Death, the Phoenix and Pandora: transforming things and values in Bangladesh

Ships are both the glue and grease of the global economy. The merchant vessel of the late twentieth-century and early twenty first-century, combined with the technology of the big box container, is the means by which most commodities move around the world—although its central role and those of maritime spaces are all too often overlooked (Levinson, 2006; Sekula 2001). But ships themselves are also commodities and they too change value and move through value regimes. In the case of their commercial life, which is likely to be 25 – 32 years including periodic refits, ships progressively downgrade in terms of profitability and value. This chapter charts the passage of such vessels. We look at how these enduring and mobile objects…