Abstract
While nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are recognized for the important role they play in development planning, particularly as sites for democratic change, little attention is given to how they prefigure the economic and social reorganization of everyday life and provide a venue for privatization and the liberalization of previously nationalized economies. This article examines the transformation of NGOs in Bangladesh since independence against the backdrop of struggles between NGOs and the conservative religious party, Jama'at-I-Islami. Highlighting the competing interests of the donor community and a heterogeneous cadre of development workers, the contradictory interests and outcomes of NGO activities are identified in the context of the neoliberal agenda of contemporary development assistance. As women mark the politics of both the Jama'at-I-Islami and the NGOs, they provide a crucial empirical referent for observing the transformation of civil society, or the space “between the state and its citizens,” in contemporary Bangladesh.
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