Staff Profiles

My teaching seeks to equip participants with critical understanding of how global-local structure and agency factors determine the nature of urban policy and planning; problems addressed its content, outcomes and impacts in diverse geo-political economy contexts.  I use participatory teaching approaches that integrate analysis of theoretical concepts, case studies, group projects, UK field studies and guest lectures.  Students exit with the expertise to operate and flourish as urban policy and planning practitioners anywhere in the world.  

 

Modules taught

I currently teach on and am leader of the following modules:

P38168 – Urban Land Policy and Urban Management

P38169 – Urban Policy in Practice: Programme and Project Implementation

U35099 – Real Estate Management Dissertation

I also contribute to the following modules:

P38162 – Globalisation, Environment and Development

U37702 – The City, people and Diversity

Supervision

Currently supervising four candidates, each working on projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, and Mozambique respectively.

Recent PhD completions:

Dr Arthur Munyua MWAURA  “Mediating Conflicting Planning Rationalities: Collaborative Approaches in Low Income Neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya”.

Dr Afua-Adu  BOATENG   “Determinants of the Adoption of Climate Change Policies in Urban Africa”

 

Mbiba has research interests in land conflicts, identity, urban and peri-urban transformations and global citizenship in the UK and Africa. He has written and contributed to development policy work on access to land and justice for the poor, productive and inclusive African cities and a leading expert on urban agriculture (visit RUAF Foundation at www.ruaf.org) urban governance, urban housing, rural-urban linkages and poverty alleviation.

In 2008 he was appointed to the five member International Jury for the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment (DIABP) see details of DIABP - detail available On-Line: www.dubaiaward.ae. Recently, he was appointed international consultant (2009-2010) to assess implementation of Results Based Management in UN-HABITAT with specific reference to "the organization's Medium Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP)".

Mbiba is a member of several international research networks and contributes to community for example as:

• Board Member, Editorial Board of Africanus: Journal of Development Studies, published at UNISA, South Africa (appointed 2009)
• Board Member and Trustee, Cannon Collins Trust – Education for Southern Africa (from 2009) for activities of the trust see www.canoncollins.org.uk
• Board Member, Hyde Housing Association, London and South East Customer Services Board (from 2002 to 2012) – for activities of Hyde Housing, see www.hyde-housing.co.uk
• A member of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Focus Group the linchpin for development policy dialogue between the Zimbabwean Diaspora, the Zimbabwean government and HMG United Kingdom.

Research projects

Examples of recent projects

• Influencing processes and content of global policies
• Was Expert evaluator for the Czech-Norwegian Research Programme, The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (April – June 2014).
• Was expert Evaluator for Polish-Norwegian Research Programme, The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), (http://www.ncbir.pl/en/norwaygrants/) (December 2012 – April 2013)
• Was appointed Expert Evaluator for the European Commission Research and Innovation Directorate, Covent Garden, Brussels in relation to the Seventh Framework Programme, Social Sciences and Humanities (March – June 2012)
• Was Expert Evaluator for the European Commission Research and Innovation Directorate, Covent Garden, Brussels in relation to the Seventh Framework Programme, Social Sciences and Humanities (March – June 2011)
• Consultant to The African Development Bank (Tunisia) to prepare a report titled 'Financing Urban Development in Africa', 18th November 2010 – 27th January 2011.
• Was appointed Rapporteur on 'Migration and Development: What Links Exist Between the European Policies and the Civil Society's Practices?' for The European Network on Migrations and Development (EUNOMAD) and Association for Regional Economic Development (ADER), Paris; 1st - 30th November 2010, www.eunomad.org
• Contracted by UN-HABITAT as regional consultant to 'analyze the role of urban growth, urban economies, social development, urban housing, and land conditions in Southern African cities' and drafted the Southern Africa section of the report: 'The State of African Cities 2010: Governance, Inequality and Land Markets' - report launched November 2010, see www.unhabitat.org
• Contracted by United Nations (HABITAT), to produce background document 'The State of Cities in Southern Africa' for the UN-HABITAT State of African Cities Report 2008/2009 launched at the World Urban Forum, November 2008
• In 2006 he was consultant to UN International Labour Office, Geneva (ILO) on the role of local authorities in promoting decent work in the construction sector and related services
• In 2004-2005 Mbiba worked as Policy Research Analyst and Outreach Executive for The Secretariat to the Commission for Africa (CFA). Set up in early 2004 by then UK Prime Minister Hon. Tony Blair, the CFA presented its report in March 2005 and completed its work in July 2005 (for details of report, visit www.commissionforafrica.info)
• Research projects completed since 2000 include those on access to land for the urban poor in East and Southern Africa funded by IDRC Canada (US$380,000.00); Urban and Peri-Urban Transformations in Africa supported by the British Academy, UK (£20,000.00); Formalization of Urban Markets and Trading (covering Kenya, Ghana and Senegal) funded by Department for International Development (DFID), UK (£190,000.00)
• Since 1990 he has acted as consultant on impact studies and project evaluations for mining companies and international development organisations and was co-author of the Zimbabwe National Report and Plan of Action on Human Settlements presented at HABITAT II, Istanbul, June, 1996. He completed action oriented research projects as key member of research networks such as the Association of Rural and Urban Planners in East and Southern Africa (RUPSEA), the Swedish funded Gender Research on Urbanization, Housing Planning and Everyday Life in East and Southern Africa (GRUPHEL), and the Mazingira (Nairobi) based African Research Network for Urban Management (ARNUM)
• Mbiba is Coordinator of Peri-NET (The Urban and Peri-Urban Research Network, Africa).

