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Uncovering Discursive Framings of the Bangladesh Shipbreaking Industry

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  • S. M. Mizanur Rahman

    (CREIDD Research Center on Environmental Studies & Sustainability, Department of Humanities, Environment & Information Technology, Institut Charles Delaunay, CNRS-UMR 6281, University of Technology of Troyes, 10300 Troyes, France)

  • Chelsea Schelly

    (Department of Social Sciences, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI 49931, USA)

  • Audrey L. Mayer

    (Department of Social Sciences, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI 49931, USA
    School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI 49931, USA)

  • Emma S. Norman

    (Department of Native Environmental Science, Northwest Indian College, Bellingham, WA 98229, USA)

Abstract

Shipbreaking in the Chittagong region of Bangladesh supplies metal to meet the needs of the nation’s construction sector. The shipbreaking industry has received international attention for environmental contamination and workers’ insecurity. However, these issues have been framed without considering the actors that produce them and their associated motives. This paper illuminates the conflicting discourses regarding the industry between two divergent groups of actors. On the one hand, national and international NGOs collaborate to enforce a discourse focused on negative localized impacts. On the other hand, yard owners, yard workers, and local community members forge a counter discourse, focused on positive localized impacts and raising doubts about the origin of the environmental pollutants and occupational standards setting. National and international actors have so far missed the conflicting perspective of workers, yard owners, locals and NGOs. We contend that these divergent discourses involve scalar politics, with one discursive frame focused on localized impacts in order to leverage global resources, while the other situates local communities in the global world system; this confounding of scale leads to ineffective policy formulation. This shipbreaking case study provides a valuable lesson on the importance of listening to and including stakeholders at multiple scales when seeking policies to address localized impacts of a globalized industry.

Suggested Citation

  • S. M. Mizanur Rahman & Chelsea Schelly & Audrey L. Mayer & Emma S. Norman, 2018. "Uncovering Discursive Framings of the Bangladesh Shipbreaking Industry," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:14-:d:127824
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andersen, Aage Bjørn., 2001. "Worker safety in the ship-breaking industries : an issues paper," ILO Working Papers 993473823402676, International Labour Organization.
    2. W. Neil Adger & Tor A. Benjaminsen & Katrina Brown & Hanne Svarstad, 2001. "Advancing a Political Ecology of Global Environmental Discourses," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(4), pages 681-715, September.
    3. Jean Hillier, 2009. "Assemblages of Justice: The ‘Ghost Ships’ of Graythorp," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 640-661, September.
    4. Nicky Gregson & Mike Crang & Farid Uddin Ahamed & Nasreen Akter & Raihana Ferdous & Sadat Foisal & Ray Hudson, 2012. "Territorial Agglomeration and Industrial Symbiosis: Sitakunda-Bhatiary, Bangladesh, as a Secondary Processing Complex," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 88(1), pages 37-58, January.
    5. Nicky Gregson & Mike Crang, 2010. "Materiality and Waste: Inorganic Vitality in a Networked World," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(5), pages 1026-1032, May.
    6. Demaria, Federico, 2010. "Shipbreaking at Alang-Sosiya (India): An ecological distribution conflict," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 250-260, December.
    7. repec:ilo:ilowps:347382 is not listed on IDEAS
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