“It is no longer the sunshine city, it is now a dump site city”: Discursive construction of urban space and street trading in Harare, Zimbabwe

Street trading, a highly contentious phenomenon in many Global South cities, represents an interplay of power, resistance, and urban governance. In this paper, we use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to interrogate how street traders are portrayed in media and institutional discourses, providing insights into the discursive construction of urban space in Harare, Zimbabwe. Methodologically, the study draws on a dataset consisting of interviews with urban practitioners, and policymakers, as well as an analysis of media representations. The debate related to urban space and street trading in Harare has been largely one-sided for many years, dominated by a top-down discourse of power that pathologizes, marginalizes and stigmatizes street traders as “agents of urban disorder, diseases and pollution”, “economic parasites” and “criminals”. The success of these hegemonic discourses has justified and legitimized regressive policies of displacement, eviction, and penalization, thereby undermining street traders' contributions to the urban economy and livelihoods. Ultimately, this study contributes to the growing body of research on street trading in Global South cities, shedding light on the power structures and ideological underpinnings within the urban discourse. The findings of this study aim to inform more inclusive urban governance practices that acknowledge the rights of marginalized groups.