Books

• Mbiba B, Urban Agriculture in Zimbabwe: Implications for Urban Management and Poverty, Avebury:Aldershot (1995)
  ISBN: 978185628857
  Abstract This text addresses the phenomenon of urban agriculture in Zimbabwe. While it acknowledges that the activity is a significant source of food and income for the urban poor, the text draws attention to development conflicts raised by the activity. It attempts to place urban agriculture within the context of urban economy, the environment, institutional concerns, gender and urban poverty. Based on ongoing research the text demonstrates that there is a potential for urban agriculture as part of the urban economy, but that the urban poor are not beneficiaries of the activity.

Journal articles

• Mbiba, B., 'Planning Scholarship and the Fetish About Planning in Southern Africa: The Case of Zimbabwe’s Operation Murambatsvina'
  International Planning Studies (2018)
  ISSN: 1356-3475 eISSN: 1469-9265
  Abstract Contributing to the resurgent debate on urban informality in the global south, Kamete (2013) charged that urban planners in Southern Africa have a fetish about informality that is fuelled by an obsession with modernity. In these and other writings, Zimbabwe’s 2005 Operation Murambatsvina (OM) is used as a prototype planning malfeasance. Using the concept of fetish and fetishism, this paper argues that a fixation on and fetish about planning and planners has led some planning scholars to churn out misplaced or misleading understandings of OM regarding the role of planning the operation. Inevitably, recommendations for planning reform from such scholarship are largely inefficacious. It is time planning scholars looked seriously beyond planning for both analytical tools and space for political activism.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Harare: From a European Settler "Sunshine City" to a "Zhingzhong" African City.'
  International Development Planning Review (2017)
  ISSN: 1474-6743
  Abstract Fifteen years after Zimbabwe’s political independence and Black majority rule, Rakodi (1995) concluded that Harare, the capital city, remained quintessentially a settler colonial city. Then, Harare had not yet experienced the full impacts of ‘neo-liberalism’ as in Nairobi or the suburbanization of office and commercial development as in Johannesburg. In view of significant political economy transformations since the 1990s, this paper aims to provide a systematic interpretation of ongoing transitions that characterise the city. Informed by a systemic spatio-temporal and historical analysis it illustrates how ongoing post 1990s foundational restructuring of the economy centred on jambanja have transformed Harare from a settler colonial to a highly informalised ‘zhingzhong’ African city.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Idioms of accumulation: corporate accumulation by dispossession in urban Zimbabwe'
  International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2017)
  ISSN: 0309-1317
  Abstract David Harvey’s accumulation by dispossession has inspired a wide range of studies in different places. But it has hardly registered in the area of urban land grabbing in Africa and the role of local capital in these processes. Using archival data, field observations and insights from key informant interviews in Harare, this paper examines how the 1990s neo-liberalism and post 1999 Zimbabwe crisis created new opportunities for accumulation of wealth through irregular and fraudulent transfer of public urban land into private hands including those of reputable corporate institutions. It speaks to the literature on contemporary land grabbing and raises questions and new insights for comparative understanding of the transformative role and nature of the state, postcolonial African cities, anti-capitalist struggles, the status and meaning of planning in different settings.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Urban solid waste characteristics and household appetite for separation at source in Eastern and Southern Africa'
  Habitat International 43 (2014) pp.152-162
  ISSN: 0197-3975
  Abstract Although the past decade has witnessed increased awareness of and efforts to implement integrated solid waste management in African cities, a chronic urban waste problem endures. Further, ‘end of pipe’ interventions remain dominant and popular with city administrators and there seems to be little appetite for policies towards comprehensive globally approved waste reduction, recycling and separation of waste at source that are critical to an effective integrated solid waste management system. Following a review of literature and complemented by field notes, this paper examines the willingness of urban households to participate in expanded at source waste separation in Bulawayo, Lusaka and Mombasa. It presents empirical evidence of household readiness to engage in such programs thus highlighting an untapped potential that policy makers should make use of in expanding urban solid waste recycling and waste reduction programmes in Eastern and Southern Africa. Such programmes would align well with emerging low carbon economies.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Zimbabwean diaspora politics in Britain: insights from the cathedral moment 2009'
  Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 50 (2) (2012) pp.226-252
  ISSN: 1466-2043
  Abstract Zimbabwe features highly in western media, in African scholarship and in political debates at international fora. However, little attention has been paid to Zimbabwean Diaspora politics as an aspect of the ongoing transformations and one whose analysis can help understand the multifaceted changes and challenges confronting the Zimbabwean community. Using a critical moment approach and drawing on key informant interviews, cyberspace materials and participant observations, this paper examines the nature of Zimbabwean Diaspora politics in Britain and how Zimbabweans are negotiating loss, change, identity and belonging in a turbulent globalising world.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Beyond abject space: enterprising Zimbabwean diaspora in Britain'
  African Diaspora 4 (1) (2011) pp.50-75
  ISSN: 1872-5457
  Abstract The concept of space in relation to the experiences of African immigrants in Britain has been the focus of recent geographical and development studies with Joann McGregor's notion of abject spaces the most provocative. This paper considers how the concept of abject spaces can be extended beyond the existence of the marginal, illegal and undocumented immigrants to explore opportunities for entrepreneurship within and beyond these spaces. Based on observation and in-depth interviews with forty entrepreneurs in the same Zimbabwean immigrant community studied by McGregor, the paper demonstrates connections between the businesses formed to serve abject spaces as well as the ways in which living in the same abject space stimulates entrepreneurship. Abject spaces are simultaneously business spaces in ways that demonstrate the innovation and agency of immigrants and the connections between abject spaces and both the country of origin and host community spaces. This contributes to a better understanding of contemporary migration especially the temporality or space-time dimension of abjection and the significance of small immigrant enterprises in Britain.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Untold Stories: The Commission for Africa and Zimbabwe'
  Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairts 95 (384) (2006) pp.201-218
  ISSN: 0035-8533 eISSN: 1474-029X
  Abstract The Commission for Africa (CFA) and its report launched on 11 March 2005 has been described as a significant global development initiative and, from the British perspective, as one of the most complicated processes in public policy making seen in recent times. It sought to mobilize and reconfigure global power and in particular to shape global thinking and actions on development policy towards Africa. However, the CFA (and the G8 Gleneagles Summit, whose agenda it sought to influence) were silent on one of today's political, diplomatic and development challenges—Zimbabwe. Cynics would say that, if it could not handle this issue, it has nothing to offer on Africa. This paper argues that, despite this apparent silence on and marginalization of Zimbabwe, the CFA process was pregnant with issues Zimbabwean, and that it adopted and succeeded in using what one may call ‘President Mbeki's principle of silent diplomacy on Zimbabwe’, only to lose the plot at the last minute.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'A clash of time cultures and planning: reflections from Zimbabwe'
  Planning Theory and Practice 4 (4) (2003) pp.477-483
  ISSN: 1464-9357
  Abstract Speculates that although to plan is to conceive of the future, in the African conception of time, to plan is to resolve conflict and maximize harmony between members in a community on the one hand and between the community and nature on the other. Western view that African culture has no sense of time; African time as emotional time based on rhythms of the natural world and not instruments; Notions of future in African time.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Financing City Farms in London'
  Urban Agriculture Magazine 9 (2003) pp.20-22
  ISSN: 1571-6244
  Abstract City farms as a form of urban agriculture is a recent but increasingly important urban
  phenomenon in the United Kingdom. The future of urban agriculture lies in the ability to adapt and mainstream it into prevailing development themes such as education, community cohesion, social inclusion and biodiversity. 
  Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Urban Agriculture in the London Borough of Bexley'
  Urban Agriculture Magazine 11 (2003) pp.32-33
  ISSN: 1571-6244
  Abstract Municipal officials face challenges in making decisions about the future use of urban agriculture. Whereas the financial costs and benefits for alternative land use are clear, they are not so clear for agricultural use. Essentially, technical decisions on the use of land are made with an eye on local politics and pressures from competing constituencies.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Contentious development: peri-urban studies in sub-Sahara Africa'
  Progress in Development Studies 2 (2) (2002) pp.113-131
  ISSN: 1464-9934
  Abstract This paper reviews the current state of literature on peri-urban research in sub-Saharan Africa. This research has been led by multi-lateral and bilateral development agencies that have sought to find a role in urban development. The review finds that the donor-driven research has remained largely descriptive. It has neither emphasized nor theorized the rapid and contentious peri-urban transformations associated with globalization. The paper identifies these contradictory transformations and then reviews a range of social development theories, suggesting to what extent they are useful to a meaningful engagement with these contradictions. It highlights in particular the potential role of structuration theory.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Communal land rights as state sanction and social control: a narrative'
  Africa 71 (3) (2001) pp.426-448
  ISSN: 0001-9720
  Abstract This article takes a historical approach to argue that communal lands in Zimbabwe are a construct inherited from colonial days (prior to 1980) which governments in post-colonial Zimbabwe have found convenient to maintain rather than dismantle. The construct is not only a convenient framework for the delivery of collective consumption goods but in turn it enables the government to subtly use communal lands as a framework for social control, especially in terms of urban management. The continued existence of communal land areas and land rights also sustains processes of social control at the household level. However, these are issues that will not receive attention in land debates as long as the larger problem of redistribution of large-scale commercial farms remains unresolved.Website 
• Mbiba B, 'The Marginalisation of Urban Agriculture in Lusaka'
  Urban Agriculture Magazine 4 (2001) pp.19-21
  ISSN: 1571-6244
  Abstract In 1987, Sanyal suggested that Lusaka, Zambia, was the capital city of urban agriculture (UA) in Africa. This was at the peak of Zambia’s economic crisis when residents took up UA as a form of employment and to improve their nutritional status. Travelling in the region today, one will easily agree that Harare, Zimbabwe, has taken over as the capital of urban agriculture and that the activity may not be as widespread in Lusaka as observed by Sanyal in the 1980s. Website 
• Mbiba B, van Veenhuizen R, 'The Integration of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Urban Planning'
  Urban Agriculture Magazine 4 (2001)
  ISSN: 1571-6244
  Abstract Editorial. Editors for UA Magazine 4Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Security of tenure, development victims and the limits of environmental impact assessment in Zimbabwe's communal lands'
  Development in Practice 9 (3) (1999) pp.316-322
  ISSN: 0961-4524
  Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Classification and description of urban agriculture in Harare'
  Development Southern Africa 12 (1) (1995) pp.75-86
  ISSN: 0376-835X
  Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Institutional responses to uncontrolled urban cultivation in Harare'
  Environment and Urbanization 6 (1) (1994) pp.188-202
  ISSN: 0956-2478
  Abstract Institutional responses to uncontrolled urban cultivation in Harare: prohibitive or accommodative? reviews local government's response to uncontrolled crop cultivation within the urban boundary of Harare. The author reviews institutional responses to urban agriculture in Harare during the colonial period and since Independence in 1980. The final section comments on why local authorities find it difficult to manage urban agriculture effectively and sustainably and suggests some new directions both for policy and for research.Website 

