Surviving marginality?: stateless persons’ spatial navigation and rights claiming during the Zimbabwean denationalisation project (2001 – 2013) : a Southern Zimbabwe case study
Date
2018
Authors
Mpofu, Ngqabutho Nceku
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Abstract
In this paper, I argue that the denationalization project which occurred in Zimbabwe between
2001 to 2013 brought with it new forms of citizenship, with the stateless persons engaging in
network-building in order to navigate space and claim rights. Through a ‘mini-ethnographic
study’ involving six participants who stayed in Zimbabwe despite being rendered stateless, this
paper argues that spatial navigation and rights claiming is done through the assertion of agency
akin to Ranciere’s ‘dissensus’, with stateless individuals fulfilling their revolutionary potential.
This paper goes further to rebut current international and state centric strategies when dealing
with statelessness. I suggest that a more community-based approach will assist in ensuring
that statelessness and its inimical effects are addressed at the appropriate level.
Description
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of a Master of Arts (MA) in Migration and
Displacement by research and coursework, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, March 2018
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Citation
Mpofu, Ngqabutho Nceku (2018) Surviving marginality?: stateless persons' spatial navigation and rights claiming during the Zimbabwean denationalisation project (2001-2013) : a Southern Zimbabwe case study, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/27124>