Navigating Changes: Community Resettlement in Namibia Due to Nkurenkuru’s Urban Expansion

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Overall, this is a well-written paper on an important issue that faces many communities and cities in the Global South. I only suggest minor revisions

The main improvement that I would suggest is to provide some more context and details about the physical living conditions before and after relocation. Photos and maps of the community before resettlement, after resettlement, and how the new development in-place of the old community looks like. In line 408, it mentions “associated travel expenses” so I would infer they are relocated very far away? A simple map would greatly help to clarify.

The study makes the point in the literature that in general, compensation is often absent or inadequate – and in the findings acknowledges that “The Town Council provided financial compensation” (line 473). Could more details be provided on exactly how much was provided, and relate that to how much the costs would have been to stay and ‘build permanent structures’. How does a house that ‘meets municipal standards’ look like? Is that house culturally appropriate for the community?

The paper promises in line 46, that it will look into impact on cultural practices, but this aspect doesn’t really come through strongly in the paper, other than in “their ability to attend local cultural events”.

The text never gets back or elaborates on evocative phrase of the title: Lost in transition. These cultural components maybe part of what is lost on that transition.

In line 223, the text says that residents “were given the options”, but from what I understand from the literature review, they are expropriated, and the ‘choice’ they are given doesn’t really exist. Indeed, there is a section on the impact of relocation, but no section on the impact on people who ‘decided’ to stay (which I infer from the paper, are no one).

The sentence “the relocation had little impact on the community's social interactions and networks because most of their neighbours remained in the neighbourhood” is a bit unclear to me. Does this mean to say that the community was relocated in its entirety to a new area, so that all the people who were together before, remain together?

Author Response

Thank you for your valuable comments, which are appropriate and intended to improve the quality of the paper.

In response to your observation that the "lost transition" element is not clearly articulated in the article, we have adjusted the title to avoid giving readers a misleading impression. Similarly, we agree with your assessment that the cultural aspects do not emerge prominently from the respondents’ narratives. This was also somewhat surprising to us during our data analysis. For this reason, we have limitedly mentioned the cultural component, and we intend to explore this aspect further in a future paper.

Regarding the options presented to the community, while the choice to remain was indeed available, the costs associated with complying with municipal regulations ultimately led them to decide on relocation rather than integration. Only one out of the whole sample with the financial capacity stayed and integrated.

As you noted, no section addresses the impact on those who remained behind. In the case we observed, the respondents were relocated, which allowed them to maintain their neighbourhood community and networking connections from before the relocation.

We have also addressed, to the best of our capacity, your other technical comments accordingly. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article looks at the displacement of periurban populations in Namibia.  This is a critical topic in understanding urban development in the global south, as land tenure is a critical issue for significant populations in cities.  I think the inductive approach is appropriate to the research problem, as it helps identify the key issues migrants are facing and then allows the authors to show how their case study informs the academic discourse on periurban development.  

I have two minor, editorial suggestions for the article.  First, section 3 (socio-economic impact of relocated communities) seems out of place in the article.  This is more of a literature review.  I would suggest you move this section before the "materials and methods" section.  I think this is more logical as we move from some of the major issues faced throughout the world to your specific example.  

Second, I would suggest having someone proofread the article for prose and readability.  There are several minor grammatical errors throughout the paper (for example, subject-verb agreement), the prose and word choices are at times awkward and somewhat impact the readability of the article.  You also use passive voice often in the article which generally does not read well in academic articles.  

I think the content is outstanding.  The research question is relevant and timely.  Your methods are appropriate to the research question and are well executed.  I think most people would prefer a larger sample size, but I think you are seeing convergence on your interviews and your ability to inductively tie your results to the academic discourse helps overcome the sample size concern.  You do a fine job of providing context to the larger academic discussion.  

Thank you for the opportunity to review your paper.  Best of luck in your future research.  

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Please see my comments above.  I think there are some prose and usage issues throughout the paper.  Nothing pervasive or systematic.  I think a proofread by someone not affiliated with the paper would help address those concerns.  

Author Response

Thank you for the valuable comments that will help to make the article more readable. 

As for your suggestion 1, we have moved the methodology after section 2, parimenty we have also elaborated the methodological section. As for your second comment we have gone through extensive editing and proofreading of the article which has, in some cases, also modified the original structure of the paper.