Book chapters

• Mbiba B, 'Financing urban development in Africa' in Kayizzi-Mugerwa S, Shimeles A, Yameogo ND (ed.), Urbanisation and socio-economic development in Africa: challenges and opportunities, Routledge/Taylor Francis Group (2014)
  ISBN: 9781138016811 eISBN: 9781315780023
  Abstract Chapter 4Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Zimbabwe's global citizens in 'Harare North': Livelihood strategies of Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom.' in Chiumbu S, Musemwa M (ed.), Crisis! What Crisis? The Multiple Dimensions of the Zimbabwean Crisis, Human Sciences Research Council Press (2012)
  ISBN: 978-07969-2383-7
  Abstract Chapter 4
• Mbiba B, 'The State of Southern African Cities' in The State of African Cities 2010: Governance, Inequalities and Urban Land Markets, Un Habitat (2010)
  ISBN: 978-92-1-132291-0
  Abstract Chapter 6Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Burial at home: negotiating death in the diaspora and in Harare' in Zimbabwe's new diaspora: displacement and cultural politics of survival, Berghahn (2010)
  ISBN: 9781845456580
  
• Mbiba B, 'The role of local government in promoting decent work in construction and related services with special reference to Bulawayo City' in Labour conditions for construction: decent work, building citiesand the role of local authorities, Wiley-Blackwell (2009)
  ISBN: 9781405189439
  
