Uncovering Discursive Framings of the Bangladesh Shipbreaking Industry

S. M. Mizanur Rahman, Chelsea Schelly, Audrey L. Mayer and Emma S. Norman
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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
Emma S. Norman: Department of Native Environmental Science, Northwest Indian College, Bellingham, WA 98229, USA

Social Sciences, 2018, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-19

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.

Keywords: discourse; framing; politics of scale; shipbreaking; shiprecycling; environmental contamination; working condition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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