Moving People in Ethiopia: Development, Displacement, and the State

Allula Pankhurst and Francois Piguet (eds). Moving People in Ethiopia: Development, Displacement, and the State. Rochester, NY: James Currey, 2009.

Among one of the first texts to focus on "all the major types of population displacement and resettlement" for an entire country, as Michael Cernea rightly points out in the preface, Moving People in Ethiopia is a seminal research effort on this topic worldwide. By scrutinizing Ethiopia's history in which over 1.2 million people have been displaced in the last 30-35 years in two major state population transfers, the eighteen authors present theoretical arguments, empirical findings, and historical evidence that development-induced displacements require more critical attention to policy considerations and the rights of displacees. Rather than compartmentalize their research by engaging in the divide amidst conflict, disaster and development studies, the unitary approach used to analyze forced displacements allows the case of Ethiopia to be seen as a resource for identifying different forms of displacement-their similarities, differences, gray zones, and morphs. Furthermore, by acknowledging the increasingly significant social impact of displacements, the authors in this volume join the growing international debate on the unacceptable practice of impoverishing people and creating new poverty while striving for development. A major aim of this text is to examine the complex factors contributing to impoverishment risks and to make governments accountable for their role in displacements, which require reform in organizing, financing, and executing resettlement processes. Audiences from policy makers, university graduate and undergraduate students, to interested parties at the regional, national, and international level will find this volume mandatory reading, due to its breadth of issues on forced displacement, in-depth examples of different types of resettlement projects, and theoretical...