Displacement

Displacement refers to the forced or involuntary movement of people away from their homes, land, or communities, caused by conflict, persecution, disasters, development projects, economic pressure, or urban change. It includes refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as residents pushed out by rising housing costs, demolition, or large infrastructure schemes. Hannah Arendt’s analysis of statelessness and the right to have rights highlighted the vulnerability of those who lose political membership, while Liisa Malkki studied how refugees construct identity and memory in exile. Michael Cernea’s impoverishment risks and reconstruction model examined displacement caused by development, and Saskia Sassen described expulsions in the global economy. Ruth Glass coined the term gentrification and linked it to the displacement of working-class residents, and Neil Smith explained it through the rent gap. Peter Marcuse distinguished direct from exclusionary displacement, and Mindy Fullilove described root shock, the traumatic stress of losing a familiar world. Matthew Desmond showed how eviction displaces poor tenants. Giorgio Agamben’s analysis of bare life addresses exclusion in camps. Displacement remains central to research on migration, housing, inequality, conflict, development, and human rights.