Planning Policies and Customary Laws Governing Public Space Use
Abstract
Informality, a major component of sub-Saharan cities is under siege as state and local governments attempt to evict, displace, and relocate informal workers from city centres through public policies with urban redevelopment agenda. However, these workers, demonstrate their agency through a multitude of institutions to remain in the urban fabric. We explore the dynamics of public space governance in Ghanaian cities to answer the question; What are the institutions governing public space use and access in informal cities? Through a mix of qualitative methods, we conceptualise public space as a resource and adopt a new institutionalist approach to understand the rules shaping urban (re)development in public spaces of two Ghanaian cities; both formal (state laws emanating from colonial legacies) and informal (traditional and customary laws indigenous to the people). Building on this approach, we consider that actors strategically influence the institutions to determine their room for manoeuvre. Subsequently, we adapt the institutional resource regime framework to analyse which actors, employ which institutions to determine the use and management of public spaces in Ghanaian cities and explore the roles actors play in the sustainable use and management of public spaces. Our findings reveal that planning and policy making in global south cities are problematic because informal institutions are not absorbed into mainstream planning. We propose that when institutions and actors interact in public spaces, localised regulatory arrangements are developed and these when incorporated into planning policies would lead to sustainable public space governance.
Date Issued
2024-03-18
Publication Type
Conference Item
Subject(s)
Subjects
Informality
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Public space governance
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Public policy
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Institutional regime
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Global South cities
Language(s)
en
Access(Rights)
Unknown