Urban Informality in South Africa and Zimbabwe: On Growth, Trajectory and Aftermath (The Urban Book Series)

This book adds to the research of urban informality in the Global South with a specific focus on South Africa and Zimbabwe. It addresses the agency and the potential transformative capacity of the phenomenon of urban informality in connection with Southern African cities and towns. It adopts a political economy approach to analyse the evolution of informality in cities and its implications for urban planning. It brings to bear how the South African and Zimbabwean historical and/or ideological and contemporary political and economic trajectories have impacted on the ever changing nature of urban informality, both spatially and structurally and/or compositionally; thus resulting in unique urban materialities, which are aspects that have scarcely been studied or discussed in the extant literature. This book, therefore, seeks to close the academic gap by dealing with the dearth of literature on spatial (re)locational discourses of urban informality. The work positions urban informality as a resilient force with potency in terms of political mobilisation and (re) shaping urban spaces. Though these are fundamental issues, they have received comparatively little attention, especially in literature that focuses on the Southern African region. Accordingly, undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as academics in the fields of Urban Geography, Political Science, Development Studies, Sociology, Town and Regional Planning among others, will find the range of topics and depth of coverage in this book particularly valuable. Similarly, practitioners and activists on issues of urban informality and urban governance will find the book very useful. Foreword Acknowledgments Contents About the Authors Abbeviations 1 Introduction on the Urban Economic Informality Context 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Structure of the Book References Part IHistory of Urban Informality and Urban Planning Debates 2 Historicising Urban Economic Informality 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Urban Informality in Post-Independence Southern African Cities 2.3 Reflections on the Historicity of Urban Informality 2.4 Conclusion References 3 Modernity, Urban Planning and Informality 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The Exclusionary Nature of South African and Zimbabwean Urban Planning Regimes 3.3 Urban Planning and the Vulnerability of Urban Informality 3.4 A Call to a New Turn in African Urban Planning 3.5 Conclusion References Part IIUrban Informality Experiences from Selected South African and Zimbabwean Cities 4 International Migrants and Urban Economic Informality in South African Cities 4.1 Context: International Migrants and Urban Informality 4.2 The Rise of Urban Informality in South African Cities 4.3 Regarding Mixed Embeddedness and International Migrants in the Urban Informal Economy in Johannesburg 4.4 Some Characteristics of Foreign Migrants’ Urban Economic Enterprises 4.5 The Challenges and Struggles of Foreign Migrant Enterprises in Johannesburg Inner City 4.6 Conclusion References 5 Spatial and Compositional Formality–Informality Interfaces in the City of Harare, Zimbabwe 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Characteristics of Informal Economic Activities and Growth Within Sub-sectors 5.3 Spatial Configurations of Informal Economic Categories 5.4 Spatial Spread of Informal Economic Enterprises in Harare During the 1980s 5.5 The Spatial Spread of Informal Economic Enterprises During the 1990s 5.6 Spatial Spread of Informal Economic Enterprises During the 2000s 5.7 Compositional Formality–Informality Interfaces in Harare City 5.8 Conclusion References 6 Rising Informality and Role in Shaping Economies in Johannesburg City 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Urban informality and the Johannesburg City Economy: Sectoral Dimensions of Informal Livelihood and Economic Activities 6.3 On the Debate on Urban Informality and Employment Creation 6.4 Rejuvenation or Degeneration of the Johannesburg City Economy? 6.5 The Formality–Informality Interface in Johannesburg City 6.6 Conclusion References 7 The Spatial Configuration and Reconfiguration in Bulawayo City: Regarding the Impact of Politico-Economic Ideologies 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Spatial Spread of Informal Economic Enterprises During the 1980s 7.3 The Spatial Spread of Informal Economic Enterprises During the 1990s 7.4 Spatial Spread of Informal Economic Enterprises During the 2000s 7.5 Impact of Ideology Change on Location of Informal Economic Enterprises 7.6 Informal–Formal Spatial and Functional Linkages 7.7 Conclusion References 8 The Changing Shape of Economic Informality in Durban 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Compositional Characteristics of Urban Economic Informality in Durban 8.3 Spatial/Locational Characteristics of Urban Economic Informality in Durban 8.4 Urban Economic Informality and Employment Creation in Durban 8.5 Rejuvenation or Degeneration of the Durban City Economy? 8.6 The Formality–Informality Interface in Durban City 8.7 Conclusion References Part IIIUrban Informality Governance 9 Urban Informality Policies and Regulatory Frameworks in South African and Zimbabwean Cities 9.1 Introduction 9.2 The South African Policy Response to Urban Informality 9.3 The Zimbabwean Policy Response to Urban Informality 9.4 Some Reflections on Urban Informality Policies and Regulatory Frameworks in South African and Zimbabwean Cities 9.5 Conclusion References 10 Political Dimensions of Urban Informality in South African and Zimbabwean Cities 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Regarding Power, Informality and the Right to the City 10.3 Informality and Political Turn in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe 10.4 Regarding Street Politics in Johannesburg City 10.5 Conclusion References Part IVAftermath 11 The Aftermath 11.1 Introduction of Capitalism, Formalisation of Economic Activities and the Construction of Urban Informality 11.2 On Urban Planning and Urban Informality 11.3 Urban Informality and the Compositional, Spatial and Structural Transformations: Regarding the Aftermath References Index