Contested values of development: Experiencing commodification of livelihoods through displacement and resettlement in Mozambique

Abstract

This article examines how and why values are created and contested in the process of development, using an example of development-induced displacement and resettlement in Mozambique. It pays particular attention to the social-material effects of compensation, provided as cash, resettlement housing, replacement land, and basic infrastructure. Drawing from field research on an urban resettlement project of the Limpopo National Park in Massingir district, the article shows that the compensation leads to commodification of livelihoods by reducing the original, largely social and cultural meaning of the livelihood to predominantly an economic one. This is because the provided housing and land for cultivation are standardised and infrastructure incurs cash payments and new labour arrangements. At the same time, the study elucidates processes by which experiencing displacement and resettlement – and cash and in-kind compensation given in this process and commodification that ensued – led the resettled people to reshape their livelihoods in such a way as to re-establish the familiar houses and organise a collective. Outcomes of this process are ambivalent, as they may accelerate uneven development. Yet, the article expounds that recognising this ambivalence at least opens space for deliberations about addressing the contested values of development.