https://doi.org/10.37815/rte.v37n1.1169

Original articles

The Dynamics of Dispossession

La
dinámica del despojo

Edward Dommen1 https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4177-7548

1Retired Senior Economist, United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva, Switzerland

[email-masked]

Sent:       2024/05/21

Accepted:       2025/05/07

Published:       2025/06/30

Abstract

This article takes established findings of
economic research as its starting point to discuss social justice principles
and the dynamics of dispossession that deny many people, as well as entire
communities, realization and enjoyment of social justice.  Several key themes are identified and
analyzed in three sections. The first section presents fundamental principles
of social justice, particularly those relevant to economic ethics, and shows
that sustainable development embodies these principles. It then distinguishes
between individualism, society and community, arguing that community provides
the most effective framework within which to apply the identified principles.
The second section examines the dynamics of dispossession that underpin
virtually any form of economy. The third section describes countermeasures that
have been recommended throughout history. The conclusions emphasize the dynamic
of most economies that wealth or power, left to their own devices, attract yet
more wealth or power at the expense of the poor and powerless. The essential
remedy is to defuse the dynamics of dispossession. Conscious collective
countermeasures are indispensable in order to restore to the deprived the
freedom and prosperity of which these processes deprive them. However, these
countermeasures require further elaboration and political action to be put into
practice.

Keywords: social
justice, sustainable development, cumulative causation, periphery, the poor,
poverty, Prebisch-Singer Thesis.

Summary: Introduction, Fundamental Principles of Social Justice, The Inexorable Dynamics
of Dispossession, Countermeasures, Conclusions.

How to cite: Dommen, E. (2025).
The Dynamics of Dispossession. Revista
Tecnológica - Espol, 37(1), 44-55. https://rte.espol.edu.ec/index.php/tecnologica/article/view/1169

Resumen

Este artículo se origina de los
hallazgos de la investigación económica con el fin de analizar los principios
de justicia social y las dinámicas de desposesión que niegan a muchas personas,
así como a comunidades enteras, la realización y el disfrute de la justicia
social. Para este objetivo, se identifican varios temas clave que fueron
analizados en tres secciones. En la primera sección se presentan los principios
fundamentales de justicia social, relevantes para la ética económica; se
evidencia que el desarrollo sostenible los resume. Luego, se diferencia entre
individualismo, sociedad y comunidad; esta última proporciona el marco más
eficaz para aplicar los principios identificados. En la segunda sección se
describen las dinámicas de desposesión que impulsan cualquier forma de
economía. Finalmente, en la tercera sección se explican las contramedidas
recomendadas a lo largo de la historia. Posterior al análisis, las conclusiones
enfatizan la dinámica de la riqueza o el poder de la mayoría de las economías, que
por sí mismas, atraen aún más riqueza y poder a expensas de los pobres e
indefensos. El remedio esencial es desactivar las dinámicas de desposesión. Por
ello, las contramedidas colectivas conscientes son indispensables para
restaurar la libertad y la prosperidad que estos procesos privan a los
desposeídos. Sin embargo, estas requieren mayor elaboración y acción política
para su implementación.

Palabras
clave: justicia social, desarrollo sostenible, causalidad
acumulativa, periferia, les pobres, pobreza, Tesis de Prebisch-Singer.

Introduction

You are reading a review of technology. Technology is the application of scientific
knowledge for practical purposes.[1] In
that spirit, this article takes established findings of economic research as
its starting point. It does not describe new scientific research. Part 2
describes the practical issues to which we want to apply these findings. Part 3
describes the policy measures which need to be taken in the light of  Part 2 to achieve the objectives presented in
Part 1.

Fundamental
Principles of Social Justice

To meet
one's own needs without compromising the ability of others to meet theirs is a
principle deeply rooted in many of the world's major ethical traditions. It is
often traced back to the Hippocratic oath of the third century AD, but even
earlier, it is reflected in a Biblical commandment often mistranslated into
English as "Thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15). The original term
more accurately refers to the unjust appropriation of what rightfully belongs
to others, specifically actions that compromise others' ability to meet their
own needs. As the eighteenth-century North American social thinker and activist
John Woolman (1763) observed: "If we trace an
unrighteous claim … proved by sufficient seals and witnesses, this gives not
the claimant a right, for that which is opposite to righteousness is
wrong".

