Resettling Displaced Communities

Authors Partridge and Halmo are uniquely qualified to explicate the 'resettlement with development' of involuntarily displaced persons. Both are anthropologists, which informs how they approach the topic of how to socially and economically address the millions of people displaced annually by urban development, infrastructure projects, disasters and climate change, and global financial and political crises. There are multiple examples of lessons learned through resettlement, both positive and negative. Further, the authors make a strong case for how and why a holistic perspective, founded in a deep understanding of the structure and function of displaced communities, is essential to inform the resettlement process and the engagement of affected communities. They focus on solution-driven initiatives and the pervasive theme that resettled people as a community must be granted unassailable freedom of choice. The information presented is dense, but the story is well articulated and approachable. There is an essential glossary of acronyms at the front of the volume with cited references and a substantive index at the end. Highly recommended.

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Today’s world sees more involuntary resettlement and migrations than ever. As a result of large infrastructure modernization projects, land grabbing, wars, or changing climatic conditions, an estimated 80 million displaced people are on the move in 2020. The authors must be commended for providing timely guidance, based on lessons learned from forced resettlement and migration processes in recent decades. They show how resettlement processes can be made more bearable, possibly turning hardship into a positive development opportunity.

-- Maritta Koch-Weser, Earth3000

Development has been accompanied by involuntary resettlement throughout the history of civilization. From this excellent book you will hear the marching feet of policy makers, scientists, practitioners and displacees as they construct contemporary win-win resettlement operations, cases which provide guidance for re-establishing displaced communities in the future.

-- Guoqing Shi, National Research Center for Resettlement at Hohai University, Nanjing, China

Partridge and Halmo provide both an unsparing analysis of largely governmental and institutional failures in the design and implementation of resettlement projects, but also an array of documented successful cases of specific sectors for a well-founded set of best practices. Having that analysis and that case material at hand will be important for increasing the transfer of knowledge for more effective application. The book will prove valuable to researchers, policy makers and practitioners in all fields concerned with creating positive outcomes for affected people in involuntary resettlement.

-- Anthony Oliver-Smith, University of Flo