Youth and social navigation in Zimbabwe’s informal economy: ‘Don’t end up on the wrong side’

Abstract

Abstract This article draws on qualitative case study research in Murewa, a rural district town in Zimbabwe, to extend the use of the concept of ‘social navigation’ from conflict-affected settings to repressive regime contexts. Through the concept of ‘the everyday’, it analyses how youth experience political violence and repression, and the tactics they use to access paid work and secure self-employment. The findings show that youth accept existing forms of political violence and repression as normal, and that the historical construction of politicized youth matters for how they understand their room for manoeuvre within it. Since partisan actors control many of the economic opportunities, social navigation is about the need to assess the political affiliation of actors that offer any economic opportunity, and the potential implications of being associated with a particular ‘side’ in the political landscape. Contrary to dominant discourses that portray youth as violent, this study shows that many will avoid relationships through which they risk being mobilized into violence.