This
essential principle is restated in one of the foundational documents of the
French Revolution, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789),
which affirms: "Liberty consists in being able to do anything that does
not harm others" (Article 4).

The World
Commission on Environment and Development (1987), in its report "Our
Common Future"[2]
essentially established the concept of sustainable development. Its definition
reflects the principle in its opening sentence, though it oddly restricts it to
relations between present and future generations. However, the report corrects
this in the very next sentence, which highlights "the essential needs of
the world's poor[3], to which overriding priority
should be given". This is indisputably a matter of relations within the
present generation, the primary concern of this article.

Society

Some
thinkers view society as a mere aggregate of individuals (Rousseau, 1762, chap. 6).  This author argued: "The most ancient of
all societies, and the only one that is natural, is the family: and even so the
children remain attached to the father only so long as they need him for their
preservation. As soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. The
children, released from the obedience they owed to the father, and the father,
released from the care he owed his children, returned equally to independence.
If they remain united, they continue so no longer naturally, but
voluntarily" (Rousseau, 1762, chap. 2).

Margaret
Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, was even
blunter: "There is no such thing as society", continuing "There
are individual men and women and there are families" (Thatcher,
1987). Her statement echoes the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, who asserted (1780,
chap.1): "The interest of the community then is, what? — the sum of the
interests of the several members who compose it". Bentham, founder of the
utilitarian school of economics, championed the slogan "The greatest
happiness of the greatest number" (Bentham, 1776, Preface), which implies
"Tough luck for the rest." Individualism is still at the base of
economics as taught in universities today.

In the
Bible, the invitation to "love your neighbour as
yourself" appears three times (Leviticus 19.18, Matthew 22.39, Mark
12.31). The word 'as' can be read in two ways. Firstly, it may be understood as
"Love your neighbour as much as yourself"
or "… in the same way that you love yourself" This interpretation
aligns with the individualist perspective described previously.

Community

Alternatively,
as can be interpreted to mean
"Love your neighbour because he is a part of
yourself". This is the position of the poet John Donne (1624):

No man is an
island, entire of itself; every man is a piece
of the continent, a part of the main.… and therefore never
send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

The Bantu
concept of 'ubuntu'[4],
"I am because you are", or "I am because we are",
encapsulates that notion. "The origins of ubuntu are rooted in a holistic
vision, for which human existence only makes sense within the totality of all
that is" (Murove, 2011). In this perspective, each of us is shaped by
others.

'I am because you are' is another phrase which
can be read in two ways:

1.
You
are the cause of what I am

2.
My
purpose is to attend to your needs

In the
first sense, we all share the same ecosphere; regardless of who you may be,
your actions help shape the conditions that shape me. In countless ways, others
contribute to the person I have become.

In the
second sense, the phrase becomes a call to action. Our vocation, our
calling,  indeed our very reason for
being on earth at all, is to respond to the needs of our neighbour,
particularly those who cannot cope without us. That is what the Brundtland
definition of sustainable development alludes to when it refers to the
overriding priority that must be given to the essential needs of the world's
poor. The French version of the definition emphasises
the point: instead of using the nondescript word' poor', it uses 'démuni', i.e. deprived or defenceless.

John Calvin
(1509-1564) was a Protestant reformer who paid significant attention to social
and economic justice. He stated: "Since God has joined the whole human
race into one unit, the aim is that the welfare and conservation of all must be
a concern of each one of us.  In short,
any violence, harm, or trouble that wounds our neighbour
is forbidden to us. If we can do something to preserve the life of our neighbour, we must faithfully work at it, either by
providing the things which are needed or by avoiding whatever does the
opposite. Likewise, if they are in any danger or perplexity, we must help and
support[5]
them." (Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.39).

