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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until April 22, 2027

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‘THEY CAME A LONG WAY:’ THE HISTORY AND EMOTIONS OF MARKET WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE, C1960 TO PRESENT.

ZIKI, SUSAN
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1714084579469571

Abstract Details

2024, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
This dissertation explores African market women’s activities by analyzing and emphasizing the significance of their personal networks and connections, emotions, and spatial mobilities in sustaining their businesses and the informal economy in general. I argue that the social, economic, and political systems created by market women rest on their immediate ties to the household, their relationships, and wider networks of kin, friends, or other social connections as well as their performance and experience with emotions. I evaluate how these intricate connections impact women’s success or failures in the market. I argue that competition and contestations over urban market spaces that are intensified by the Zimbabwean economic crisis led to different discourses by Zimbabwean citizens to claim spaces. Market women, for example, have used their life histories to make claims to the market and perceive ownership differently than other groups within the city. By primarily using life histories to recollect and explore women’s experiences within the city and rural areas, I emphasize women’s agency and perceptions of Zimbabwe’s history. Starting in the 1960s when women nostalgically recollect their participation in markets, to the present, I follow women’s markers of history and explore why they remember the past in that way. I expand debates on women's entrepreneurship and urban informality to emphasize why market women in Zimbabwe help us comprehend how women have reshaped urban spaces, economies, and political systems. In sum, I argue that in the different phases of Zimbabwe’s economic volatility, market women have meritoriously supported the informal economy while bringing happiness to the residents.
Timothy L. Scarnecchia (Committee Chair)
Sarah Smiley (Committee Member)
Teresa A. Barnes (Committee Member)
Elizabeth Smith-Pryor (Committee Member)
281 p.
African History; African Studies; Aging; Economic History; Entrepreneurship; Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; History; Modern History
market women, emotions, informal economy, personal connections, vendors, mobility, urban economy, rural economy, networks, contestations, nostalgia, life history, family,

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • ZIKI, S. (2024). ‘THEY CAME A LONG WAY:’ THE HISTORY AND EMOTIONS OF MARKET WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE, C1960 TO PRESENT. [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1714084579469571

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • ZIKI, SUSAN. ‘THEY CAME A LONG WAY:’ THE HISTORY AND EMOTIONS OF MARKET WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE, C1960 TO PRESENT. . 2024. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1714084579469571.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • ZIKI, SUSAN. "‘THEY CAME A LONG WAY:’ THE HISTORY AND EMOTIONS OF MARKET WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE, C1960 TO PRESENT. ." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1714084579469571

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1714084579469571
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.