Learning on the streets. Urban youth and vending in Zimbabwe

African youth in urban contexts are often thought to be disruptive and prone to violent behaviour, while the majority remains peaceful. But if young people grow up in violent, non-democratic settings, then which political ideas and behaviours do they acquire, and how? This project has three objectives:
1) To contribute to theory on the political socialization of urban African youth by conceptualising the role of informal, economic networks; and generate context-specific empirical evidence on political socialization of urban youth in Zimbabwe.
2) To enable civil society and donors in Zimbabwe to improve youth programming; and inform government actors and municipalities about suitable strategies for supporting urban livelihoods for youth.
3) To influence programming by international donors and civil society that support youth in violent, conflict-affected settings.

Existing scholarship on political socialization has predominantly generated knowledge on 'socialization mechanisms' in Western settings and emphasizes the role of family, schooling and civic associations. Research in Africa has, however, mainly looked at the socialization of violent youth in/into gangs and violent extremism. The proposed project will fill an important gap in knowledge by focusing on youth that are not mobilized into violence, and by developing a new conceptual framework for studying political socialization of African, urban youth. The project will contribute to theories of political socialization by conceptualising how participation in informal networks in the informal economy shapes political learning. This conceptual framework can be used in future research, thus contributing to theory in the field of youth studies. The project will also contribute to the fields of international development and African politics through the analysis of informal networks in African cities.

The study will be carried out in Zimbabwe, where many unemployed youth in cities work as informal vendors. Some networks of vendors are regulated by city councils, while other networks are regulated informally by the ruling party. The recent change in political leadership in November 2017 presents a unique opportunity to explore how informal networks among vendors contribute to their political socialization. This study will compare networks of second-hand clothes vendors that are regulated by the city council with networks that are regulated by actors linked to the party. It will study how these political actors promote ideas and behaviours through these networks, and how this affects the political ideas and behaviours that vendors acquire. The study will use qualitative research methods that have been designed to generate robust data; are exciting and interesting to young people; and are safe and feasible within the political context of Zimbabwe: participatory and visual methods, interviews, focus group discussions, and observation. The project will first focus on understanding the nature of informal vending networks and how they are regulated. The project will then focus on understanding how informal networks function as sites for political socialization, and the kind of political ideas and behaviours young vendors adopt as a result. The study pays attention to the gendered experiences in these networks, and whether differences in educational and economic backgrounds matter for political socialization. The project will produce academic outputs (three articles in high-ranking journals and a book proposal) and outputs for civil society and donors in order to improve their programmes (Handbook for civil society and training, donor roundtable, online scrollify, a webinar) that will be promoted widely through the networks of project partners.

IDS collaborates with University of Zimbabwe, the Research & Advocacy Unity and Oxfam. The project builds on their longstanding research on young people in Zimbabwe and addresses their shared academic interests and policy concerns.

There is a global concern regarding youth and violence, but also recognition of their potential to contribute to peace, as reflected in UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. Aid agencies often fund/implement youth livelihood programmes separately from active citizenship programmes, with limited analysis of the politics pervading urban economies. In repressive regimes, and in many post-conflict settings too, support to youth civil society is often met with state suspicion, requiring innovative strategies for supporting the political learning of young people, and contributing towards youth active citizenship. The main elements of our impact strategy are a) sustained, bilateral engagement with selected government actors; b) facilitated learning among youth civil society and vending associations; and c) well-targeted knowledge dissemination among international civil society and donors. Our impact strategy builds on the deep contextual knowledge all the project partners have of Zimbabwe, and on existing relationships between UoZ, RAU and Oxfam with national civil society, donors and relevant government actors. The different actors and entry-points for policy influence will be identified through a Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis at the start of the project.

Through the proposed study and uptake activities, this project will:
1) Have instrumental and conceptual impact on policy and practice of civil society and donors that fund and implement youth livelihoods and citizenship programmes in Zimbabwe. The study will result in a better understanding of a) the politics enmeshed in local economies and 2) ways in which young people learn and adopt political ideas and behaviours. This will enable civil society and donors to come up with new strategies for supporting youth civic engagement through livelihood programmes. This will inform civil society and donors when designing innovative strategies for promoting youth civic engagement through livelihood/employment programmes, mitigating risks of the politicisation of urban livelihoods, and reducing the vulnerability of youth to being captured by politics. The project will do this through specific uptake activities for civil society in Zimbabwe (a reference group, the Handbook, workshop and training) in which we will bring together representatives from youth civil society and vendors associations for mutual learning (see Pathways to Impact).
2) Have instrumental impact on selected government bodies at national and municipal levels. Benefitting from RAU and Oxfam's credible reputation and our existing relationships to government built through previous projects, we will have meetings with officials within Harare and Bulawayo city councils, the Ministry of Youth, and the Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprise throughout the project, in order to enhance their understanding of the livelihood challenges faced by urban youth. If feasible we will facilitate a dialogue between these actors, and selected youth organisations and vendor associations, in our final workshop.
3) Have instrumental and conceptual impact on international civil society and donors responsible for youth programming in repressive regime contexts and post-conflict settings. All outputs, project summaries and recommendations will be disseminated to international civil society and donors, using our combined networks. We have existing relationships with the UNSCR 2250 working group, DFID, Dutch Aid, Danida, MercyCorps, Search for Common Ground, Plan International and others. The Oxfam's online Youth Active Citizenship forum reaches a diverse youth civil society at national level, for which we organize a webinar.
4) Young people themselves are at the heart of the project. The project will involve youth activists in a reference group and in the research process itself, which will contribute to their thinking on how young people can best be supported to develop civic and political capacities.