In Sermon 53 on 1Tim 6.17-19, Calvin
further speaks of mon
prochain qui a faute de moi- roughly, I must lend my neighbour a hand
inasmuch as I am missing from their toolkit. The essential point is that we are
called to help our neighbours meet the needs they
themselves consider they have,  not, like
the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, to provide for the needs we
think they ought to have.

The word
'community' has a vast range of meanings. One key aspect of the concept is the
idea of boundaries.  Every community
draws a line between 'we' and 'they'. 'We', the insiders, are considered right
and superior. 'They' are inferior and often morally reprehensible. This pattern
recurs throughout history. For example, in the 20th century,
right-thinking people considered the unemployed to be idle slackers (Pickard, 1919). Colonialism was built upon the belief that the colonised were savages who needed managing —colonisers, often believing themselves well-meaning, saw it
as their duty to "civilise" them. In recent
times, Israel has described its Palestinian neighbours
as animals.

History is
an unending succession of tribal, civil and international wars, including
religious persecutions. The Brundtland definition of sustainable development
seeks to transcend this mindset. Its emphasis on giving overriding priority to
the essential needs of the world's poor carries a profound implication: that
the whole of humanity forms a single community. This idea follows in the
footsteps of Calvin, who declared, "We must share with each other to
uphold the community of the whole human race" (Calvin, 1564, Exodus 22.25).

The call to
transcend boundaries is reflected in several incidents recounted in the New
Testament. One of its most powerful illustrations is the parable of the Good
Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37).

Similarly,
the Devonshire Declaration, a British document of 1923 signed by the Duke of
Devonshire as Colonial Secretary, stated: "His Majesty's Government think
it necessary definitely to record their considered opinion that the interests
of the African natives must be paramount …" Although originally intended
for a narrow context—namely, to suppress the political claims of Indian and
Arab communities in Kenya and preserve colonial dominance—the phrase took on
new life. By the mid-20th century, as decolonisation
became inevitable, young colonial officers were taught to treat it as a broad,
principled directive: "The interests of the natives are paramount".

Helping the
defenceless and the poor must be given priority over
everything. By definition, they have no reserves or alternatives to fall back
on. Those who are not poor can afford to wait; the poor cannot.

Liberation
theology, a movement within Latin American Catholicism, developed in the 1960s
driven by this concern. The Catholic institution, however, absorbed the notion
into its social teaching in a moderate form, adopting the phrase
"preferential option for the poor".[6]

The Inexorable
Dynamics of Dispossession

A popular dictum of the time appears several times in the Bible pithily
and accurately describing the dynamics of most economic systems (there are
exceptions, like the "subsistence affluence"[7] of traditional South Pacific island economies).
The verse reads : "To those who have, more will be given, and they will have more
than enough; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken
away" (Matthew 13.12).

The Jubilee

The biblical concept of the Jubilee, described
in Leviticus 25.8-13 and likely written in the
middle of the 5th century BC, illustrates this mechanism. It
involves three elements:

1.      Cancellation of debts

2.      Return of the land to its original
owners

3.      Freedom for the slaves

These measures address a recurring economic
cycle in which the poor are stripped of even the little they possess. The
Jubilee scenario assumes that a peasant household, which is under normal
conditions, can only meet its basic needs. However, disruption such as illness
in the family, drought or bad weather can throw this balance into crisis. In
order to survive, the family must borrow. However, in good times, the land
could produce only enough for subsistence. Now, on top of current needs, the
family has to face the extra burden of repaying the debt, so it falls
inexorably further into debt. Unable to repay, it must sell some of its land.
With even less land now, it no longer has any prospect of breaking even.  When the family has consequently lost all its
land, its only remaining recourse in the culture of the time was to sell
themselves into slavery.

