In the Service of Tyranny: Debating the Role of Planning in Zimbabwe's Urban `Clean-up' Operation

Amin Y. Kamete
Additional contact information
Amin Y. Kamete: The Nordic Africa Institute, Research Box 1703, SE-751 47, Uppsala, Sweden, amin.kamete@nai.uu.se

Urban Studies, 2009, vol. 46, issue 4, 897-922

Abstract: The paper debates the role of planning in `Operation Murambatsvina /Restore Order', Zimbabwe's 2005 controversial urban clean-up campaign. The discussion critically assesses two perspectives regarding the purported contribution and complicity of planning in what critics perceive to be the machinations of a regime that is internationally viewed as nefarious. This is done, first, by interrogating the role and contribution of planners and planning to the instigation and design of the operation before it was launched and, secondly, by determining the extent to which planners and planning served as the handmaiden of state repression during the operation. After weighing relevant empirical evidence on the culpability of planning, the discussion concludes that, while planning may escape the first charge, it certainly has a case to answer on the second.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009102134 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:46:y:2009:i:4:p:897-922

DOI: 10.1177/0042098009102134

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().