographer of Bangladesh, discusses the dimensions of gender geography in Bangladesh. She points out that without acknowledging women as a highly visible and powerful social and economic partners, economic and social strategy plans will fail to bring about progress. She showed how gender geography contributed in creating awareness among students, researchers and policy makers in Bangladesh in creating the social fabric. In searching for roots and approaches to population geography in Bangladesh, K. Maudood Elahi, an eminent population geographer, discusses the evolutionary process of the subject âpopulation geographyâ in the west and then traces its trends of teaching and research in Bangladesh. Finally, he elaborates on the contemporary research areas, challenges and future directions of population geography in the article. Alak Paul, a health geographer, mentions in his chapter that a significant number of medical or health geographers across the globe have given their attention to quantitative focus in HIV/AIDS diffusion across the regions but overlooked the qualitative approach. He argues that most of the research on HIV in Bangladesh has been performed by public health scientists and epidemiologists. Very little academic research has been conducted in Bangladesh and researchers have paid less attention to HIV that addresses the socio-economic or socio-geographic issues of the marginalized and stigmatized communities who are considered as the ârisk groupâ for HIV infection in Bangladesh. Nasreen Ahmad, a regional geographer, makes an attempt to understand landlessness as it operates in rural Bangladesh. Based on information on landless rural households within various agro-ecological zones of the floodplains of Bangladesh, she shows the nature, processes and the causes of land-lessness in Bangladesh.
2.2 Physical geography
Three chapters included in the physical geography section mainly focus on dynamic physical processes that contribute in configuring the lands of the country and also characterizing the natural resources base. Studies on quaternary environments, sea level rise and climate change aspects are also presented in relevant chapters of the book. M. Shahidul Islam, a renowned quaternary geographer of Bangladesh, highlights the reconstruction of palaeogeography and the palaeoenvironment of Bangladesh. He mentions that the archaeologist and geo-scientist can take the opportunity to infer about the palaeo-human occupancy in Bangladesh though a detail investigation of peat accumulation during the Holocene period. Dara Shamsuddin, a noted EIA expert of Bangladesh, writes his chapter on applications of geographical tools and methods in the field of environmental impact assessment in Bangladesh. He emphasizes the comprehensive technical skills of the EIA experts so that they can effectively synthesize both qualitative and quantitative data. He mentions that geography students throughout their undergraduate and postgraduate studies learn most of these techniques and are given opportunities to apply them in different research works, including environmental impact assessments. In the discussion on conceptual conundrums and challenges in coping with climate change crisis in Bangladesh, Sheikh Tawhidul Islam, a climate change expert, provides geographical explanation of how climate change aspects are conceptualized in Bangladesh, how programme activities are designed and implemented and, finally, identifies critical knowledge gaps in the area of climate change. He shows that the uncertainties and extreme events are the natural parts of the climatic systems of the country where seasons are characteristically distinct.
2.3 Contribution in environment and mixed methods
Six chapters are presented in the applied geography section. Authors in this section demonstrate how a fusion of human and physical geography methods may play useful roles in providing deep insights based on geographical investigations. Mohammad Abu Taiyeb Chowdhury, a noted development geographer of Bangladesh, discusses the theoretical/conceptual frameworks of food security concepts and the current state of food insecurity in Bangladesh from the context of sustainable development. He then describes the methodology employed in Bangladesh as a case study. He presents a summary of mapping, including the profile of highly food insecure regions. A detailed discussion of development induced displacement and resettlement practice in Bangladesh is provided in a chapter written by Hafiza Khatun, a renowned resettlement expert of Bangladesh. She evaluates existing land acquisition ordinance of Bangladesh government, assessed development partners requirements in relation to resettlement and rehabilitation practices. She presents âgood practicesâ for land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation for infrastructure projects in Bangladesh, with special attention to the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project. A detailed discussion of geographical methods in undertaking disaster and vulnerability research is found in an article by Shitangsu Kumar Paul, a development geographer. Considering the multidimensionality of vulnerability, he reviews various definitions and models and presents a common geographical method of understanding vulnerability in disaster research. Md. Humayun Kabir, a natural resource expert of Bangladesh, in his chapter on natural resource appraisal in Bangladesh, argues about the urgent need for appraising existing natural resources (e.g., land, wetland, forest and energy) so that better planning and equitable sharing of natural resources can be done. Finally, Nandini Sanyal highlights the significance of literature reviews in conducting geographical investigations. The methods and strategies necessary to conduct a good literature review are discussed in her paper. She shows, by using some Bangladesh examples, how a literature review for geographical investigations can be done differently compared to other disciplinary experts. Finally, the last chapter depicts the scope of future geography based on the current strength of geographical knowledge and past geographical examinations.
