The political economy of peri-urban transformations in Zimbabwe under globalisation - a case study of Harare

Abstract

The bulk of urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa has, hitherto, focused on the impacts of structural adjustment programmes on urban productivity and citizen welfare. However, little is known about the dynamics (Mbiba & Huchzermeyer, 2002: 114) of the structural gaps between the stated policy prescriptions and implementation practices, on one hand, and on the other, between the policy practices and lived experiences of ordinary residents in the marginalised urban spaces in developing countries that neoliberal economic structural reforms have engendered. Meanwhile the dominant perspectives on the nature and meaning of “‘peri-urban’” have intensified instead of stemming the crises of managing increasingly contested urban frontiers in the poorer countries (Mbiba & Huchermeyer, 2002: 114; Simon, et al., 2004; Lombard, 2016). Using Harvey’s (2003) revised and extended Marxist perspective of “primitive accumulation by dispossession” on jambanja, the study critically engages with the “multiple realities” (Giddens, 1984) of radically transformed peri-urban landscapes in a case study of Harare. The study deploys a mixed method strategy to capture multiple data sets through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and biographical accounts (Creswell & Brown, 1992; Mouton, 2003: 196) across different contexts of the ‘peri-urban’ in Harare. These contexts range from Zimbabwe’s abandoned neoliberal structural reform programme (Bond & Manyanya, 2003; Mbiba, 2017a: 8-9) to the country’s elitist policy projects of jambanja and Operation Murambatsvina (Moyo, 2013a; 2013b) post-2000. Drawing on the lived experiences of purposively selected town planners and ordinary peri-urban residents, the study builds conceptual blocks to bridge the gaps between the official policy prescriptions and the everyday life experiences of intended beneficiary ordinary residents. The study concludes that the emerging palimpsest peri-urban interface in sub Saharan Africa can be productive sites for understanding the dynamics of informalised The bulk of urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa has, hitherto, focused on the impacts of structural adjustment programmes on urban productivity and citizen welfare. However, little is known about the dynamics (Mbiba & Huchzermeyer, 2002: 114) of the structural gaps between the stated policy prescriptions and implementation practices, on one hand, and on the other, between the policy practices and lived experiences of ordinary residents in the marginalised urban spaces in developing countries that neoliberal economic structural reforms have engendered. Meanwhile the dominant perspectives on the nature and meaning of “‘peri-urban’” have intensified instead of stemming the crises of managing increasingly contested urban frontiers in the poorer countries (Mbiba & Huchermeyer, 2002: 114; Simon, et al., 2004; Lombard, 2016). Using Harvey’s (2003) revised and extended Marxist perspective of “primitive accumulation by dispossession” on jambanja, the study critically engages with the “multiple realities” (Giddens, 1984) of radically transformed peri-urban landscapes in a case study of Harare. The study deploys a mixed method strategy to capture multiple data sets through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and biographical accounts (Creswell & Brown, 1992; Mouton, 2003: 196) across different contexts of the ‘peri-urban’ in Harare. These contexts range from Zimbabwe’s abandoned neoliberal structural reform programme (Bond & Manyanya, 2003; Mbiba, 2017a: 8-9) to the country’s elitist policy projects of jambanja and Operation Murambatsvina (Moyo, 2013a; 2013b) post-2000. Drawing on the lived experiences of purposively selected town planners and ordinary peri-urban residents, the study builds conceptual blocks to bridge the gaps between the official policy prescriptions and the everyday life experiences of intended beneficiary ordinary residents. The study concludes that the emerging palimpsest peri-urban interface in sub Saharan Africa can be productive sites for understanding the dynamics of informalised The bulk of urban studies in sub-Saharan Africa has, hitherto, focused on the impacts of structural adjustment programmes on urban productivity and citizen welfare. However, little is known about the dynamics (Mbiba & Huchzermeyer, 2002: 114) of the structural gaps between the stated policy prescriptions and implementation practices, on one hand, and on the other, between the policy practices and lived experiences of ordinary residents in the marginalised urban spaces in developing countries that neoliberal economic structural reforms have engendered. Meanwhile the dominant perspectives on the nature and meaning of “‘peri-urban’” have intensified instead of stemming the crises of managing increasingly contested urban frontiers in the poorer countries (Mbiba & Huchermeyer, 2002: 114; Simon, et al., 2004; Lombard, 2016). Using Harvey’s (2003) revised and extended Marxist perspective of “primitive accumulation by dispossession” on jambanja, the study critically engages with the “multiple realities” (Giddens, 1984) of radically transformed peri-urban landscapes in a case study of Harare. The study deploys a mixed method strategy to capture multiple data sets through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and biographical accounts (Creswell & Brown, 1992; Mouton, 2003: 196) across different contexts of the ‘peri-urban’ in Harare. These contexts range from Zimbabwe’s abandoned neoliberal structural reform programme (Bond & Manyanya, 2003; Mbiba, 2017a: 8-9) to the country’s elitist policy projects of jambanja and Operation Murambatsvina (Moyo, 2013a; 2013b) post-2000. Drawing on the lived experiences of purposively selected town planners and ordinary peri-urban residents, the study builds conceptual blocks to bridge the gaps between the official policy prescriptions and the everyday life experiences of intended beneficiary ordinary residents. The study concludes that the emerging palimpsest peri-urban interface in sub Saharan Africa can be productive sites for understanding the dynamics of informalised party-state institutions, political patronage and violence in reproducing urban space. Thus, a reimagining of the peri-urban interface in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa should harness the multiple voices, struggles and experiences in everyday life of residents towards broadening urban theory.