Читать книгу Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Causes, Consequences, and Socio-Legal Context - Bogumil Terminski - Страница 6

The goal of economic development is not only to maximize the capital of individuals and the private sector, but also to improve the well-being of entire communities and nations. Several authors have pointed out the positive role of economic development as a tool for the democratization of economic and social relations, as well as the only possible means of uplifting the poorest communities out of poverty. Increasingly, however, economic development is resulting in large numbers of people who are socially excluded and deprived of access to resources necessary for their existence. One of the most tragic consequences of the contemporary dynamics of economic development has become the increasing number of people displaced or affected following the implementation of development projects. Several forms of forced eviction, compulsory relocation, and displacement associated with land acquisition have become common means of achieving control over a particular territory and its resources. Transformation and changes of land use have always led to problems associated with population resettlement. However, only in the twentieth century has this problem emerged on such a massive scale. The creation of large dams and hydro-plants had already been initiated in the first decades of the last century. By the twenties, this problem had become apparent in India. However, the real explosion of such problems was associated with the political transformations of the fifties and sixties: China's industrialization pursued by bloody methods (Mao's so-called Great Leap Forward policy), Nehru's socialist vision of industrialization and dams as "temples of modern India", hydro projects in the Soviet Union, and, in Africa, those related to decolonization, land acquisition, conservation of nature, and growing economic needs.

According to specialists, at least 15 million people each year are forced to leave their homes following the phenomenon known as development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR). The problem of development-caused resettlement is a global issue, with those affected including mobile indigenous people living around national parks in Africa, millions of tribal people in India, forcibly evicted inhabitants of large agglomerations in India, Africa and Latin America, and the citizens of developed states relocated following the expansion of opencast mining. Nowadays the term "development displacees" is used to describe a multi-million-strong and diverse community of victims of international development, consisting of people relocated due to the creation of dams, extraction of resources, urbanization and transformation of urban areas, population redistribution schemes, evictions in city areas, expansion of urban areas, deforestation, and finally the conservation of nature. The growing scale of involuntary resettlement is associated with the preparation of mega-events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing and the XIX Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Development-induced displacement is currently among the most prominent categories of forced migrations, leading to significantly dangerous humanitarian consequences. The rapidly increasing scale of this problem is not accompanied by adequate interest on the part of western public opinion, or by efforts undertaken by the universal or regional international institutions dealing with human rights or the agencies providing humanitarian assistance. Despite its growing social consequences, the problem of development-induced resettlement still remains less well-known by the general public, with interest in it being limited to smaller groups of applied anthropologists or specialists in international development. Intensification of scientific research within this area should be accompanied by attempts to marshal public opinion on the situation of tens of millions victims of international development, for whom leaving the area of current residence is the beginning of a spiral of socio-economic problems, which usually are almost impossible to solve. The term "development-caused displacement" coined in recent decades by social scientists shows, to a slight extent, the risks associated with the current dynamics of economic development. Terms such as "project-induced displacement" and "investment-induced displacement" seem to be more neutral from the point of view of diverse distribution of benefits and costs of development projects.

As a result of the limited scale of such problems in the most developed countries of the world, development-caused resettlement is a little-known issue among European specialists in social sciences, even those dealing with demography, forced migrations, and international development. However, even in Europe we are still observing problems such as forced evictions within urban areas, involuntary relocations associated with the expansion of opencast mining, and a limited scale of resettlement associated with the construction of dams and hydropower plants. The aim of this book is therefore to deepen the state of research on development-induced resettlement, with particular emphasis on the humanitarian, legal and social aspects of this problem. My primary assumption was to create a book that was easy to absorb, free from difficult and detailed theoretical concepts. That is why I refrain from including in its content detailed theoretical analysis based on applied anthropology, political economy or international development. The book is particularly focused on the socio-legal analysis of the most spectacular and socially burning causes of development-induced displacement and resettlement worldwide. I draw attention to the best-known examples of development-caused resettlement across the world: the creation of Three Gorges Dam, the construction of the Sardar Sarovar complex in India, and the creation of the Aswan, Kariba and Akosombo Dams in Africa. My particular attention was also directed to the most socially burning examples of such relocations in Sudan, Nigeria, China, and Guatemala. In addition, I call attention to the lesser-known causes of development-induced resettlement such as mining, conservation of nature and voluntary resettlement schemes. The expanded chapter devoted to the examples of development-induced resettlement in Europe was included to sensitize readers from the developed countries to the fact that development resettlements are not an exotic issue, characteristic only of tribal communities in Africa and Asia, but are also a socio-economic phenomenon currently observed in our own vicinity. The book is addressed to an assumed readership comprising a broad circle of academics: political economists, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, specialists in political sciences and international development, human rights activists, and ecologists. Because of the general and accessible character of this book, it may prove useful for any other persons wishing to understand the social determinants of contemporary international development and the problems of people for whom the word "development" is associated with being kicked out of their current homes, lands and resources.

The analyses presented in this book are based on a combination of two concepts: displacement and resettlement. The first is the socio-economic phenomenon associated with being cut off from resources or their significant reduction. The second is focused on the long-term process of change of the place of residence and progressive adaptation to new realities. The book points out the autonomous nature of displacement and resettlement, while paying attention to their creative role as factors contributing to wider socio-economic changes. The book, as one of the very few publications of this type, draws attention to the strong relationship of DIDR with the problem of forced evictions implemented in many developing and developed states.