Anticipatory and Reactive Displacement

This chapter outlines and explores a distinction between two forms of displacement: anticipatory and reactive displacement. The distinction between reactive and anticipatory displacement is helpful in orienting our moral reflection on displacement in three ways. First, it helps us to diagnose the different harms associated with different forms of displacement. Anticipatory and reactive forms of displacement both impinge upon our ability to form and pursue life-plans, but do so in different ways. Second, it helps us to explain why different responses to displacement are warranted. Different sets of rights and duties can be justified in response to the different harms of anticipatory and reactive displacement. And finally, it yields plausible judgements about the moral differences between different cases of displacement. The upshots of this distinction are explored through an examination of the case of gentrification.