The political economy of land expropriation in urban Bangladesh

This paper explores the 71-year (1947-2018) history of land expropriation in urban Bangladesh. It examines three interrelated questions regarding land occupation. First, how does the state and market pursue their mutual and competing class interests by expropriating land? Next, how does the state and market deploy primarily extra-economic means to seize land? Finally, how do actors, strategies and purposes of land expropriation vary from one political regime to another? This article addresses these questions by engaging with extant theories of land dispossession and class analysis and collecting a wide range of empirical evidence from Dhaka, Bangladesh. It argues that state and market actors in different political regimes use extra-economic means to accumulate land, creating preconditions for capitalism and expanding the existing capitalist system. To elaborate on this argument, it examines three factors of land expropriation: class, power and structure. The class dimension examines state and market actors who pursue their respective class interests by grabbing land. The power dimension explores land occupation strategies: who can use what forms of legal or illegal means to expropriate land. The structural factor shows how actors, methods, and purposes of land accumulation vary from regime to regime. Overall, this paper examines historical and contemporary forms of class interests attached to land accumulation, distinct mechanisms and purposes of land expropriation, and the nature of capitalist transformation under various political regimes.

Automated summary

This paper explores the history of land expropriation in urban Bangladesh and analyzes how the state and market pursue their class interests, seize land through extra-economic means, and vary in actors, strategies, and purposes of land expropriation under different political regimes. The study shows that state and market actors in different political regimes use extra-economic means to accumulate land, contributing to the development of capitalism.