Of course, once the Jubilee has reset the
counters to 0, the mechanism starts off again, and sooner or later, the
operation will have to be repeated - every 50 years, Leviticus theatrically
proclaims.[8] [9]

The mechanism

The divergence between the rich and poor is
causally linked. The wealth of the rich increases at the expense of the poor.
To illustrate this, consider an area in which everyone is equally prosperous.
Due to some catalyst, one place becomes more prosperous than the others. This
new wealth attracts various factors of production: capital is drawn to invest,
entrepreneurs migrate to exploit new opportunities, and labour
follows, attracted by higher wages and better prospects. All this increases
income and opportunities that strengthen the appeal of the place. Meanwhile,
the brighter, more adventurous people are leaving the periphery to seek their
fortune in the new growing hub. People in the
periphery with capital to spare see the advantage of investing it in the
centre, where the prospects of profit are more promising, so the periphery is
starved of new investment. In many economic activities, there are economies of
scale, making it increasingly cheaper to expand them.  All in all, the centre sucks life out of the
periphery.

That illustration is geographical. The same
argument can be applied to class or social situations. The children of the rich
have access to greater formal and informal educational opportunities; their
playmates, classmates and neighbours are similarly
advantaged. Thus, they have access to a better network of people who can advise
them, offer them jobs or point them toward opportunities. They will not suffer
the humiliations of being regarded as inferior, which, in itself, leads them to
see themselves as inferior and behave accordingly. Better educated in what
makes for good health and better able to afford it, they are likely to be more
effective in their work and to live longer.[10]

Wheels within wheels: since there is more
profit to be made in selling cures for the illnesses of the rich than for those
of the poor, pharmaceutical research concentrates on the former. As a result,
the health and life expectancy of the rich continue to improve relative to that
of the poor since the medicines to treat the latter's illnesses are simply not
being developed.

The backwash effects we have just described are
mitigated by spread effects that function in an opposite direction. Insofar as
people, enterprises, and public authorities spend where they are, a range of
activities develops to meet their on-the-spot needs. Prosperity spreads
outwards, but more thinly the further it gets from its
source. At a certain distance, the spread effects are
outweighed by the backwash effects.[11]

Gunnar Myrdal (1957) sums up how the mechanism
works:

My starting point is the assertion that the notion of
stable equilibrium is normally a false analogy to choose when constructing the
theory to explain the changes in the social system… Behind this idea is another
and still more basic assumption, namely that a change will regularly call for a
reaction in the system in the form of changes which on the whole go in the
opposite direction to the first change.

The idea I want to expound … is that, on the contrary,
in the normal case, there is no such tendency towards automatic self-stabilisation in the social system. The system is by itself
not moving towards any sort of balance between forces but is constantly on the
move away from such a situation. In the normal case, a change does not call
forth countervailing changes but, instead, supporting changes which move the
system in the same direction as the first change, but much further. Because of
circular causation, a social process tends to become cumulative and often to
gather speed at an accelerating rate.[12]

Myrdal generalised a
conception of the economy that had been applied to relations between rich and
poor countries described as the centre and the periphery of the world economy,
and known as dependency theory.

In 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD) was created to focus specifically on North-South Trade
from this perspective. Raúl Prebisch, an Argentinian
economist, was a leading figure in analysing and
explaining this kind of economic dynamic. The name "Prebisch-Singer
Thesis" was given to an analysis of the particular macro-economic dynamics
of trade between a commodity-exporting periphery and a centre importing those
commodities since each of them had published a study of the question in 1949,
coming to similar conclusions. Hans Singer was working at the time in the
United Nations Department of Economic Affairs in New York; his study,
therefore, appeared without the author's name, as was UN practice (UN DESA,
1949). In the same year, Raúl Prebisch published his
corresponding paper as Executive Director of the freshly founded UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) (Prebisch, 1949).[13]

Prebisch was logically appointed the first secretary-general of UNCTAD. Its
secretariat was located in Geneva so that it could dialogue constructively with
GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which had successfully
nurtured the prosperity of developed economies by fostering spread effects
through trade among them.  The accession
of several peripheral countries to independence in the early 1960s made the
developed countries (to use the terminology of the time) aware of the issue
and, uniquely, willing to explore solutions to it. In the 1960s, dialectics
were recognised as a fruitful means of exploring an
issue (regrettably for the progress of the social sciences, they went out of
fashion after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989).

