The social content of labour markets in Dhaka slums

Abstract

This paper seeks to look into the role of social resources in the urban labour market. Unlike most empirical work in Bangladesh, which consider the labour market with reference to the supply and demand of labour, this paper argues that there are ‘other’ things that need to be considered. In a society like Bangladesh, different social elements have an obvious influence on the labour market. This has practical importance in devising any poverty alleviation policy and intervention strategy. The present paper tries to show that different elements of labour market are interlinked and interlocked and social capital often dominates financial capital. This keeps the vast majority of the social resource‐poor excluded from labour market opportunities. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Urban Poverty in Bangladesh: Causes, Consequences and Coping Strategies

“…With access to the labour market strongly mediated by social connections (Opel 2000;Garrett 2004;Banks 2012), formal contracts most conducive to mobility, through high monthly salaries, job security and other benefits, are distributed not by education or experience, but through social networks. As one teacher in Dhaka explained,…”

Urban Poverty in Bangladesh: Causes, Consequences and Coping Strategies

“…With access to the labour market strongly mediated by social connections (Opel 2000;Garrett 2004;Banks 2012), formal contracts most conducive to mobility, through high monthly salaries, job security and other benefits, are distributed not by education or experience, but through social networks. As one teacher in Dhaka explained,…”

Negotiating Labour and Schooling: Studying the Struggle for Education in Urban Schools

“…This structural constraint perpetuates intergenerational disadvantage, keeping their children trapped in a similar cycle of deprivation. Similarly, Opel (2000) highlights that such low-paying, stigmatised jobs are deliberately maintained as part of a larger socio-economic hierarchy, ensuring that marginalised groups remain confined to exploitative labour markets. The economic crisis within these families is so severe that some children accompany their mothers to beg at shrines, an act that defines not only financial desperation but also the failure of social and institutional safety nets.…”

Violent Intermediaries and Political Order in Bangladesh

“…This and subsequent sections build on this work to examine such intermediation in the context of the jupri labourers at Karwan Bazar. With limited exception (Opel 2000) organised labour has been a neglected subject of research in urban Bangladesh, and to my knowledge this study represents the first analysis in Dhaka of the relations between labour groups and political parties.…”

Urban Poverty in Bangladesh: Causes, Consequences and Coping Strategies

“…With access to the labour market strongly mediated by social connections (Opel 2000;Garrett 2004;Banks 2012), formal contracts most conducive to mobility, through high monthly salaries, job security and other benefits, are distributed not by education or experience, but through social networks. As one teacher in Dhaka explained,…”

Negotiating Labour and Schooling: Studying the Struggle for Education in Urban Schools

“…This structural constraint perpetuates intergenerational disadvantage, keeping their children trapped in a similar cycle of deprivation. Similarly, Opel (2000) highlights that such low-paying, stigmatised jobs are deliberately maintained as part of a larger socio-economic hierarchy, ensuring that marginalised groups remain confined to exploitative labour markets. The economic crisis within these families is so severe that some children accompany their mothers to beg at shrines, an act that defines not only financial desperation but also the failure of social and institutional safety nets.…”

Violent Intermediaries and Political Order in Bangladesh

“…This and subsequent sections build on this work to examine such intermediation in the context of the jupri labourers at Karwan Bazar. With limited exception (Opel 2000) organised labour has been a neglected subject of research in urban Bangladesh, and to my knowledge this study represents the first analysis in Dhaka of the relations between labour groups and political parties.…”

Urban Poverty in Bangladesh: Causes, Consequences and Coping Strategies

“…With access to the labour market strongly mediated by social connections (Opel 2000;Garrett 2004;Banks 2012), formal contracts most conducive to mobility, through high monthly salaries, job security and other benefits, are distributed not by education or experience, but through social networks. As one teacher in Dhaka explained,…”

Negotiating Labour and Schooling: Studying the Struggle for Education in Urban Schools

“…This structural constraint perpetuates intergenerational disadvantage, keeping their children trapped in a similar cycle of deprivation. Similarly, Opel (2000) highlights that such low-paying, stigmatised jobs are deliberately maintained as part of a larger socio-economic hierarchy, ensuring that marginalised groups remain confined to exploitative labour markets. The economic crisis within these families is so severe that some children accompany their mothers to beg at shrines, an act that defines not only financial desperation but also the failure of social and institutional safety nets.…”

Violent Intermediaries and Political Order in Bangladesh

“…This and subsequent sections build on this work to examine such intermediation in the context of the jupri labourers at Karwan Bazar. With limited exception (Opel 2000) organised labour has been a neglected subject of research in urban Bangladesh, and to my knowledge this study represents the first analysis in Dhaka of the relations between labour groups and political parties.…”