Polarization and Transformation in Zimbabwe
Social Movements, Strategy Dilemmas and Change
By (author) Erin McCandless
Not available to order
Publication date:
16 August 2011Length of book:
270 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739169094
Social movements and civic organizations often face profound strategy dilemmas that can hamper their effectiveness and prevent them from contributing to transformative change and peace. In Zimbabwe two particular dilemmas have fed into and fueled destructive processes of political polarization-dividing society, leadership, and decision-makers well beyond its borders. As conceptualized in this study, the first is whether to prioritize political or economic rights in efforts to bring about nation-wide transformative change (rights or redistribution). The second is whether and how to work with government and/or donors given their political, economic, and social agendas (participation or resistance). This book investigates these issues through two social movement organizations-the National Constitutional Assembly and the Zimbabwe National War Veterans' Association-and the movements they led to achieve constitutional change and radical land redistribution. Through in-depth case study analysis and peace and conflict impact assessment spanning the years 1997-2010, lessons are drawn for activists, practitioners, policy-makers, and scholars interested in depolarizing concepts underpinning polarizing discourses, transcending strategy dilemmas, and understanding how social action can better contribute to transformative change and peace.
This book provides rich empirical details on the competing narratives regarding the evolution of Zimbabwe's social movements since the social crisis-entailing deteriorating employment, incomes, and social services-resulting from the negative economic impacts of neoliberal policies adopted in 1990. It tracks the emergence of counter social movements mainly since the escalation of domestic political polarization over constitutional reform in 2000, and the subsequent confrontations between the Zimbabwe state (in alliance with land movements) and international capital (in alliance with key governance reform NGOs). It broadens the debate over how contemporary civil society organizations develop different as well as common strategies, even with contrasting historical, social, and ideological roots. It also traces how social movements and intellectuals, seeking both structural and "governance" reforms, became polarized over opposed struggles for radical redistributive land reforms and liberal constitutional reforms.