Of good plants and useless weeds: planning as a spatial technology of the gardening state

The article deploys Bauman’s metaphor of the ‘gardening’ state to consider the imbrication of planning and the dark side of modernity. It interrogates the public production and defence of urban spaces suitable for people deemed to have value. Using empirical material from urban Zimbabwe, I frame planning as a spatial technology of the gardening state and peer into its handling of informality under two main themes: first, the perception, construction and designation of ‘weeds’, and second, the declaration and treatment of the ‘weeds’. Situating Bauman’s metaphor in the nexus between planning, the state and informality, I conclude that the metaphor paints a helpful but inadequate picture. I argue that while the metaphor is helpful with regards to the first theme, refinements are needed in its application to the second. Rather than see planning enforcement as a rational-scientific practice, a nuanced conceptualisation is needed that explicitly acknowledges the messy business of politics

Pernicious assimilation: reframing the integration of the urban informal economy in Southern Africa

This paper argues that many of the official attempts to “integrate” the urban informal economy into the mainstream economy are fundamentally flawed. An unpacking of the “integrative” agenda as pursued by planning and other governmental practices reveals that “integration”, as currently practiced, does not herald the mainstreaming of the informal economy. Drawing on research in Zimbabwe and evidence from other countries in Southern Africa, I argue that what we witness is a sinister stripping away of the lifeblood of informality. This malicious form of integration entails crippling Faustian bargains. In the end, this pernicious assimilation insidiously does away with that which makes informality a livelihood haven for the majority of urbanites. I conclude that the duplicitous integration is unworkable and leaves the big questions of inclusion untouched, hence the persistence of the “problem” of informality

Neither friend nor enemy: Planning, ambivalence and the invalidation of urban informality in Zimbabwe

Planning relies on the strict classification and disposition of things in space. Intended to establish and maintain order, planning’s classifying practices are reinforced by binarisms that revolve around legality/illegality. The article deploys Bauman’s notion of the ‘stranger’ to recast hostility to informality as a symptom of antipathy against strangerhood and ambivalence. Drawing from qualitative research in urban Zimbabwe, I posit that because informality cannot be pigeonholed as either ‘friend’ or ‘enemy’, it instils a sense of unease in planners. I argue that this is a failure of the pursuit of order through binary antagonisms and contend that fixation with binarisms spawns ‘spatial undecidables’ and fuels resentment against informality. I propose that the notion of strangerhood complements and extends the concept of ‘gray spacing’

Governing enclaves of informality: unscrambling the logic of the camp in urban Zimbabwe

The warehousing of informals in designated enclaves is a common strategy for the government of urban informality in the global South. In this article, I unscramble state-operated enclaves of informality in Zimbabwe. The article scrutinises two types of enclave: a flea market and a holding camp. I extend Agamben’s politico-juridical construction to the social and economic realm. I question claims of inclusion in flea markets by juxtaposing a ‘soft’ zone of indistinction (flea market) with a ‘hard’ zone of indistinction (holding camp), arguing that both spaces are dump sites for homo sacer. I draw attention to the construction of bare life in both enclaves and emphasise the condition of rightlessness and the delimiting of the value of informals to bare life. Reflecting on the extent to which these spaces manifest the logic of the camp, I argue that both are spaces of exception

The Influence of Headmaster’s Managerial Skills on Effective School Management: A Case of Public Secondary Schools in Mbeya –Tanzania

The Research is about the influence of the headmaster’s managerial skills on effective school management. The study was guided by four research objectives; to assess the conceptual skills acquired by the of public secondary school headmasters, to identify the human skills acquired by the of public secondary school headmasters, to explore the communication skills acquired by of public secondary school the headmasters and to examine the leadership skills acquired by the of public secondary school headmasters. Different sources of literature review such as books, journals and theories and empirical literature studies were used. The study was conducted in Mbeya City covering 10 schools in Mbeya Urban. The sample comprised of 40 respondents and all 40 respondents responded. Data were collected through questionnaires and analysed through SPSS computer package. The results indicated that majority of the headmasters in public secondary school have managerial skills. The study recommendations, among others, were Secondary school heads need to employ their conceptual, human communication as well as leadership skills to encourage academic staff to improve on the quality of classroom teaching/learning by exposing students to competence based learning. The headmaster should employ communication skills to convey the right message to their academic staff, regarding poor performance of students and its impact in economic as well as social development of citizens. The Government also should lay down a policy on managerial skills training for the head of schools as they do in other managerial levels in other organizations

Street vendors and planning paradigms

Prescriptions abound about how planning theories and approaches can be modified to benefit street vendors. Instead of focusing on specific prescriptions that are applicable everywhere, this chapter raises questions and discusses issues that might point toward some building blocks of such modifications that can be adapted to different times and contexts. It argues that the hostility of planning theories and approaches to street vendors can be traced to the ideals they espouse, the methods they adopt, and the scale at which they are deployed. While acknowledging the usefulness of abstraction and idealism, the chapter identifies weaknesses in the tendency to focus on generating and pursuing “opposites” to dominant theories, practices and approaches, arguing that energy should be directed at raising unsettling questions to which we might have no answers. The chapter then goes on to suggest some building blocks for the modification of planning theories and approaches. They include questioning the state’s proclivity for order, progress, well-being and betterment; rethinking “dreaming” and the organisation of planning; rethinking development planning; properly theorising development management; redressing the under-theorisation of space and place; dealing with auto-exclusion; and acknowledging and addressing the dangers of “pernicious assimilation”

On handling urban informality in southern Africa

In this article I reconsider the handling of urban informality by urban planning and management systems in southern Africa. I argue that authorities have a fetish about formality and that this is fuelled by an obsession with urban modernity. I stress that the desired city, largely inspired by Western notions of modernity, has not been and cannot be realized. Using illustrative cases of top–down interventions, I highlight and interrogate three strategies that authorities have deployed to handle informality in an effort to create or defend the modern city. I suggest that the fetish is built upon a desire for an urban modernity based on a concept of formal order that the authorities believe cannot coexist with the “disorder” and spatial “unruliness” of informality. I question the authorities' conviction that informality is an abomination that needs to be “converted”, dislocated or annihilated. I conclude that the very configuration of urban governance and socio-economic systems in the region, like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, renders informality inevitable and its eradication impossible