This paper suggests that sharply divergent images of children in Bangladesh reflect different "imagined communities" of society and polity, local and global. Universal concepts of "the rights of the child" contrast strongly with a local culture of "guardianship", as the key social institution that governs children's lives. How might bringing these together affect both analysis and action? Engaging with both the politics of development agency and the anthropology of Bangladesh, the paper asks if the boundaries of community might be "re-imagined" to mobilize more positive cultural and material resources for the children at the margins. (Contains 10 notes.)