3. Concluding remarks and the scope of the book
The two streams of geography, i.e., western geography popularly termed as âcore geographyâ, which is based on theoretical threads, and geography of the South labelled as âperiphery geographyâ, which focuses on empirical investigations (Potter 2001), generally remain in dichotomous positions in generating contemporary geographical knowledge. Effective actions to marry these two streams were not taken by geography schools or associations either from the Western part of the world (Potter et al. 2004) or from the periphery world located in the Global South. This dichotomous thinking was introduced by Western geographers (Hammett 2002), though their arguments were strongly criticized and opposed by others like Lawhon (2013); Lau and Pasquini (2008). Hammett (2002), in his works, undermines the works of third world geographers (pointing at South African geographers), as he mentions âstereotypes of poor scholarship of the Global South academicsâ and âfailing to move beyond complaintsâ. Lawhon (2013), in this regard, strongly reacts and argues that the areas that Hammett (2002) sees as weakness are in reality the strengths of Southern/periphery geographers. Following this line of argument, the works of the geographers in Bangladesh included in this book may justify why and how empirical works could contribute to geographical knowledge productions as âSouthern geographical scholarshipâ. The works of Bangladesh geographers are mostly focusing on contextual settings; reading the change between people, place and time, focus is also placed on works that have a significant national need and contributes towards policy improvements. The review of geography articles (614 articles) published in two major journals from Bangladesh demonstrates the necessity and appropriateness of the works in relation to the need of the society and land. The results show that human geography has got the highest attention (49 percent contributions) from geographers in Bangladesh, followed by mixed-method geography (34 percent); the remaining 17 percent geographers contributed to physical geography areas. In the human geography sub-field, urban geography, population geography, rural and economic geography received the highest level of attention while ecology and biogeography, geomorphology and quaternary aspects were the main areas of contributions in physical geography. Mixed methods are used by the geographers working in agriculture, disaster and hazard research and natural resource management and planning. More than 90 percent of the works were empirically based investigations using statistical techniques (65 percent of cases), where field data was gathered to know the pattern of societal transformations and to read people, place and time more profoundly. Nearly half (43 percent) of the contributions focused on capital Dhaka city problems and adjoining central regions of the country. This account of the works published by Bangladesh geographers (representing the âgeographers of the peripheryâ) indicates that they were not shy in undertaking exercises that are required for the society within the realm of debates on dichotomy (introduced by Hammett 2002) and related Western intellectual supremacy that arise out of the âtheory-basedâ versus âempiricalâ styles of investigations. However, the contributions of geographers in different sub-fields of the discipline, given in the respective chapters, demonstrate in more detail how the problems have been conceptualized as contingent to the reality by applying geographical methods like âspatial arrangementsâ, âassociation of activitiesâ and âgeographical spaceâ.
Bangladesh has experienced significant change during the last couple of decades; economic growth is steadily progressing (Bangladesh Planning Commission 2015), different social indicators are showing positive changes, successes are being achieved in physical, environmental and human induced hazards through capacity development of agencies at various tiers. These developments and/or changes continuously contribute in co-evolving new elements and processes and eventually the newly emerged elements are added to the existing set of issues. This fusion of new and old elements creates complex and dynamic systems/processes in the social order and also influences the natural environment in many ways. In these cases, new empirical investigations become necessary to shed light on these problems and help to see the whole problem domain relative to each other (old and new). On the other hand, the physical conditions of Bangladesh, i.e., flat topography, low elevation from mean sea level, unique hydrological conditions, the delta dynamics (land subsidence, sediment accretion, sea level rise) and interactions of all these processes with existing social elements/conditions create the need to undertake continuous investigations. The physical and human geographers in Bangladesh have been contributing towards that need since the beginning of the discipline in this country, in the 1950s. This book thus aims to demonstrate how geography in âperipheryâ, especially in Bangladesh, contributes towards sustained national development and to making the society resilient to shocks and uncertainties. This work may also support the call for âre-shaped vision of geographyâ (Potter et al. 2004), where both theory-based and empirical works will support each other for a stronger appearance of the discipline and eliminate the barrier that currently exists between âcoreâ and âperipheryâ geographers.
References
Bangladesh Planning Commission. 2015. MDG Bangladesh Progress Report. Dhaka: Ministry of Planning.
Hammett, D. 2002. âW(h)ither South African Human Geography?â. Geoforum, 43(5): 937â947.
Harvey, D. 1984. âOn the History and Present Condition of Geography: An Historical Materialist Manifestoâ. Professional Geographer, 36: 1â10.
Lau, L. and M. Pasquini. 2008. ââJack of All Trades?â The Negotiation of Interdisciplinarity Within Geographyâ. Geoforum, 39: 552â560.
Lawhon, M. 2013. âWhy I Want to Be a South African Geographer: A Response to Hammettâs (2012) âW(h)ither South African Human Geography?ââ. Geoforum, 47: A3âA5.
Peet, R. and N. Thrift. 1989. New Models in Geography. London: Unwin Hyman.
Philo, C. 1992. âFoucaultâs Geographyâ. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 10: 137â161.
Potter, R. 2001. âGeography and Development: Core and Periphery?â. Area, 33(4): 422â427.
Potter, R. B., T. Binns, J. A. Elliot and D. Smith. 2004. Geographies of Development, 2nd ed. London: Pearson.
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Part I
Human geography
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Urbanization in Bangladesh and urban research by geographers
A review
Nazrul Islam
1. Introduction
The need for urban research in Bangladesh was recognized early in the 1950s and such work started taking place with some earnestness in the following decades. Some of the research responded to specific planning requirements. Meanwhile, the urban population in the country has multiplied, the number of urban centres has gone up manifold, individual cities have expanded rapidly and urban problems have become much complex. The present chapter offers an overview of the status of urban research by geographers of Bangladesh especially since the 1970s. The chapter mainly refers to works by individual geographers but also to collaborative works, such as those at the Centre for Urban Studies (CUS), established in May 1972, led by a team of geographers, social scientis...
