Governing Public Spaces and Informality towards Sustainability in Ghana
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Project description
Public 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.
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.
Start Date
September 1, 2022
Languages
English