Scholars have identified many variables as determinants of citizen participation, but not all of these are relevant to citizen participation in specific cultural and political contexts. This paper seeks to identify the specific factors which work as drivers for citizen participation in Bangladesh through a case study of Kanaighat Paurashava (municipality), an urban local government. It identifies the following variables which strongly affect citizen participation: the role of elected representatives, notably their willingness and awareness; the provision of information to citizens; citizens’ capacity; and resources available. Findings also suggest that a holistic approach is needed to understand and change representatives’ attitudes towards citizens and ensure participation.
The aim of this paper is to identify the actors and factors which are important for effective and efficient functioning of local government. With a view to presenting the features of local government Japan has been selected as case for the study, in terms of legal authority, political parties, negotiation in budget process, inter-transfer of officials and decentralization of more power to local government, authority and process of recruitment, training of personnel, financial autonomy and transparency and ratio of revenue to be spent by the local government. The problems of local government in Bangladesh are also identified in relation to the above factors and some policies are recommended to resolve them.
Most of the earlier studies examined the impact of microfinance on poverty reduction. Few studies emphasized on the broader policy framework and implementation process-the actors and factors associated with the process, which are critical to make an impact. This study is an attempt to explore whether public microfinance service reaches to the poorest through qualitative case study evidence. Some quantitative studies argued that non-profit-oriented Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have greater outreach than profit-oriented MFIs. This study argues that even the non-profit MFIs could not reach to the poorest through adoption of neoliberal governmentality by demonstrating the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB), a public organization dedicated for poverty reduction in Bangladesh, as a case. The study found that neoliberal policy of market solution of poverty problem provides a financial market for the better off instead of the poor.
While volumes of procedural guidelines are available on how to conduct fieldwork, in practice a researcher encounters various challenges and dilemmas in the field. This paper presents a holistic view of the puzzles this researcher encountered in gaining access, negotiating positionality, application of the pre-determined methodology, and ensuring ethics during his fieldwork with microfinance program participants in a non-Western setting. This paper contributes to the fieldwork literature by enhancing a researcher’s understanding of the unanticipated challenges.
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