TY  - SER
AU  - Kamete, Amin Y 
TI  - Neither friend nor enemy: Planning, ambivalence and the invalidation of urban informality in Zimbabwe/ 
PY  - 2020///
CY  - London
PB  - Sage
N2  - Planning relies on the strict classification and disposition of things in space. Intended to establish and maintain order, planning’s classifying practices are reinforced by binarisms that revolve around legality/illegality. The article deploys Bauman’s notion of the ‘stranger’ to recast hostility to informality as a symptom of antipathy against strangerhood and ambivalence. Drawing from qualitative research in urban Zimbabwe, I posit that because informality cannot be pigeonholed as either ‘friend’ or ‘enemy’, it instils a sense of unease in planners. I argue that this is a failure of the pursuit of order through binary antagonisms and contend that fixation with binarisms spawns ‘spatial undecidables’ and fuels resentment against informality. I propose that the notion of strangerhood complements and extends the concept of ‘gray spacing’
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018821588
ER  -