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Exchanges of Professionals between the Public and Non-Governmental Sectors: Life-work Histories from Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2010

David Lewis
David Lewis*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics & Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Using recently-collected ethnographic life history data, this paper analyses in historical context the shifting boundary between governmental and non-governmental ‘worlds’ in Bangladesh. First, the paper explores the ways in which this boundary is an ambiguous one, and aims to show how it is constructed and maintained, through an analysis of new types of ‘boundary-crossing’ professionals who cross between the two sectors in the course of their career trajectories and their social relationships. Second, it suggests that such movements across this boundary throws light on changing professional identities in Bangladesh, such as what it means to work as a public servant or a development worker. High-achieving university graduates are now less likely to choose civil service careers than they once were, because new opportunities exist for them to work more flexibly as ‘non-governmental professionals’ in roles that may allow them to combine professional, consultant and activist identities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 735 - 757
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

This paper is based on data collected in Bangladesh during 2005 and 2006 as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) supported research project on the life histories of individuals who move between the non-governmental and public sectors in their professional lives. The research formed part of the ESRC's Non-Governmental Public Action Programme, and the Grant Reference was RES-155–25-0064. This paper draws only on data from the Bangladesh component of the research, which was also undertaken in the Philippines, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

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