Contents: I. Introduction. II. Dynamics of the Bangladesh economy: facts and evidences: 1. A general profile of Bangladesh. 2. Population, migration and employment in Bangladesh. 3. Dynamics of the agricultural sector: growth, landlessness and inequity. 4. Dynamics of aggregate economy: development, growth and inequity. 5. Summary and conclusion. III. Approaches to rural development: an appraisal: 1. Traditional approaches to agricultural development. 2. Modern approaches to rural development. 3. Involution and shared poverty approach: a pluralist approach. 4. Summary and conclusion. IV. Conceptual framework and method of data collection: 1. Conceptual framework of the study. 2. Methodology. 3. Limitations of data. V. Change in size and distribution of landholding and mobility of households in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur: 1. Average size and distribution of landholding in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur: level and trend. 2. Mobility of households in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 3. Causes of change in household landownership in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 4. Summary and conclusion. VI. Change in occupation and employment in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur: 1. Relationship among occupation, employment, involution and rural differentiation: hypotheses. 2. Change in occupation in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 3. Change in employment pattern in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 4. Change in returns to labour in Dhaneshwar. 5. Summary and conclusion. VII. Change in household production and income in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur: 1. Change in household production and productivity in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 2. Change in sources and level of income in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 3. Change in income distribution and mobility of household in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 4. Summary and conclusion. VIII. Pattern of expenditures, formation of savings, and non-productive use of surplus in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur: 1. Consumption and investment expenditures of households in 1991 in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 2. Savings and non-productive use of surplus in 1991 in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 3. Utilization of surplus during 1972-91 in Dhaneshwar and Hassanpur. 4. Summary and conclusion. IX. Summary and conclusion. Bibliography. Index.

"The book has first examined the scenario of the Bangladesh economy at the aggregate level, extensively reviewed the literature which has emerged in the field of rural development to find the most appropriate approach in the Bangladesh context, and then presented the findings of an intensive survey conducted in two villages utilizing the 'involution and shared' poverty approach. The distinctive features of the book are: first, it has comprehensively dealt with the household economy of two Bangladesh villages and examined all the important aspects of rural life. Second, it has traced the changes in the household economy as accurately as possible over a pretty long time, which is indeed a difficult task to accomplish and could rarely be done before. Finally, the approach utilized in the study is quite a new one in the literature, and despite its tremendous potential of explaining much of the problem of densely-populated developing economy, it has not so far been used in any country except Java in Indonesia--even in Java it has been used only partly and inadequately.

"The study has come out with a number of striking observations regarding the functioning of the rural economy the problems of rural development and has deduced certain implications regarding the strategy of development and the specific policies to be adopted." (jacket)