Making justice the subject of resettlement planning

Abstract

In development and conservation projects that induce displacement and resettlement, proponents increasingly focus on procedural justice. They assume that this focus leads to recognition of displaced people’s expressed needs and distributive justice. By critically applying Robert Lake’s conceptualisation of “justice as the subject of planning”, this paper examines ways the current framing of justice in resettlement planning assumes that justice is a technically achievable object and prevents a new social imaginary in which justice is the subject that enables a collective pursuit of quality life. The paper analyses a resettlement project as a set of physical infrastructure where resettled people are corporeal citizens as opposed to static, one-time beneficiaries. Through this framing of a resettlement project, justice needs to be constantly ensured, even after promises agreed in consultations have been fulfilled. The case of the resettlement project of Limpopo National Park in Mozambique is used to illustrate the discussion.