Not entirely displacement: conceptualizing relocation in Ethiopia and South Africa as “disruptive re-placement”

Meth, P. , Belihu, M., Buthelezi, S. and Masikane, F. (2023) Not entirely displacement: conceptualizing relocation in Ethiopia and South Africa as “disruptive re-placement”. Urban Geography, 44(5), pp. 824-849. (doi: 10.1080/02723638.2022.2042067)

Abstract

Residents’ lived experiences of movement into state directed housing frequently evidence contradictory outcomes. Often, movement is articulated in terms of displacement, noting its profoundly negative outcomes. However, displacement does not always fully capture contradictions, particularly where housing programmes form part of wider developmental strategies, themselves ambiguous in practice. Adopting a relational analysis, the paper argues for consideration of new sites of settlement relative to previous locations through a critical evaluation of place, as well as accounting for dynamism of urban change over time. Framings must capture residents varied and contradictory lived experiences and the relationality of place experiences. Contributing to work in this field, this paper calls for a broader analytical framing, named here as “disruptive re-placement”. Drawing on two different housing programmes, in South Africa and Ethiopia the paper charts movement into, and living in, state-led housing in three case study areas within three cities. It employs a ‘lived experiences’ methodology to understand these relocations, drawing on residents’ accounts of disruptive re-placement to examine the materialities of planned state-provided formal housing; the spatialities of disruptive re-placement; the economic and socio-political dimensions of these processes and the significance of temporality in shaping disruption. A continuum of disruptive and injurious re-placement, and a critique of the developmental state is used to articulate a just urban agenda in relation to relocation practices.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (ES/N014111/1) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) (101579) which supported the researchproject.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Meth, Professor Paula
• Authors: Meth, P., Belihu, M., Buthelezi, S., and Masikane, F.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Urban Geography
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 0272-3638
• ISSN (Online): 1938-2847
• Published Online: 21 April 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Urban Geography 44(5):824-849
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license