Journal of Sociology

Editor's Note

Quamrul Ahsan Chowdhury

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Benefits from globalization: Evidence in the context of global interaction

Md. Jahangir Alam

Globalization, a historical process, is the result o f human innovation and
technological progress. Its’ economic benefits are; faster growth, cheaper
imports, greater exports and investment and new technologies, that few countries
have enjoyed in recent years. Despite all the gains that the Globalization brings,
it has also created losers- mostly developing countries. The significance o f
Globalization differs for individuals, groups and countries. The main focus o f the
paper is that, the impact o f various global flows varies depending on the stages
o f economic development o f a country, its access to technology, strength o f its
state and democratic institutions, and cultural characteristics. This paper, aims
to show the impact o f Globalization on the developing countries focusing on
trade, labor, migration flows and socio-cultural context.

Liberal humanism and the concept of race in E.M. forster’s a passage to India

Golam Gaus Al Qiiaderi

Abstract is not available.

Access to Land and Location of Informal Settlements in Tacioban City, Philippines

Mohammad Azizur Rahman

Grow th o f informal settlements is a common characieristic o f the towns
and cities o f most developing countries. Slums and squatter settlements are the
dominant forms o f informal settlements. Land is very limited and urban land is
scarcer. Access to land i.s one o f the most difficult factors fo r the urban poor and
inaccessibility to land mostly contributes to squatting on vacant urban lands. The
Philippines is rapidly urbanizing and its urban development is severely featured by
the continuous and rapid rise o f informal settlements. Informal settlement problem is
considered a national malady in the Philippines. Informal settlements are growing
mostly in vacant government lands along coasts, riverbanks and creeLs in the
Philippines. This paper tries to relate between access to land and location o f
informal settlements in the conte.xt o f Tacioban Cit}>, Philippines. Tacioban City is a
provincial capital and a rapidly growing urban center due to its role in terms o f
economy, politics, administration and culture. Informal settlements exist all over the
City o f Tacioban. Most o f the informal settlements are located along shorelines and
riverbanks, which are designated as danger areas. Informal settlers find their shelter
illegally occupying publicly and privately owned lands. Informed settlements located
in danger areas are developed mostly in public lands and are within the city proper
and near the central business district (CBD). Informal settlements located in danger
and non-danger areas are characterized by poor housing, lack o f tenure, inadequate
basic services, underdeveloped basic infrastructure and inadequate income. The
paper intends to present the implications o f location in informal settlements in
Tacioban City, Philippines.

Islamic Idea of Human Rights

Muhammad Shafiq Ahmad

The idea of human rights has a formidable conceptual problem. It
means different things in different ideologies. This article discusses briefly the
idea o f human rights in Islamic ideology, after mentioning some other
theories relating to the idea of human rights. It also discusses sources of and
methodology for human rights in Islam, the notion o f Haqq (right) in
Islamic law, its classifications, the idea o f Haqq as fundamental rights,
some human rights contents o f the Qu r’an and the Sunnah, the role o f
the Sunnah to validate written constitutionalism and fundamental
rights in Islamic law etc. It thus endeavours to argue that Islam has
necessary legal arrangements to meet human rights problems.

Grounded Theory: A New Theoretical Approach to Qualitative Research

Salma Begum

Qualitative approach is increasingly becoming important in research. The purposes
o f qualitdlive research are to describe, explore and explain phenomenon being
studied. The general area o f qualitative research includes several research methods,
such as ethnography, ethno methodology, case studies, participant observation,
phenometwlog)!, ethno methodology and grounded theory. This paper offers a brief
introduction o f grounded theoiy as research methodology, its historical origins, and
clarification o f the methods, meanings and stages ofgrounded theory in research.

Some Reflections on Whewell’s Scientific Methodology

Golam Azam

In this essay the focus will be given on the most important philosophical aspect
of Whewell's works: his scientific methodology, including his views of
induction, confirmation, and necessary truth; his view of the relation between
scientific practice, history of science, and philosophy of science. Whewell’s
scientific methodology deserves equal importance and significance like that of
Newton, Mill, Brodie, Eamst Mach, Pierre Duhem and so on of the
contemporary methodologists. His philosophy of science was attacked by John
Stuart Mill in his A System o f Logic, causing an interesting and fruitful debate
between them over the nature of inductive reasoning in science, moral
philosophy, and political economy. This essay will also try to analyse the
intellectual debate that happened between Whewell and Mill specifically on the
concept of methodology. Moreover the significance o f Whewell’s view
regarding the nature of methodology, nature of necessaey truth, confirmity of
scientific hypothesis will be examined and commented upon.

Internal Labour Migration: Does it Fit with the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Framework in Rural Bangladesh?

