Tropentag, September 10 - 12, 2025, Bonn "Reconciling land system changes with planetary health"

In situ displacement: The intersection of immobility and dispossession

¹The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Vietnam
²Leibniz Centre for Agric. Landscape Res. (ZALF), Germany

Abstract

Whereas displacement typically refers to spatial mobility, the term in-situ displacement describes the phenomenon of becoming displaced without moving. While the concept has been used to explore how unequal social relations, spatial commodification, political marginalisation, violent conflict, and place-based narratives can disempower residents, in-situ displacement may also result from climate change, as its render traditional modes of production and lifestyles untenable. This paper includes a theoretical exploration of how the production of spaces intended for value extraction and capital accumulation can induce multiple forms of non-spatial displacement. We then analyse how the term in-situ displacement has been used in critical literature to-date and introduce how research on ecological grief can illuminate the ways in which climate-related in-situ displacement manifests in vulnerable communities. We close with a reflection on the term’s utility as a conceptual label, arguing that it can draw attention to the climate change-related dispossession and marginalization faced by households with low adaptive capacities, help stimulate transdisciplinary research, and, potentially, create new dialectical spaces for political action.

Keywords: Critical geography, displacement, dispossession, environmental mobility, immobility

Contact Address: Adam Savelli, The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Hanoi, Vietnam, e-mail: a.savellicgiar.org