In 1976, Prebisch
published a paper, "A Critique of Peripheral Capitalism", summing
up his work over the years. We shall draw on it to outline his thesis. It gives
a detailed account of the process of creation of surplus and its primary
appropriation by the upper strata through the power derived from their ownership of the means of
production and its secondary appropriation by the middle strata (Prebisch,
1976, p.4).

The penetration of the production technology of the centres plays a dominant role in peripheral development.
The rise in productivity that accompanies it brings changes in the structure of
society [in both the centre and the periphery], in the course of which the
upper income strata increase their power by concentrating most of the means of
production in their own hands, with the result that they have institutional
capacity for primary appropriation of the fruits of technological progress. The
middle income strata [in both the centre and the periphery] also strengthen
their position as they expand with the development of industry and other
related activities, but the lower strata remained largely excluded… The
so-called free play of economic forces is in fact subordinated to these power
relations and the interests and stimuli which govern them (Ibid, p.12) …The essential requirement [of vigorous capital
formation] is not being met in peripheral capitalism. It would appear to be
incompatible with the widespread growth of
the consumer society …, which could not exist without the
considerable economic and political power of the upper strata, which insures
their primary appropriation of the fruits (Ibid, p.14).

Justine Masika Bihamba,
an internationally known human rights activist based in the Eastern Congo,
describes the brutal way the process is working in that region: "Eastern
Congo has been ravaged by war for three decades. One main reason is that this
region, and in particular the province of North Kivu, is rich in raw materials.
In particular, there are immense reserves of coltan, an essential mineral for
the batteries used in cell phones and electric cars. For our people, this
wealth is a curse. More than a hundred armed groups wage war against each other
to control these resources, which are then sold to multinationals via neighbouring countries. Western governments turn a blind
eye to the origin of these minerals, which are indispensable to their
industries. This probably explains why this war remains largely ignored by the
international community".[14]

Brutality is a widespread feature of the
process we are describing. According to local folk memory, the forced labourers who built Oaxaca's Dominican church in the late
16th century were required to bring two eggs to work every day- not to feed
themselves but to strengthen the mortar of the building against
earthquakes.  In the same vein, the
interior of the Franciscan church in Quito is richly decorated with gold.  In its entryway, there is a painted panel
which reads, "But you have made it a den of thieves"[15], showing incidentally that one can joke even about brutal deprivation.

"The ownership of the means of production
enables the upper strata to be the first to lay hands on a large part of the
fruits… A smaller share then passes to the middle strata." (Prebisch,
1976, p.10).  Prebisch
stresses the role of power in the appropriation of resources. Myrdal's genteel
presentation of the same processes refers to primary and secondary
appropriation neutrally as 'backwash' and 'spread effects', avoiding the need
to explain that the spread effects keep the fruits of appropriation within the
circle of winners.

John Woolman (1720-1772) was born and lived in
the British colonies of North America, i.e. the periphery of the world economy
of his day. His Plea for the Poor foreshadows the arguments Prebisch developed a couple of centuries later (Woolman, 1763). Indeed, its opening paragraph
sums them up, including due attention to secondary appropriation: "Wealth
desired for its own sake obstructs the increase of virtue, and large
possessions in the hands of selfish men have a bad tendency, for by their means
too small a number of people are employed in things useful; and therefore they,
or some of them, are necessitated to labour too hard,
while others would want business to earn their bread were not employments
invented which, having no real use, serve only to please the vain mind."

"Oppression in the extreme appears
terrible, but oppression in more refined appearances remains to be oppression,
and where the smallest degree of it is cherished, it grows stronger and more
extensive" (Woolman, 1763,
Chap.13). With this, Woolman comments
succinctly on the dynamics of cumulative causation[16] described in this paper.

