1st Edition
Rethinking Displacement: Asia Pacific Perspectives
This book responds to the need to explore the multitude of interconnected factors causing displacements that compel people to move within their homelands or traverse various borders in the contemporary world that is characterised by extensive and rapid movements of people. It addresses this need by bringing together historical and contemporary accounts and critical examinations of the displaced, by articulating the commonalities in their lived experiences. It accomplishes the task of charting a new path in displacement studies by offering a number of studies from interdisciplinary and diverse methodological approaches comprising ethnographic and qualitative research and literary interpretations to emphasise that although the forms and conditions of mobility are highly divergent, individual experiences of displacement and placelessness offer a critical challenge to the artificial categorisations of people's movements. Each chapter adds insights into the different configurations of displacement and placement, and offers fresh interpretations of migration and dislocation in today's rapidly changing world. The contributors critically examine a variety of displacement processes and experiences in the context of war, tourism, neoliberal policies of development, and the impact of various agro-forestry policies. They focus on a range of countries, enabling a thorough comparative analysis in terms of scope and range of examples and methods of analysis. This book makes an original contribution to the growing body of literature on displacement, and will appeal to a wide readership including advanced undergraduates, and graduate students and professors in disciplines such as human geography, development studies, sociology and anthropology, regional studies and comparative impact assessment.
Biography
Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase is Professor in International Development, The Australian Catholic University, Australia and Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt is Fellow, Resource Management in Asia Pacific program, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Australia.
’Displacement is the scandal of the closing decades of the last century and the beginning of the new one. Human rights activists, humanitarian agencies, policy makers, development experts, and government planners are struggling to cope with the problem of displacement. Part of the reason behind the apparent intractability of the issue is a lack of concrete analysis of the various causes and forms of displacement. This collection of essays not only manages to fill the need, by bringing in the perspective of the new global order, it manages to tell us a different story of the Asian Century. The victims of accumulation - the displaced - are put squarely at the centre of the Asian story of economy and progress. Rethinking Displacement: Asia Pacific Perspectives is must read for critical social scientists and developmental specialists of our time.’ Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, India 'As a whole, the book should be welcomed by migration expert communities as it opens into a new venture of research investigation and invites the rethinking of displacement.' Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 'Rethinking Displacement: Asia Pacific Perspectives not only ’challenge(s) the compartmentalized treatment of displacement that we are becomÂing accustomed to’ (p. 26), but also provides insights into the displacement and the corresponding countermeasures in different contexts. This collection of essays would be very useful for academics, human rights activists, graduate students and policy makers in the field of social anthropology, development studies, displaceÂment studies and Asia Pacific studies.' Journal of South Asian Development '... displacement and rehabilitation in the current global situation stands completely unbalanced in favour of neo-liberal economic fundamentalism. The present work addresses several of these concerns and compels us to rethink the current concept of development with theoretical insight and rigour.' Contemp
