‘We don’t see who exactly run the state, do we?’: the state’s role in governance: insights from the jute sector of Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper explores perceptual differences and alignments regarding governance mechanisms of the State-Owned Jute Mills (SOJMs), among the members of the Jute Commission of Bangladesh, formed by the elected democratic government in 2009 in the formulation of Jute Policy for the overall sector. The dominance of the civil society organisations in the formation of the Commission was upfront when being considered as the outcome of the movements by the jute community of the SOJMs located in Khalishpur. However, the Commission’s report and the Jute Policy 2012 recommend a policy of privatisation of the public sector mills, and there is an exclusion of the workers’ community from the proposed National Level Committee for the overall supervision of the Sector. Considering the historical and cultural conditions of Bangladesh as a postcolonial State and drawing upon an analysis of the gathered narratives, this paper identifies the role of the State in defining the governing techniques; and the dynamics of governance as a functioning of the State, and affected communities. Hence, the paper posits that in the context of neoliberalism, the role of a postcolonial State is either continually evolving on the basis of peoples’ claim on the State or is being aligned with the neoliberal agenda. The fluidity of the governing mechanisms of the postcolonial States argued in the domain of the critical management studies, while drawing from the paper such fluidity appears benefitting for the affected community. Thus, this article contributes to on-going arguments regarding the State’s role in defining governance as a response to the community in the domain of critical management studies in the context of the postcolonial States.