• Mbiba B, 'Untold Stories: The Commission for Africa and Zimbabwe' in Chan S, Primorac R (ed.), Zimbabwe in Crisis: The International Response and the Space of Silence, Routledge (2007)
  ISBN: 9780415415491
  Website 
• Mbiba B, 'Urban Agriculture in Harare: Between Suspicion and Repression' in Bakker N, Dubbeling M, Guendel S, Sabel Koschella U, de Zeeuw H (ed.), Growing Cities Growing Food: Urban Agriculture on the Policy Agenda, DSE (2000)
  ISBN: 3-934068-25-1
  Abstract Case studyWebsite 

Reviews

• Mbiba B, review of Business, politics and the state in Africa: challenging the orthodoxies on growth and transformation, in International Development Planning Review 38 (1) (2016) pp.95-96ISSN: 1474-6743
  Website 
• Mbiba B, review of To Subsidise My Income: Urban Farming in An East-african Town, in African Affairs 108 (2009) pp.152-153ISSN: 0001-9909 eISSN: 1468-2621
  Website 
• Mbiba B, review of Re-living the Second Chimurenga: Memories from Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, in African Affairs 108 (432) (2009) pp.503-504ISSN: 0001-9909 eISSN: 1468-2621
  Website 

Other publications

• Abrams L, Mbiba B, Chitekwe-Biti B, Smith T, Brown C, 'Zimbabwe’s changing urban landscape'
  This Infrastructure and Cities for Economic Development (ICED) scoping report has been prepared for the Department for International Development’s’ Zimbabwe country office to better understand urban trends and dynamics in Zimbabwe which can inform future urban programming, infrastructure related interventions for poverty reduction and economic grwoth.
  (2017) Website 
• Mbiba B, 'HABITAT III Regional Report for Africa: Progress, Challenges and Priorities in Housing & Sustainable Development in the Africa Region'
  (2016) ISBN: 9789211327564
  Website 
• Mbiba B, Kwangwama A, Mushamba S, Mabika V, 'Zimbabwe Green Gauge: How Zimbabwean Planners (can) Engage with the Climate Change Agenda in Urban Areas.'
  (2015)
• Mbiba B, 'Zimbabwe's global citizens in 'Harare North': overview and implications for development'
  (2005)
• Mbiba B, 'The Political Economy of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in southern and Eastern Africa: Overview, Settings and Research Agenda'
  (2001) Abstract This paper attempts to set parameters for a debate and research program on the political economy of urban and peri-urban agriculture in East and Southern Africa. It argues that the political economy issues at stake revolve not only around control and access to the land resource but also have to do with competing ideas about the city and the planning process. Control and ownership of this process as well as the outcome is a political process whose content affects the nature of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the region. The range of theoretical reflections on these issues are outlined together with current development concepts that could guide future research. Reflections are made on options to the institutional location and organisation of possible regional research.

Mbiba, B. (2017) On the periphery: missing urbanisation in Zimbabwe.  London: Africa Research Institute, Counterpoints.

Mbiba, B. Harare: from a European settler-colonial ‘sunshine city’ to a ‘zhingzhong’ African city. International Development Planning Review (in press).

Membership of professional bodies

Professional Membership and Corporate

• Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, RTPI (Corporate Member)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK)
• Trustee of the Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust of Southern Africa (CCELAT)
• Director, Shinfield Park Estate Management Company 
• DFID/ICED Senior Advisor on Zimbabwe - Infrastructure Cities and Econmic Development (ICED)

External Examnier

• External Examiner, Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Sciences (2015 -2018)
• External Examiner, Rural and Urban Development, Great Zimbabwe University, School of Social Sciences (2014 - 2018)

Recent Appointments as PhD External Examiner

Examined higher degrees (PhD) as external examiner at:

• University of South Africa, Pretoria, (UNISA), Department of Geography, (2014) PhD Candidate, 7355092.
• Neslon Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, Department of Geography (2013) PhD Candidate 208093692
• University College London (UCL), PhD candidate in the Development Planning Unit, Viva held 14th December 2009. Candidate 39051974
• University of Oxford, Master of Legal Studies Research, Candidate at Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, VIVA held 25th September 2009
• University of Sheffield, PhD candidate in the Department of Town and Regional Planning, VIVA held, 23rd April, 2009. Candidate 030180130
• University of Wales, Swansea (2007/8) – PhD candidate at the Centre for Development Studies School of the Environment & Society. VIVA held February 2008. Candidate 296270