‘At the Bottom of the Social Heap’: A Youth Underclass in Inner-city Harare?

Abstract

In the social sciences, not many theses have been as contentious as the underclass thesis. Nevertheless, whether as a heuristic device to study society or as a target of ideological or academic attack, the underclass thesis has been used a focus of attention by a wide spectrum of researchers, politicians and journalists. In post-industrial societies the debate on the existence, nature and causes of the underclass has been raging on for decades. There is a plethora of ideological, policy, ontological and methodological disputes around it. This discussion takes the underclass thesis to the streets of Harare in Zimbabwe. It explores the possibilities of the formation of an underclass among the inner-city youth of Harare. Using indicators developed by Roberts and other scholars, the paper suggests something different is happening among the inner-city youth. While not proclaiming the existence of an underclass, the paper traces the emergence of a distinct inner-city social group to both structural and cultural factors.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Sida and The Nordic Africa Institute for financing the study, and the anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. Field (1989, p. 2) is one such exception. He includes the elderly poor among the groups making up the underclass (see MacDonald 1997, p. 14).

2. Wilson (1987, p. 8) also mentions ‘individuals who lack training’ and are ‘out of the mainstream … occupational system’.

3. In the study, regular employment was defined as formal employment or documented and/or established self-employment.

4. Pupils sit for Ordinary Level (Form Four) examinations after the first four years of secondary school education, which is after 11 years of continuous progressive schooling. Most pupils sit for these examinations before the age of 17.