Development As Conscientization: The Case of Nijera Kori in Bangladesh

This book challenges the conventional wisdom of narrowly-defined development which concentrates primarily and decisively on the ‘invisible hand’ of economic development per-se–a market-based money-metric approach. This book also shows the limitations of the relatively broadly-defined views on human development due to its "not-class" considerations. To the contrary, this book proposes a framework for understanding true development –development as rights — both Constitutional and Justifiable, a conclusion of the excluded (non adverse inclusion), and as a freedom and liberty mediated process. This book not only forwards the argument that sustained development is a conscientization – mediated process, but also attempts to empirically measure "development as conscientization". Conscientization has been seen as a process by which the learner advances towards critical consciousness which is necessary for informed actions – the key goal of development education. The newness of both the arguments and measurements lies in the fact that the whole exercise has been conducted in a participatory way with the poor and marginalized people implying a deviation from the conventional researchers – defined approach. This book, based on the experience of an NGO-Nijera Kori’s conscientization work, documents an attempt to provide empirical evidences of impact of conscientization.