The document discusses the social impacts of dam construction and resettlement. It notes that dam construction displaces multiple communities, including those upstream who are displaced, and downstream communities who face environmental changes. Displacement results in losses including access to resources, livelihoods, social networks and cultural identity. Impoverishment risks include landlessness, food insecurity and increased health issues. Successful resettlement requires adequate planning, consultation, livelihood strategies and site selection. Ongoing monitoring is needed to support long-term recovery from the psychosocial and cultural stresses of displacement.

1. The Social Impacts of Dam
Construction
Anthony Oliver-Smith
University of Florida
Webinar
Amazon Dams Program
April 17, 2014

2. Who is Affected by Dam Construction and
Operation?
• At least 6 communities, all internally differentiated
• Upstream communities: the displaced and those
remaining in place, environmental changes.
• Downstream communities: environmental changes;
some migration
• Dam resettled peoples-resettlement project change
• “Hosts”-receiving communities
• Non-local networks, interests: markets and politics
• Beneficiaries (local and non-local)

3. Displacement and Loss
• Displacement as crisis
• Displacement losses:
• environmental-resources, ecosystem services
• economic-livelihoods, markets, jobs
• social-networks, kin, clientele
• political- power, host-guest conflict
• cultural-place, identity, spirituality
• Loss of an “Environment of Trust”
• Grieving for a lost home-loss of cultural resources
that aid in the grieving process.

4. Impoverishment Risks and
Reconstruction Model
• Vulnerability and Risk approach
• 8 Basic risks of displacement and resettlement
• Landlessness food insecurity
• Joblessness increased morbidity
• Homelessness loss of access to common
• Marginalization property resources
• Social Disarticulation
(Cernea 1997)

5. And After Dam Forced
Displacement?
• The great unanswered (almost unasked)
question.
• Assimilation with co-ethnics
• Urbanization
• Resettlement

6. The Four Stage Model
• Multidimensional Stress-3 forms of stress associated
with 4 stages
• Planning before physical removal
• Coping with drop in living standards that follows
displacement
• Initiating economic development and community
formation activities to improve living standards
• Handing over settlement to the 2nd generation and non
project authority institutions. (Scudder and Colson 1982;
Scudder 2009)

7. Three Forms of Stress from Resettlement
• Physiological stress is seen in increased morbidity
and mortality rates. “Dying of a broken heart”
with prevalence among the elderly.
• Psychological stress, seen as directly proportional
to the abruptness of the relocation, has four
manifestations: trauma, guilt, grief and anxiety
• Sociocultural stress is manifested as a result of the
economic, political, and cultural effects of
relocation. (Scudder and Colson 1982)

8. Crucial Factors in Success or Failure of
Resettlement Projects
• Poor choice of site for resettlement
• Design or layout of the settlement
• Housing design, materials and construction
• Little or no consultation with the affected
population
• Lack of strategies and means for sustainable
livelihoods. (Oliver-Smith 1991;
McDowell 2002; Correa 2012a, 2012b)

9. From Displacement to Emplacement: Psycho-Socio-
Cultural (PSC) Stress, Impoverishment and
Recovery
Displacement: Loss of place constitutes a disruption of
“social geometry:” the socially constructed spatio-
temporal order that anchors “routine culture” and
identity.
Reconstituting “social geometry” is about the struggle
to make a new place in the world; of recreating a sense
of place, i.e. making a home materially and
symbolically, i.e. Emplacement

10. Psycho-Socio-Cultural (PSC)
Recovery
• PSC recovery impeded by adherence to 5
fallacies.
• 1. compensation is enough
• 2. strict compliance to policy
• 3. blame the victim
• 4. the clock stops with construction
• 5. project (planners, financiers, government) not
responsible or liable for PSC changes (Downing
and Garcia-Downing 2009)

11. PSC Recovery
• Pre-displacement culture will not be
restored.
• Recovery still possible, but must be
measured by different (non-economic)
criteria.
• 3 questions: Who are we? Where are we?
And How do we relate to one another?
(Downing and Garcia-Downing 2009).

12. Displacement and Resettlement
as a Complex System
• “Inadequate Inputs” approach-failure due to lack
of appropriate inputs, legal frameworks, policies,
political will, funding, research, etc.
• Inherent Complexity approach-interrelatedness
of a range of factors taking place in context of
imposed spatial change and local level responses-
influence of internal decisions and external power,
and mutual transformation. Process not
predictable, or amenable to standard linear
planning. requires open-ended, participatory
approach to planning (De Wet 2006).

13. Responsible Agencies
• Relatively few nations have either the necessary
legislation or the administrative structure and
capacity to adequately address the task of
resettling displaced populations.
• Generally speaking, an amalgam of public
agencies, with jurisdiction over a wide spectrum
of environmental, social, and economic domains,
is created to plan resettlement, often producing
projects that demonstrate their conflicting and
often contradictory agendas.

14. Basic Ground Rules
DFDR is always a last resort
Adequate Financing
Advance Planning
Land tenure and livelihoods
Community involvement
Safeguard Policies: Monitoring and Compliance
Adequate staffing and training
National legal frameworks (de Sherbinin et al
2010)

15. The Near Future
• Resurgence in dam building as key to energy
generation and development;
• Dams now being presented as a form of mitigation
for climate change, increasing potential for large
scale population displacements and resettlement.
• Urgent need to improve resettlement legal
frameworks, financing, planning, and
implementation with full participation of affected
peoples in all stages.
• Need for better baseline data and improved
training of resettlement professionals