Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Intersection of Place Attachment, Aspirations, and Rapidly Changing Environments on Decisions to Support Resettlement

到本十年结束时，非自愿流离失所将影响到近23亿人。流离失所是由各种因素引起的，包括经济原因。美国向非洲提供了大量外国直接投资，2012年超过500亿美元，虽然许多非洲政府欢迎外国直接投资作为减少贫困的机制，但发展项目往往以不能提高当地居民经济福祉的方式使他们流离失所。这可能会导致国内冲突和社会动荡加剧。鼓励自愿重新安置是减少重新安置议程的负面结果的一种方式。该项目将：(1)发展对促进自愿重新安置的人类行为的激励的理论洞察力；(2)设计新的方法来衡量重新安置后环境的观点如何影响家庭一级的决策和结果；以及(3)提高对个人在想要留在家中和为了可能更好的未来而冒险搬迁之间的权衡的理解。了解如何通过理论上激励自愿安置来最小化贫困和边缘化人口在安置后的不满，可以极大地减少与许多安置计划相关的社会冲突和内乱。本研究探讨了在家庭层面上关于安置计划的决策如何涉及到对拒绝安置的成本和收益以及在重新安置后环境中更好生活的潜力的评估。该项目探索了莫桑比克莫阿蒂泽重新安置的家庭所采用的决策过程，这些家庭因煤炭开采行业的快速增长而被取代。支持这项研究的三个问题：(1)哪些特征增加了家庭选择自愿重新安置的可能性？(2)在家庭拒绝或接受重新安置的决策过程中，什么标准是重要的？(3)快速变化的环境背景如何影响这一过程？该项目采用了一个理论框架，从人、过程和地点的角度分析了对安置后地点的渴望与对故居的依恋之间的动态接口。定性数据将收集家庭的期望能力和对地方的依恋，以便与关于重新安置前和重新安置后地点的具体实际和社会特征的半结构化调查数据进行比较。利用多元回归、人种学决策树建模和内容分析，这个项目将对一个人对未来家园的渴望和对先前住所的依恋如何在快速变化的环境中相互作用，影响家庭自愿重新安置的意愿进行理论分析。这种关系将被用来建立一个地点概况，供政策制定者在设计满足家庭愿望的重新安置后地点时使用。成功地执行该项目的政策建议，有能力通过预测和处理安置依恋与对更美好未来的渴望之间的冲突，大大减少重新安置后的动乱。

Involuntary displacement will impact almost 2.3 billion people by the end of this decade. Displacement arises from a variety of factors including economic reasons. The United States sends significant amounts of foreign direct investment to Africa, exceeding $50 billion in 2012, and while many African governments welcome foreign direct investment as a mechanism to decrease poverty, development projects often displace local residents in ways that do not enhance their economic well-being. This can lead to increased civil conflict and social unrest. Incentivizing voluntary resettlement presents one way to diminish the negative outcomes of resettlement agendas. This project will: (1) develop theoretical insight into what incentivizes human behaviors promoting voluntary resettlement; (2) design new methodologies to measure how viewpoints of post-resettlement environments influence decision-making and outcomes at the household level; and (3) improve understandings of the dynamics at work in the trade-offs individuals make between wanting to remain in one's home and taking a chance on relocating for a possibly better future. Understanding how to minimize post-resettlement dissatisfaction among poor and marginalized populations, by theorizing what incentivizes voluntary resettlement, can greatly reduce the social conflict and civil unrest associated with many resettlement programs.This study examines how decision-making about resettlement programs at the household level involves evaluations of the costs and benefits of resisting resettlement and the potential for a better life in the post-resettlement environment. The project explores the decision-making process employed by resettled households in Moatize, Mozambique, which have been displaced by rapid growth in the coal extraction industry. Three questions underpin this research: (1) What characteristics increase the likelihood a household will choose to voluntarily resettle?; (2) What criteria are important in the household's decision-making process to resist or accept resettlement?; and (3) How does the backdrop of a rapidly changing environment influence this process? This project employs a theoretical framework that analyzes the dynamic interface between aspirations about the post-resettlement site and attachment to one's previous home from the perspective of the person, the process, and the place. Qualitative data will capture the aspirational capacity and place attachment of households to compare with semi-structured survey data on the specific physical and social features of the pre- and post-resettlement sites. Using multivariate regression, ethnographic decision-tree modeling, and content analysis, this project will theorize how aspirations about one's future home and place attachment to one's previous home interact in rapidly changing environments to influence a household's willingness to voluntarily resettle. This relationship will be used to construct a place profile for policy makers to use in designing post-resettlement sites that meet household aspirations. Successful implementation of this project's policy recommendations has the capacity to significantly reduce post-resettlement unrest by anticipating and managing the conflict between place attachment and aspirations for a better future.