"Three phenomena are typical of the
periphery and help to explain the inadequate rate of capital formation. Power
relations appear in them all: in the excessive consumption indulged in by the
upper strata, which would be inexplicable without the inequitable distribution
deriving from those relationships; in the spurious absorption of labour, influenced above all by the power of the middle
strata; and in the disproportionate incomes the centres
extract through the play of power relations at the international level." (Prebisch, 1976, p.14)

John Woolman stresses the role of power in
shaping economic relations: "Wealth is attended with power, by which
bargains and proceedings contrary to universal righteousness are supported; and
here oppression, carried on with worldly policy and order, clothes itself with
the name of justice …" (Woolman, 1763,
Chap.10)

Prebisch follows in Woolman's footsteps when he stresses the role of consumerist
aspirations in driving the cumulative process of appropriation at the expense
of the dispossessed: "which have their root in self-pleasing, this spirit,
thus separating from universal love, seeks help from that power which stands in
the separation; and whatever name it hath, it still desires to defend the
treasures thus gotten. This is like a chain where the end of one link encloses
the end of another. The rising up of a desire to attain wealth is the
beginning. This desire being cherished moves to action, and riches thus gotten
please self, and while self hath a life in them it desires to have them
defended." (Woolman, 1763,
Chap.10).

Countermeasures

We have seen that consumption, if not outright consumerism, is a major
factor driving the mechanism. Moderating the urge to consume can at least
mitigate it. "Were all superfluities and the desire of outward greatness
laid aside and the right use of things universally attended to, such a number
of people might be employed in things useful that moderate labour
with the blessing of heaven would answer all good purposes relating to people
and their animals, and a sufficient number have leisure to attend on proper
affairs of civil society" (Woolman, 1763,
Chap.2). Furthermore, "their
example in avoiding superfluities tends to incite others to moderation" (Woolman, 1763,
Chap.1).

The Jubilee myth is rooted in the biblical notion of the Sabbath, which
involves rest and letting go. On the weekly Sabbath, people do not work. The
sabbatical year extends its principle to the marginalised,
and not only the human ones: "Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt
gather in the fruits thereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it
rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave
the beasts of the field shall eat" (Exodus 23.10-11).

The urge for economic growth fuels the mechanism, as does consumerism.
One response has been the growth of the décroissance
movement in Europe. The word is often rendered in English as de-growth, but
this translation captures only part of its meaning. Décroissance
is not simply the opposite of growth but rather something different from it (Dommen, B. & Dommen, E., 2016). Policy-makers tend to take
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary measure of growth, but it includes only a subset of activities, ignoring several which are
invaluable to human welfare (UNDAT, 1974).

When Western Samoa became independent in 1962, it refused to calculate
its GDP on the grounds that doing so would distract attention - and human
resources - from its own democratically determined priorities. However, it did
not stop experts from international organisations
from estimating it themselves for their own purposes.

There have been some clumsy efforts to address the shortcomings of GDP,
such as UNDP's Human Development Index.[17]

We have seen that prioritising the essential
needs of the world's most deprived is a key feature of sustainable development.
This calls not only for restraint but for redistribution. "Men who have
large possessions and live in the spirit of charity, who carefully inspect the
circumstance of those who occupy their estates, and regardless of the customs
of the times regulate their demands agreeable to universal love, these, by
being righteous on principle, do good to the poor without placing it as an act
of bounty. While industrious, frugal people are borne down with poverty and
oppressed with too much labour in useful things, the
way to apply money without promoting pride and vanity remains open to such who
truly sympathise with them in their various
difficulties" (Woolman, 1763, Chap.1).

Calvin insisted that the rich were ministers to the poor. "All rich
people, when they have the means to do good, are clearly there as God's
deputies, and they must do their job, which is to help their neighbours to live." (Calvin, Sermon 141 on Deuteronomy 24.19-22.)

Ambrose (339-397), one of the four fathers of the Roman Catholic Church,
places his idea in the perspective of the dynamics described in this paper when
he says, "If you have two pairs of sandals and your neighbour
is barefoot, you should not give him one but return one to him."

