Contested values of development: Experiencing commodification of livelihoods through displacement and resettlement in Mozambique

IF 4.6 1区社会学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Environment and Planning A-Economy and Space Pub Date : 2023-06-27 DOI:10.1177/0308518x231182431

K. Otsuki

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Abstract

This article examines how and why values are created and contested in the process of development, using an example of development-induced displacement and resettlement in Mozambique. It pays particular attention to the social-material effects of compensation, provided as cash, resettlement housing, replacement land, and basic infrastructure. Drawing from field research on an urban resettlement project of the Limpopo National Park in Massingir district, the article shows that the compensation leads to commodification of livelihoods by reducing the original, largely social and cultural meaning of the livelihood to predominantly an economic one. This is because the provided housing and land for cultivation are standardised and infrastructure incurs cash payments and new labour arrangements. At the same time, the study elucidates processes by which experiencing displacement and resettlement – and cash and in-kind compensation given in this process and commodification that ensued – led the resettled people to reshape their livelihoods in such a way as to re-establish the familiar houses and organise a collective. Outcomes of this process are ambivalent, as they may accelerate uneven development. Yet, the article expounds that recognising this ambivalence at least opens space for deliberations about addressing the contested values of development.

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有争议的发展价值:在莫桑比克通过流离失所和重新安置经历生计商品化

本文以莫桑比克发展导致的流离失所和重新安置为例，探讨了在发展过程中价值是如何以及为什么被创造和质疑的。它特别注意以现金、安置住房、替代土地和基本基础设施等形式提供的补偿的社会物质影响。本文通过对马辛吉尔地区林波波国家公园的一个城市移民安置项目的实地研究表明，补偿导致生计的商品化，将生计的原始、主要是社会和文化意义降低到主要是经济意义。这是因为提供的住房和耕地是标准化的，基础设施需要现金支付和新的劳动力安排。同时，该研究阐明了经历流离失所和重新安置的过程- -以及在这一过程中给予的现金和实物补偿以及随之而来的商品化- -导致重新安置的人以这样一种方式重塑他们的生计，重新建立熟悉的房屋并组织一个集体。这一进程的结果是矛盾的，因为它们可能加速不平衡的发展。然而，本文阐述了承认这种矛盾心理至少为解决有争议的发展价值开辟了空间。

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来源期刊

Environment and Planning A-Economy and Space Multiple-

CiteScore

9.50

自引率

9.50%

发文量

100

期刊介绍： Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space is a pluralist and heterodox journal of economic research, principally concerned with questions of urban and regional restructuring, globalization, inequality, and uneven development. International in outlook and interdisciplinary in spirit, the journal is positioned at the forefront of theoretical and methodological innovation, welcoming substantive and empirical contributions that probe and problematize significant issues of economic, social, and political concern, especially where these advance new approaches. The horizons of Economy and Space are wide, but themes of recurrent concern for the journal include: global production and consumption networks; urban policy and politics; race, gender, and class; economies of technology, information and knowledge; money, banking, and finance; migration and mobility; resource production and distribution; and land, housing, labor, and commodity markets. To these ends, Economy and Space values a diverse array of theories, methods, and approaches, especially where these engage with research traditions, evolving debates, and new directions in urban and regional studies, in human geography, and in allied fields such as socioeconomics and the various traditions of political economy.