First Published by Pathak Shamabesh, February 2008
Copyright 2008 © Abul Barkat, Sadeka Halim, Avijit Poddar, Asmar Osman, Md. Badiuzzaman

ISBN 984-70212-0005-4
Price: Taka 600.00

First Published in Bangladesh by
Shnhidul Islam Bizu
Pathak Shamabesh
27 (first floor) Aziz Market
Shahbag, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
Tel : 880-2-9662766, 9663523, E-mail : pathak@bol-online.com

For further information, please contact with the publisher or the principal author:

Abul Barkat
Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Phone: 9661900-59 (Ext.4435), 8116972, 8157621, 9661516
Fax: 880-2-8157620, E-mail: hdrc@bangla.net, hdrc.bd@gmail.com

Dhaka: Pathak Shamabesh
Outlet - 1 : PATHAK SHAMABESH, Gulshan, 204/B (2nd Floor) Tejgoan Link Road, Dhaka Tel : 88-02-9861003
Outlet - 2 : PATHAK SHAMABESH, Shahbag, 17/A Aziz Market, G.F. Tel : 88-02-9662766, 9663523, 0171303440

This book challenges the conventional wisdom of narrowly-defined development which concentrates primarily and decisively on the ‘invisible hand’ of economic development per se – a market-based money-metric approach. This book also shows the limitations of the relatively broadly-defined views on human development due to its “non-class” considerations. To the contrary, this book proposes a framework for understanding true development- development as rights- both Constitutional and justiciable, as inclusion of the excluded (not adverse inclusion), and as a freedom and liberty mediated process. This book not only forwards the argument that sustained development is a conscientization-mediated process, but also attempts to empirically measure “development as conscientization”. Conscientization has been seen as a process by which the learner advances towards critical consciousness which is necessary for informed actions- the key goal of development education. The newness of both the arguments and measurements lies in the fact that the whole exercise has been conducted in a participatory way with the poor and marginalized people implying a deviation from the conventional researchers-defined approach.

This book, based on the experience of an NGO-Nijera Kori’s conscientization work, documents an attempt to provide empirical evidences of impact of conscientization. The key conclusions reached are - Conscientization–as route to development- works; Conscientization promotes collective action of the poor and marginalized; Conscientization accelerates spill-over effects; Conscientization has potential multiplier effects; Conscientization efforts add more value to economic inputs in development; Well-being is conscientization mediated process, vice versa is not; and Conscientization- as a route to freedom of the poor and marginalized in a class-society- works.