On ideology change and spatial and structural linkages between formal and informal economic sectors in Zimbabwean cities (1981-2010)

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Zimbabwean cities have been experiencing wide-ranging economic restructuring sinceindependence in 1980. The relationships between the declining formal economy and thegrowing informal economy concomitant with political and economic ideological shifts overthe years have not been studied extensively and are not well understood. In this study theimpact of political and economic ideological shifts on the growth, spatial and structurallinkages between the two sectors over the three decades, from 1981-2010, in the country'stwo main cities, Harare and Bulawayo, is investigated.Mixed-method approaches were applied to gather spatial, quantitative and qualitative data.Geospatial data were created using 1164 and 857 geographical positioning system locationalpoints of informal economic enterprises in Harare and Bulawayo respectively. Maps of thetwo cities were scanned, georeferenced, projected and digitised. Longitudinal and crosssectionaldata were gathered from archival sources and through 300 and 600 questionnairesurveys of formal and informal economic operators respectively. Qualitative data wasgenerated from 30 interviews that were conducted with professionals that influence theoperations of the two sectors. The data were analysed using GIS, SPSS and Statisticasoftware to reveal the temporal growth of the two sectors, as well as their spatial andstructural linkages.It was found that the informal sector grew by 17% under the socialist policies of the 1980s.This increase was partly attributable to overurbanisation because the urban labour forceincreased at an average of 3% per annum compared to the formal economic sector thatgenerated employment at an average of only 2.2% per annum throughout the 1980s. Theshifts toward neo-liberal economic policies at the beginning of the 1990s resulted in immenseretrenchments, forcing many workers to join the informal sector. As formal firms adjustedtheir operations to fight global competition, employment generation declined to an average of1% per annum throughout the1990s. The informal sector responded by employing 61% of thelabour force by 2001. The adoption of authoritarian policies at the beginning of the 2000saccelerated the decline of the formal economy which recorded negative growths for most ofthe first decade of the millennium. This led to the rapid rise of informal sector employment toan astronomic level of 87.8% in 2008. The investigation revealed substantial locational transformations of both formal and informaleconomic enterprises. During the 30-year period, informal economic businesses spread inlow-income suburbs, city centres and neighbourhood and district shopping centres. 16.3% offormal economic enterprises left the city centres preferring secure medium density suburbsclose to the CBDs, shopping complexes, industrial, office and business parks on the edges ofthe cities. 83.7% remained in the city centres and industrial centres where informalisation ofoperations was one of the strategies employed to fight competition, whilst 86.3% and 22.8%informal economic enterprises licensed and registered their operations respectively over the30 year period. These spatial and structural changes resulted in linkages being formedbetween the two sectors. The nature of the linkages is largely influenced by the position ofthe informal businesses on a continuum of informal enterprises ranging from traditional,through transitional to semi-formal. It was found that traditional and transitional enterpriseshad strong backward linkages with formal businesses where they purchase their goods andraw materials. Forward linkages exist where semi-formal businesses sell furniture, buildingmaterials and clothing to formal businesses. Thus, a symbiosis exists, but linkages are veryexploitative as formal businesses tend to dictate the terms of business.The reciprocal-supportive model was extended by adding four pillars that influence theoperations of the two sectors to produce a differential complexity model of informalisation(DCMI). The reasons or causes of informalisation (RE); the subsectors that comprise the twosectors (SE); the various locations of the two sectors' businesses (L); and the levels offormality and informality (Ls) are integrated in the DCMI to aid comprehension of thelinkages between the two sectors. The model can be adjusted and applied to various urbansettings, allowing for the development of the two sectors spatially, structurally andtemporally.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University