The Spatial Configuration and Reconfiguration in Bulawayo City: Regarding the Impact of Politico-Economic Ideologies

This chapter examines the spatial linkages of urban formal–informal economies in a post-colonial setting such as that of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe`s second largest city. The aim in this attempt is linking the temporal, spatial and structural linkages between the informal economic enterprises (IEEs) that have grown and spread in urban centres and their formal economic enterprises (FEEs) to political and economic ideological changes. In this context, it is argued that, the linkages between the IEEs and FEEs shows that, the ideological changes and/or shifts in Zimbabwe largely explain the spatial configuration and reconfiguration in Bulawayo city in terms of the relationship between the urban formal and informal economy.