In the Interstice of Intension and Intention of Transformation: Where Applied Theatre Fosters Neoliberal Entrepreneurship

Abstract

As robust economic growth lifted Bangladesh from a ‘low-income’ status to a ‘lower middle-income’ status in 2015, there ensued increasing concern among the NGOs operating here that donor funding will dry up by 2021 when the country is expected to achieve ‘middle-income’ status. BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities), the largest NGO in the world measured by the number of employees and of people it has helped, is geared up in meeting this challenge by cutting down its dependence on donor funding. What is the consequent impact on applied theatre mobilized by the NGOs in Bangladesh such as BRAC, as the country eyes the prospect of donor funding drying up? In seeking to obtain a nuanced reading of neoliberal entrepreneurship, this theoretical enterprise mobilizes two key notions of ‘intension’ and ‘intension’. For the purpose of this examination, ‘intention’ denotes ‘an aim or plan’ (OED), and by extension, objective, purpose or goal; on the other hand, the term ‘intension’ stands for ‘the internal content of a concept’ (OED), and by extension, the sum of the attributes contained in a concept.