On the temporal, spatial and structural linkages between informal and formal economic enterprises in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper analyses the temporal, spatial and structural linkages between the informal economic enterprises (IEEs) that have grown and spread in Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and their formal economic counterparts, as well as the impact of the IEEs on the shaping and restructuring of the urban economy. To achieve this, the paper deployed a mixed methods approach which utilised survey and phenomenological case studies on the formal and informal economic enterprises in Bulawayo. The results of this study highlight the linkages between the informal and formal economic enterprises and the impact of political and economic ideology on such linkages, illustrating the spatial layering and patterning of both formal economic enterprises and IEEs in Bulawayo. The main contribution of this paper is its exposition of the impact of political and economic policies of the Zimbabwean nation-state on urban economic enterprises.