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Urban Displacement and Resettlement in Zimbabwe: The Paradoxes of Propertied Citizenship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Amanda Hammar
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Abstract:

This article examines what urban displacement and resettlement can reveal about the nature of, and co-constitutive relationships among, property, authority, and citizenship. It focuses on an unusual case in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, where long-term illegal squatters living under constant threat of violent displacement by various local and national authorities were formally resettled by the Bulawayo City Council on peri-urban plots with houses. What surfaces are some of the paradoxes of propertied citizenship and of attaining seemingly “proper” lives in conditions of sustained marginality, a result that is not entirely unexpected when impoverished squatters are resettled far outside the frame of the city and its possibilities.

Résumé:

Cet article examine ce que les déplacements urbains et la réinstallation peuvent révéler sur la nature et les relations co-constitutives entre, la propriété, l’autorité et la citoyenneté. Il se concentre sur un cas inhabituel à Bulawayo, au Zimbabwe, où des Squatters illégaux à long terme, vivant sous la menace constante de déplacements violents par diverses autorités locales et nationales, ont été officiellement réinstallés par le conseil municipal de Bulawayo dans des maisons sur des parcelles périurbaines. L’article explore certains paradoxes de la citoyenneté basée sur la propriété et la réalisation de vies apparemment « appropriées» dans des conditions de marginalité durable lorsque les Squatters appauvris sont réinstallés loin du cadre de la ville et de ses possibilités.

Keywords

Urban displacementresettlementpropertyauthoritycitizenshipZimbabwe
Type
ASR FORUM: Land Disputes and Displacement in Postconflict Africa
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , December 2017 , pp. 81 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2017 

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