Intelligible accounting for the future: a critical study of worth and (dis)placement

This thesis is inspired by the promise and the ambiguity that surrounds terms like ‘sustainability’ as indicators for the well-being of future generations in a globalised world. The concept, as well as the realities of place – of how and where humans live, is the focus of the study. Place is complex, and the processes that give rise to the often horrible realities of displacement are even more complex. This thesis examines the multifaceted concept of displacement in three historical cases and one imagined, but unfolding case – the portending displacement of Pacific Islanders in the 21st century. The three historical cases are the Papua New Guinea Ok Tedi mine disaster, the BP Gulfof Mexico oil spill, and the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans. Each of these cases is examined through the construction of displacement narratives from within the broad theoretical claims of Zygmunt Bauman’s diverse work and the specific theoretical constructs advanced through Boltanski and ThŽvenot ’s (2006) sociology of worth (SOW hereafter). SOW helps us overcome the narrowness of the value space of modern economics, with its radically subjective rendering of ‘worth’ and ‘value’ as residing simply ‘in the eyes of the market beholder’. Alt hough remaining forthe most part within modern social science, Boltanski and ThŽvenot (2006) at least offera pluralistic model of worth, identifying orders of worth as market, industrial, civic, fame, inspirational, domestic and green. These orders of worth provide the primary theoretical and methodological structure for the analyses carried out in this study. Place and displacement are thus located in this more complex value sphere.