Defending Illicit Livelihoods: Youth Resistance in Harare's Contested Spaces

Amin Y. Kamete

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2010, vol. 34, issue 1, 55-75

Abstract: Abstract In response to incessant assaults by the Zimbabwean state's repressive apparatus, spearheaded by the urban planning system, youth in Harare have shifted their modes of resistance. The most successful forms of resistance appear to be those that are multifarious, non‐confrontational and less docile. Empirical material from Harare suggests that the situation is best understood in the framework of more sophisticated conceptualizations of human agency and resistance than those proposed by modernist perspectives. It is shown that the resistance of the youth is about localized struggles that disrupt institutions and normalization. Arguing that the youth's continued occupation of contested urban spaces is a result of abandoning full‐scale confrontation in favour of ‘resistance at the margins’, the article concludes that a postmodernist analysis best explains the youths' modes of resistance. Résumé En réaction aux assauts continuels menés par l'appareil répressif étatique du Zimbabwe avec, en fer de lance, le système d'urbanisme, les jeunes de Harare ont changé de modes de résistance. Les formes les plus performantes semblent être celles qui sont plurielles, non conflictuelles et plus sages. Les données empiriques sur Harare suggèrent que la situation est mieux appréhendée dans le cadre de conceptualisations de l'agence humaine et de la résistance plus sophistiquées que celles que proposent les approches modernistes. Il est montré que la résistance des jeunes porte sur des luttes localisées qui perturbent institutions et normalisation. Le fait que les jeunes occupent en permanence les espaces urbains contestés reflète leur renonciation à une confrontation massive au profit d'une ‘résistance aux marges’. L'article conclut qu'une analyse postmoderniste explique plus clairement les modes de résistance de la jeunesse.

Date: 2010
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