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Paper short abstract

Informality has become the normal economy through which youths’ urban lives are sustained, and mobility ensured. Against narratives that frame informality as disorder, the paper foregrounds youth agency and ingenuity. Through social networks, youths coordinate trade beyond formal regulation.

Paper long abstract

Formal employment is becoming increasingly difficult to secure in Zimbabwe, leading to an influx of youths in the informal economy, even as the state criminalises many of the livelihoods on which young people depend. This paper critically examines the supposed formal mapping and governance of urban spaces versus youth informality in Harare, Zimbabwe. Youth survival in the informal economy occurs amidst prolonged economic crisis, mass unemployment and “waithood” or prolonged transitions into socially recognised adulthood. This paper situates youth involvement in informality within broader debates on youth mobilisations, urban futures, and development in the Global South. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research in Harare’s central business district and transport hubs, the study demonstrates how youths, particularly young men, actively rework the city through practices such as touting, informal transport operations, and foreign currency dealing. The informal sector, once considered the domain of the less educated, is now being joined by college graduates. A few young women in Harare join public transport touting, which was exclusively reserved for men. Against narratives that frame informality as disorder or deviance, the paper foregrounds youth agency and ingenuity. Young people mobilise dense social networks, operate in teams, and use social media such as WhatsApp and Facebook Marketplace to advertise, sell goods, and coordinate movements, often beyond the reach of taxation and formal regulation. These practices coexist with, and are shaped by, everyday negotiations with power: selective police crackdowns, routine bribery, political protection, and collaborations with authorities that blur the boundary between legality and illegality