In 1996, UNCTAD launched a BioTrade Initiative
in line with its founding ideals. Its objectives include the sustainable use of
resources, the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, and community
empowerment. The initiative is alive and well. (UNCTAD, 2024)

Migration[18]

Migration is a natural consequence of the processes of appropriation and
dispossession inherent in the functioning of the world economy. When people are
deprived of their means of livelihood, it is normal for them to follow them to
where they were taken. If countries receiving migration flows do not want
them, they could refrain from
stripping the source countries of their resources or, failing that, return
their means of livelihood to them. Those who migrate could then make good use
of their resources at home without leaving their kith and kin in search of
them. "Inhabitants of rich and happy countries don't emigrate." (d’Épinay, 1831) Furthermore, migrants tend to be more adventurous and more resilient
than their stay-at-home neighbours. Those who arrive
at their destination are also likely to be in better health than the average:
good health helps to survive the journey. These are precisely the kind of
people who stimulate the dynamism of the place where they are. The place from
which they emigrate loses that asset; the country of destination acquires it.
Thus, migration feeds the dynamic of dispossession. On the other hand, in so
far as migrants send remittances home they mitigate the process.

Conclusion

The natural
dynamic of most economies is that wealth or power left to their own devices
attract yet more at the expense of the poor and powerless. The essential remedy
is to defuse the dynamics of dispossession.

The process
is systemic. Individual actions may change their style or temper its intensity
but not the essence of its operation. Conscious collective countermeasures are
indispensable in order to restore to the deprived the freedom and prosperity of
which these processes deprive them.

This brief
and necessarily schematic summary overview of the dynamics of dispossession
identifies several key themes for responses and countermeasures. They of course
require further elaboration and and political action
if they are to be put into practice.

References

Bentham, Jeremy
(1776).  A Fragment on Government.

Bentham, Jeremy
(1780). An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Calvin, John
(1564).  Commentary on the books of Moses

Calvin, John
(1564), Exodus 22.25

Calvin, John.
Institutes of the Christian Religion, numerous editions

Calvin, John.  Sermon 53 on 1 Timothy 6.17-19

Calvin, John.
Sermons on Deuteronomy.

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[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=technology+definition+english

[2] The Report is commonly known as “the Brundtland
Report”; that is how we shall refer to it henceforth.

[3] We shall return later to the word ‘poor’.

[4] The name
varies between languages.

[5] Calvin uses the word ‘subvenir’ which is associated
with the classical notion of ‘subsidii’ - troops held in reserve until called
upon. The concept is embodied politically in the subsidiarity principle.

[6] ”The phrase ‘preferential option for the poor’ was
first used in 1968 by the superior general of the Jesuits, Father Pedro Arrupe,
in a letter to his order. The term was later picked up by the Catholic bishops
of Latin America.” (Dault, 2015)

[7] The phrase was coined by E.K. Fisk (1962)

[8] In fact, the Jubilee is a brilliant piece of specious
communication. The Jewish elites had been deported to Babylon at the end of the
6th century. Their land had been taken over by the peasants who
cultivated and looked after it. When the elites were allowed to return over
half a century later, they wanted their land back. They invented this
convincing tale to legitimate their claim.

[9] This section is drawn from Dommen (2003), chap.2.

[10] These examples can be found in Myrdal (1944) and Myrdal
(1968).

[11] The previous paragraphs are drawn from Dommen (2014).

[12] Gunnar Myrdal was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Economics 1975.

[13] Incidentally, the Wikipedia article  ‘Latin American liberation theology’
describes ECLA, albeit one the the official regional commissions of the United
Nations, as a “leftist think tank”!

[14] Quoted in the Geneva newspaper Le Courrier, 8
March 2024.

[15] Luke 19.46

[16] The term is Gunnar Myrdal’s.

[17] https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index

[18] This section may seem lapidary, but migration is but
one among the manifestations of the centre-periphery dynamic explained
throughout this paper. The essential remedy to them all is to defuse the
dynamics of dispossession.