Petrol pumps and economic slumps: rural-urban linkages in Zimbabwe's globalisation process

The blurring of rural and urban space in Sub-Saharan Africa has been a topical theme in recent years. Under economic duress, occupational distinctions between the two have tended to disappear. It is often inferred that burgeoning trade and service sector activities have encouraged greater personal mobility and rural-urban linkages as heightened movement of economic actors bridge the physical distance between town and countryside. Meanwhile, the theme of globalisation applied to Africa has tended to suggest that physical distances are contracting as cyberspace and mobile phones spread. But amid this debate, the fluctuating cost of oil as a key determinant of physical movement and distance perception has largely been overlooked. This paper examines Zimbabwe's rural and urban economies' vulnerability to international oil price fluctuations. Possible future oil price trends and their effect on African development are probed. Copyright 2003 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.