The RPF emerged from a number of empirical, ethnographic studies in rural
Bangladesh conducted during the 1980s. Bangladesh, despite being so
uniformly flat and wet, exhibits considerable regional variation, and within
localities there is a bewildering array of endeavours and experiences among
rural people as they pursue their ‘livelihood’. One of the challenges
confronting village level studies in Bangladesh has been to escape from the
‘naturalist’ or ‘neo-Malthusian’ view that poverty is primarily due to scarcity
of ‘resources’ in relation to the large number of people. Rather, these village