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Dispossession, displacement and human security

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Author

Summary, in English

Dispossession and displacement have made their imprint on the lives of uncounted millions, and continue to pose the gravest threat to security for many more. The ascent of neoliberalism to global hegemony in recent decades – in all its multifarious and contextually path-dependent varieties – has radically changed the landscape of human vulnerability and security. Its successes in massive global and national redistributions of income and wealth have enriched the few while leaving most of the population more vulnerable, less secure, and at greater risk of suffering. In this paper I argue that various forms of accumulation by dispossession and displacement, associated with policies of neoliberalization, exacerbate human vulnerabilities and increasingly constitute a major risk to security both directly and indirectly through contributing to growing inequalities. These are not peripheral processes taking place in the frontiers of modernization and the margins of urbanization: they prevail also in the central nodes of ‘advanced’ societies and affect broad swaths of global population. These are not natural processes, however much neoliberal discourse has succeeded in incorporating them into common sense. Programs aiming to effectively deal with human vulnerability, security and risk cannot afford to neglect some of the greatest risks and most powerful forces threatening human security. For security we need a right to stay put, a right to place.

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Publication/Series

Proceedings of the IHDP

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

IHDP

Topic

  • Human Geography

Keywords

  • accumulation by dispossession
  • displacement
  • neoliberalism
  • security
  • right to place

Conference name

International Conference on Industrial Transformation, Urbanization and Human Security

Conference date

0001-01-02

Conference place

Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Status

Published

Project

  • LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability

Research group

  • LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability