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Hartal, the general strike or total shutdown, is one of the defining features of politics in Bangladesh. While opposition parties proclaim it is one of their only weapons to put pressure on the ruling party, Bangladeshi middle classes and the international (donor) community view hartal as essentially disruptive. Focusing on the local organisation of hartal at the ward level, this article argues that hartal plays a crucial role in the organisation of the local power structure in Bangladesh. By considering hartal as a complex political performance, we are able to show that hartals offer unique opportunities for local party organisers to show, maintain and improve their position in the local power structure. Addressing a multi-levelled audience, it enables them to gain access to beneficial patronage relationships with the party (leadership) at the local, regional and national levels. The willingness to take risk and the ability to recruit hartal participants offers important markers to establish and improve these relationships. As such, efforts to move away from hartal to 'less disruptive' forms of protest are misguided.

The paper discusses the effects of the recent pandemic on the 'Tertiary Education Sector in Bangladesh'. The researcher follows a systematic review of the literature that the other authors provide. Both qualitative and quantitative data are gathered for the study. The research framework has divided these effects into some common categories. These categories are Psychological effect, Institutional effect, Pedagogical effect, Socio-economic effect, Labour market effect, Migratory effect on students participating in international higher education, and Academic effect in terms of time value. The level of the research is inductive; that is, a tentative hypothesis is derived from observing theories and quantitative data provided by different authors based on systematic review, contrast and comparison. Finally, the hypothesis states if these effects of the pandemic can be categorised in the mentioned order or not. All the data which is used in the paper is secondary data. In the final part of the paper, the researchers identify the common effects identified from different reviews and prescribe a set of recommendations to overcome the negative impacts. The researcher intends to continue to work on the current categorisation of the effects by conducting primary research and a meta-analysis of the secondary data soon.

The aim of this research is to investigate the risk of online radicalization, and invariably conflict, among young adults, particularly university-attending students, by relating their vulnerability to online radicalization with the amount of time they spend online. This research develops an original conceptual framework that maps out social influence, attributes of resilience and online safety vis-à-vis radicalization to assess and identify the said relationship. The study predominantly adopts a quantitative research approach using a sample of 600 University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) undergraduates. Analysis of data collected from students shows that the high-internet-user group, i.e. those who use the internet for seven hours or more a day, are more likely to find radical and religiously offensive material online; less likely to be influenced by family, faculty and community members; and have lower access to learning and knowledge resources that can render them resilient to radicalization and conflict. The results fare better for females than males, belonging to the high-internet-user categories, but female students are expected to be susceptible due to gender norms. In conclusion, it is posited that high-internet-user students are more vulnerable to online radicalization than others.