Social networks among land reform beneficiaries and their use in supporting satellite schools in Zimbabwe: a case study of a satellite school

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which land reform beneficiaries in a selected community use their social networks to support a satellite school. Contemporary literature on the implications of land reform in Zimbabwe revealed a number of perspectives, which include the political, human rights, livelihoods, and agricultural productivity perspectives. However, a social capital perspective interrogating the educational benefits of land reform was absent. This paper reports on a study, guided by the social capital theoretical frameworks espoused by Pierre Bourdieu, James Coleman and Robert Putnam, to unpack the influences that land reform beneficiaries have on a selected satellite school in Zimbabwe. This was principally a qualitative study with a case study design. The data was generated through semi-structured interviews with one satellite school head, two village heads and three land reform beneficiaries as well as focus group discussions with three land reform beneficiaries in Masvingo district. The study revealed social and educational benefits of the land reform beneficiaries for one selected community in Zimbabwe. Land reform beneficiaries used their social networks to voluntarily mobilise resources and share information, which facilitated the construction of a satellite school. The study further revealed that resource mobilisation and information sharing were important in the construction and infrastructural development of a satellite school in the aftermath of land reform in Zimbabwe.Â