Research Project:
Governing Public Spaces and Informality towards Sustainability in Ghana

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crispj.coordinatorInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
crispj.investigatorAkuoko, Philipa Birago
crispj.investigator.affiliationInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
crispj.partnerouInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
crispj.partnerouInterdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG)
crispj.partnerouCenter for Regional Economic Development (CRED)
crispj.partnerouInstitute of Geography
crispj.partnerouInstitute of Geography, Human Geography
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-17T16:04:39Z
dc.date.available2025-02-17T16:04:39Z
dc.description.abstractPublic spaces in global south cities are undergoing physical infrastructure transformation and redevelopment driven by public policy recommendations, which have put informality under siege. This thesis explores the conflict among public space actors and their governing rules to answer the following questions: 1. What rules regulate the use of public spaces and their redevelopment? 2. How do people legitimise their use of public spaces and/or their redevelopment? 3. How does redevelopment affect the livelihood of women working in public spaces? Informal workers, most of whom are women, use public spaces as places of work. The redevelopment of these public spaces means that informal workers are evicted, relocated or displaced from public spaces. In Ghana and many sub-Saharan countries, public spaces are communally owned lands that should be accessible to all members of ethnic communities. Hence, the eviction, relocation or displacement of informal workers during urban redevelopment projects, as is the case of Central Kumasi and Agbogbloshie in this thesis, present interesting conversations around resource governance and the power dynamics among actors and their rules of engagement. This thesis is a case study of Agbogbloshie in the capital city of Ghana, Accra and Central Kumasi in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. To advance the research, I adopt a new institutionalist approach to understand the rules in force comprising formal and informal institutions shaping urban development in Ghana. Building on this approach, I consider that actors strategically influence the institutions, determining their room for manoeuvre. Further, I acknowledge the role of power in all its different forms, which shapes actors’ interactions. I turn to political ecology and feminist political ecology to inform on power relations and gendered differences in knowledge, access, and activism in the use and governance of public spaces in cities. To attain this objective, I employ two Ghanaian cities, Accra and Kumasi, as case studies in a qualitative enquiry. I spent 12 weeks in both cities and conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with 4 focused group discussions. The findings of this research demonstrate that public spaces are governed by plural institutions ranging from statutory to customary laws. Informal workers legitimise their access and use of public spaces by choosing the rules that best suit their interests through institution shopping. They selectively activate statutory and customary rules to form localised regulatory arrangements in accessing and using public spaces. Yet, the redevelopment policies implemented by the state and local government neglect the influence of customary institutions and authorities and the localised regulatory arrangements that govern informal workers in these public spaces. The result is heightened inequalities that negatively impact the livelihoods of women differently.
dc.description.sponsorshipInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
dc.description.sponsorshipInterdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG)
dc.description.sponsorshipCenter for Regional Economic Development (CRED)
dc.description.sponsorshipInstitute of Geography
dc.description.sponsorshipInstitute of Geography, Human Geography
dc.identifier.urihttps://boris-portal.unibe.ch/handle/20.500.12422/204959
dc.language.isoen
dc.relation.funding2022.0473
dc.subject.ddc900 - History::910 - Geography & travel
dc.subject.keywordsInformality
dc.subject.keywordsUrban redevelopment
dc.subject.keywordsNew Institutionalism
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical Ecology
dc.subject.keywordsGovernance
dc.subject.keywordsSustainability
dc.subject.keywordsGhana
dc.titleGoverning Public Spaces and Informality towards Sustainability in Ghana
dspace.entity.typeProject
local.fakeitemtrue
local.submitter
oairecerif.amount69120
oairecerif.amount.currencyCHF
oairecerif.funderEidgenössischen Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung
oairecerif.funding.endDate2025-08-31
oairecerif.funding.startDate2022-09-01
oairecerif.fundingParentSwiss Government Excellence Scholarship
oairecerif.project.startDate2022-09-01
unibe.contractorouInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
unibe.funding.accesstypePublic
unibe.funding.creditholderAkuoko, Philipa Birago
unibe.funding.fundertypePublic
unibe.funding.fundrefdoihttps://doi.org/10.13039/501100003101
unibe.funding.fundrefid501100003101
unibe.funding.typeAward
unibe.primaryconductorInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
unibe.primarycontact.affiliationInstitute of Geography, Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development
unibe.project.expectedcompletionDate2025-08-31
unibe.project.primarycontactAkuoko, Philipa Birago

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