What is 'community resilience'? Responding to COVID-19 in rural Zimbabwe.

Based on real-time recording and reflection of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, this article identifies the features of 'community resilience' across sites in rural Zimbabwe. The findings confirm the importance of local knowledge, social networks and communication, as highlighted in the literature. In addition, a number of other aspects are emphasised, including the importance of adaptable livelihoods, innovation and collective learning. Flexible adaptation was especially important for responding to lockdowns, as livelihoods had to be reconfigured in response to public health measures. Meanwhile, innovation and shared learning was vital for generating local treatment responses to the disease. In the Zimbabwe context, these adaptation and innovation capabilities emerge from a particular historical experience where resilience in the face of harsh economic conditions and in the absence of state support has been generated over years. This is often a more resigned coping than a positive, empowering, transformational form of resilience. While adaptation, innovation and shared learning capabilities proved useful during the pandemic, they are not evenly spread, and there is no singular 'community' around which resilience emerges. The article therefore argues against seeing 'community resilience' as the magic bullet for disaster preparedness and response in the context of pandemics. Instead, the highly differentiated local practices of adaptation, innovation and shared learning-across gender, age and wealth differences-should be seen as an important complement to public, state-led support in health emergencies and so are part of a wider, plural health system.

Small Towns and Land Reform in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's land reform from 2000 radically transformed the agrarian structure, and with this small towns in rural areas. This article explores three such towns-Mvurwi, Chatsworth and Maphisa-examining changes in population, housing, transport and business activity between 2000 and 2020. Case studies highlight the importance of networks and social relationships between rural and urban areas, linked to new patterns of migration and a massive growth in the informal economy. Despite the lack of state investment in basic infrastructure, the economies of these small towns have grown significantly, with a major shift in agrarian relations generating new economic activity and employment. This suggests the potential of a territorial focus for local economic development following land reform, encompassing both urban and rural areas.

La reforme rurale du Zimbabwe a, à partir de l'année 2000, radicalement transformé la structure agraire, et avec celle-ci les petites villages dans les zones rurales. Cet article explore trois parmi ces villages - Mvurwi, Chatsworth and Maphisa ­ en examinant les changements de population, de logement, de transport et d'activité commerciale entre 2000 et 2020. Etudes de cas soulignent l'importance des réseaux et relations sociales entre les zones rurales et urbaines, associés aux nouveaux modèles de migration et à la croissance massive de l'économie parallèle. En dépit de la manque d'investissement publique dans les infrastructures de base, les économies des petites villes étudiés a augmenté de manière considérable, avec un changement important dans les relations agraires, ce qui a généré des nouvelles activités économiques et des nouveaux emplois. Ceci suggère que, suite a des reformes rurales, viser un axe territorial (qui comprend des zones urbaines et rurales) offre du potentiel au développement économique locale.