Munshi Israil Hossain

This article looks into the poorest, who move away from rural-rural and rural-urban
areas in Bangladesh in order to look fo r work, overcome their vulnerable situation
and improve their livelihoods. However, its main endeavor is not only espousing the
positive but also negative impacts o f labour migration, h shows the reasons for
moving out, and the capital assets by which they pursue themselves as migrants.
How the structures and processes function in promoting migration at the individuals
and households levels is a part o f this article. Finally, this article tries to see how
much the sustainable rural livelihoods framework Jit with the findings and existing
literature. It has found that the major parts o f this framework fits with the findings
and the existing literature.

Tribal Cultures in Bangladesh; A Sociological Study

Jinnat Ara Alain

This paper is an attempt to highlight on three major aspects o f tribal cultures in
Bangladesh: (a) challenges o f tribal modernism (b) contemporary- research on
tribal cultures in Bangladesh and (c) probable future area o f research on
Bangladeshi tribal cultures. The paper is based on secondaiy materials i.e.,
available published research papers, monographs, dissertations, -reports and
articles on the tribal way o f life o f Bangladesh. Moreover, experience, observations
and research background o f the author got priority in the paper.

Social Dimension of Involuntary Resettlement in Urban Development Project: A Case Study of Dhaka Urban Transport Project

Mohammad Mahbub Quaisar

Development projects especially infrastructure projects, though curried out fo r
overall progress o f the citizens o f a country, tend to have certain adverse
impacts in terms o f involuntary displacement o f people in the process o f their
implementation. Development projects should not adversely affect the people fo r
whom these are meant. A disciplined effort to understand the specific features o f
urban resettlement would help in designing operational policies, strategies, and
procedures that are compatible with the socioeconomic and political relations o f
the urban context. As Bangladesh continues on its infrastructure development
programmes, the issue o f involuntary resettlement and rehabilitation may well
assume and even greater importance in future, despite its having faced specific
problems like high density o f population, land scarcity, resource constraints and
limited institutional capacity. This study will provide an insight into the problem
o f resettlement. This article had attempted to unveil the social, economic and
political issues related to the resettlement o f the Project Affected Persons (PAPs)
under Dhaka Urban Transport Project. Tins article indicates how the project
affected persons were compelled to fa ll under poverty line due to losing their
well established business and regular income sources which ultimately
delaminate their social status as well.

Foreign Aid and Development: An Assessment from Third World Perspective

Md. Al-Amin

Dependency on others is nothing new. It comes very naturally only when the
question o f interdependency or reciprocity becomes premier for the very
existence o f human society. But we have seen that many Third World countries
are dependent on developed countries fo r a number o f reasons, one o f which is
foreign aid to combat poverty in the recipient countries. Third World poverty is
one o f the pressing problems in the world today, condemning billions o f people
to lives o f hardship and miseiy. Such poverty has led many Third World
countries to receive foreign assistance from donor countries in various forms
and conditions for meeting up a number o f purposes especially with the accent
on poverty alleviation. Since the Second World War, the governments o f all rich
countries have got involved in aiding the development o f the countries having
low economic growth and poverty. Thus, foreign aid has played an important
role in world development. Moreover, countries with low domestic savings will
naturally seek external resources fo r their investment programmes. And also the
countries that are unable to generate expected amount o f foreign savings for its
growth seek.finance from other countries. But the prime argument in support o f
aid is that it can alleviate poverty encouraging economic and social development
in the recipient countries. The main objective o f this paper is to assess foreign
aid performance as to whether it brings any change or not in promoting
economic growth and improving human welfare in the aid receiving countries
especially focusing on Bangladesh. In this regard, this paper also attempts to
answer the question in relation to aid performance by summarizing the major
findings o f the scholarly and policy literature on the relationship between
foreign aid and development shedding some lights on donors' motive behind
giving foreign aid and recipients need to receive it for meeting their felt needs.

Marxist Feminism: An Overview

Hiaisanat Jahan

Feminist theories describe, explain, and analyze the conditions o f women's lives.
The basic issue that has concerned feminist theories is, depending on the terms one
prefers, women’s inequcdiiy, .subordination, or domination by men. Marxism rejected
the popular hypothesis that women remain dominated under the males from the very
beginning o f human civilization. Through historical analysis Marxism explained
that, with the emergence o f class in human society, women became suppressed under
the dominant males. As such from Marxist view point the basis o f women's
exploitation is closely linked with and rooted in the introduction o f class exploitation
in human society. This paper attempst to analyze Marxian view o f feminism and its
meaning.

Social Science Research: A Critical Reappraisal

Hasan Mahmud

social researchers ’ claim o f representing reality has been contested from poststructuralist
point o f view that reality cannot be known through language. For
language cannot contain and thus reflect reality. Rather it mediates power in the
hands o f the specialists. Furthermore, researchers themselves define the problem
and formulate policies. Therefore, the subjects do not have voice. Hence one side
o f the reality always remains out o f the academic discourse.

