Mega‐projects as displacements *

Dams, roads, ports, urban developments, pipe-lines and petrochemical plants, mines, and vastindustrial plantations both reect and instanti-ate the larger social projects of colonialism,development, and globalisation. An emphasison mega-projects helps us to see the relationshipbetween these abstract processes and the bio-geophysical and social transformation of parti-cular landscapes. Mega-projects are spatially situ-ated and inherently displa-cing.ExtendingSchumpeter’s(1947) use of the term, weargue that mega-projectsentail ‘‘creative destruc-tion’’ in a material sense:they transform landscapesrapidly and radically, dis-placing mountaintops, riv-ers, ora and fauna, as wellas humans and their com-munities.We argue that displa-cement is intrinsic to mega-project development andthat both are socio-naturalphenomena. The ideologiesthat inform project devel-opmentandhelptoaccountfor the persistence of dis-placement are the work ofepistemic communities,elite groups of actors fromstateagencies,internationallending and donor institu-tions, and the private sector. Members of thesecommunities consider mega-project displace-ment as an externality to be either ignored oraddressed through remediation, much to theconsternation of transnational advocacy coali-tions.To understand how mega-project dis-placements are produced and why theypersist, we rst dene mega-projects and thedisplacements that they engender. We thendescribe a range of primaryandsecondarysocio-naturaldisplacements. Third, weargue that the ideologiesand cultural biases of epis-temic communities shapeproject processes in waysthat foster displacement.We close by consideringfor whom mega-projectsare creative and for whomthey are destructive.