The Economics of Involuntary Resettlement: Questions and Challenges (Directions in Development (Washington, D.C.).)

"We cannot adopt a system in which the macroeconomic and financial is considered apart from the structural, social and human aspects, and vice versa." - James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Every important advance in development work yields lessons that point to new directions, fostering a dialogue between practice and research that encourages creative re-examination of past approaches. This volume is the product of such a dialogue on the complicated issue of involuntary population resettlement. It calls for overcoming an insular social perspective on resettlement and for building an 'alliance' between economic and sociological research about resettlement. It examines the economic tools for planning resettlement and searches for ways to refine them. The authors of this volume bring the perspectives of four scientific disciplines: economics, sociology, anthropology, and political science. They all converge in making the same basic case. They argue for an organic synergy and mutual reinforcement between economic and social knowledge in resettlement work. Bringing in the tools of economics to complement the sociological and technical analysis of resettlement processes is essential not only to better explain their anatomy, but also to guide decisionmaking and investments.

This volume presents a broad policy and intellectual debate about reorienting the development paradigm toward social inclusion and social development by focusing on one aspect: the need to bridge the gap between economic and social knowledge in addressing population resettlement. The volume is devoted to the argument for a more direct and involved role for economics in studying the social and economic dimensions and effects of involuntary population resettlement. Chapter 1 examines the current state of the art in both social and economic research on resettlement. Chapter 2 addresses key methodological issues in the economic and financial analyzes required for involuntary resettlement. Chapter 3 takes the methodological analysis further by discussing the practicalities of resettlement planning. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the economic aspects of urban resettlement, based on experiences in several Latin American countries. Chapter 5 focuses on poverty reduction in resettlement in India, testing the adequacy of the risks and reconstruction model of resettlement and applying the risk-focused framework to a vast body of empirical findings. The final chapter explores the crucial issue of benefit sharing in projects entailing forced resettlement. Together the seven sections aim to inform about unresolved methodological and operational economic issues, and to further stimulate research and theory, particularly cross-disciplinary economic and social inquiry.