Abortion Practices: Rhetoric and Reality in Contemporary Bangladesh

Md. Akbar Hossain

Despite the law's seventy, the over" incidence of abortion, especially induced unsafe
abortion, in Bangladesh is increasing. According to Family Planning International
Assistance Programs in Bangladesh, twenty five percent women dies from unsafe
abortions. So it is important to scour causes and consequences of unsafe abortion,
and to develop effective policies, strategy and tactics for reducing need for abortion,
improving post abortion care, reducing death from abortion sophistication, and
implementing policies to make safe services more available. This is a study on
abortion practices of the some selected places both urban and rural in Bangladesh
taking 162 respondents. Data were collected with the help of case study,
documentation. Test variables were Frequencies of abortion, total number of
pregnancy, etc. The relation (r—. 61) between frequency of abortions and total
number of pregnancy is significant at .01 levels. Besides this, this paper attempts to
find out the causes o f abortion, its nature and magnitude. This paper links a
comparison of abortion policies of some selected countries and on the basis of
religion especially.

Criminalisation of Poverty: A Study on Beggars in Dhaka City

Md. Saiful Islam

Begging is a cross cutting issue that has implications across many different
strategies including loneliness, antisocial behavior and crime. The objective o f the
research was to find out the Criminalisation process o f beggars and the nature of
their activities. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative methods to
collect the data in Dhaka city. Respondents were administered a structured
questionnaire asking them about their socio economic background. Focus Group
Discussion and Case studies were conducted to explore their affiliation with criminal
activities and the process o f entering in this profession. SPSS was used to run
frequencies and examine descriptive statistics fo r all examined variables. Using the
data collected in January 2005 to May 2005, the researcher found that the beggars
were in a vicious circle o f crime, which was the result o f poverty.

Street Children in Dliaka City: A Sociological Study

Josinta Zinia

Although the term "Street C h ild ren " is n e ith e r a p recise, nor very tiscfiii
classification f o r children "on " o r " o f f” the street, the term does serve as a p o in t of
eng a g em en t in co n sid erin g the variety o f issues a n d p ro b lem s fa c in g Ja r too many
vulnerable children in urban centers throughout the Dhaka City. In this <n-iicU.
S tre e t Children is u sed as sh o r th a n d f o r children who might transit to the street,
children on the street, o r children who p re v io u sly liv ed on the street, with a variety
o f occupations, including beggar, rubbish/waste picker, shoeshine boy, flow e r
vender, tea-stall boy, ho te l boy, m a id servant, se x worker, p e tty criminals, chocolate
sellers etc. While there are common fe a tu r e s in g o o d p ra c tic e to address pro b lems
fa c e d by Street Children, the characteristics o f these responses gen e ra lly are linked
to in te n ’cntions d esig n ed to address o th e r issues. This p a p e r attemp ted to p ro v id e an
introductory snapshot o f issues co n cern in g "S treet C h ild ren '' in this vast a nd
culturally div e rse region. This p a p e r p ro v id e s an introductory- snapshot o f issues
concerning "Street Children ” in this va st a n d culturally diverse region.

Caring and Curing: A Study on the Health Care System and Its Reflection among the Life of the Manipuris in Sylhet Region

Nazia Mahmood

This paper attempts to figure out the healthcare system among the Manipuris an ethnic
minority living in greater Sylhet area o f Bangladesh. In the present day world, different
societies have various healthcare preferences. From among these, people choose options
for treatment which are compatible with their religion, beliefs, rituals, economic
conditions etc. This paper tried to provide a brief description on the caring and curing
processes the Manipuris follow at different point/moments o f their life cycle which mirror
their cultural pattern. By analyzing the healthcare tem, this article specifically
focused on the folk healing procedure/practices o f the Manipuris in Bangladesh.

Installed Solar Panels: Hopes for Women in the Char Areas of Bangladesh

Shuchita Sharmin

Chars are areas o f new kind formed through a continuous process o f erosion
and deposition associared with the major rivers which run through the country.
These are home to some o f the poorest and most vulnerable people in
Bangladesh. In the chars the risk o y f floods and river erosions is the highest.
People here are deprived o f almost all the facilities available even in the
remotest part o f the main hind. Several iniernational, national and local- NGOs
have started working in the chars with a vicM' to support the dwellers toward
development. Oxfam is implementing River Basin Programme (RBP) in 08
districts fo r the most vulnerable people living in the chars. Installation o f solar
panel is one among the different undertaken development initiatives. The solar
panels are installed in different locations in the chars, such as, market place,
flo o d shelters, village community centres, etc. The present study e.xplores the
impact o f instcdled solar panels on the lives o f women who are being benefited
from these.