Introduction: Notes on political economies of displacement in southern Africa

Abstract

This special issue considers how contemporary forms of displacement in southern Africa may be approached and analysed in terms of multiple ‘political economies of displacement’. Drawing insight from classic concepts of political economy, but without adhering to the more rigid aspects of these frameworks, the five studies that comprise this collection explore how certain values related to identity, violence, movement and belonging may be generated, circulated and exchanged under conditions of violence and in the aftermath of upheaval. By tracing how the complex social and material experience of displacement extends inevitably beyond the universalistic assumptions of humanitarian labels, the collection emphasises the importance of local and regional political and economic dynamics, histories and geographies. This Introduction to the special issue highlights some of the more critical themes, some of which are developed more fully in the articles. These include the issue of scale and the challenge in quantifying displacement in southern Africa, the relationship between displacement and migration, as well as more specific questions related to the significance of work as well as violence and the limits of sovereignty.