Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:57:55.748Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In a state of slum: governance in an informal urban settlement in Ghana*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2016

Paul Stacey  and
Christian Lund
Paul Stacey*
Affiliation:
Global Development, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Christian Lund*
Affiliation:
Global Development, Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
*
Email: pas@ifro.ku.dk and clund@ifro.ku.dk
Email: pas@ifro.ku.dk and clund@ifro.ku.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Old Fadama in Accra, Ghana, is a vast informal settlement. A legalistic approach by successive governments has meant a near-absence of statutory institutions and the emergence of alternative public authorities. These endeavour to provide the area with a range of basic public services to solve the area's serious developmental challenges. Through processes of informal negotiation residents establish rights and social contracts that underpin and define what will constitute ideas of state and law. At the same time, self-governance emerges while relations with statutory institutions shift back and forth between vilification, tacit acceptance, and productive cooperation. The article contributes to studies of governance in informal urban settlements on two fronts. First, it shows how informal arrangements lead to the provision of basic public services and influence the workings of formal institutions of government. Second, it challenges facile understandings of large-scale informal settlements as generally chaotic, lawless or subversive.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , December 2016 , pp. 591 - 615
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The article is based on joint data analysis and Paul Stacey's fieldwork. The research was funded by The Danish Council for Independent Research | Social Sciences (FSE).

References

REFERENCES

Acquah, L. 1958. ‘Accra Survey: a social survey of the capital of Ghana, formerly called the Gold Coast, undertaken for the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1953–1956.’ Accra: Ghana Universities Press.Google Scholar
Afenah, A. 2012. ‘Engineering a millennium city in Accra, Ghana: the Old Fadama intractable issue’, Urban Forum 23: 527–40.Google Scholar
Amanor, K. 2001. ‘Land, labour and the family in Southern Ghana: a critique of land policy under neo-liberalisation.’ Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Appadurai, A. 2000. ‘Spectral housing and urban cleansing: notes on millennial Mumbai’, Public Culture 12, 3: 627–51.Google Scholar
Arimah, B. C. 2010. ‘Slums as expressions of social exclusion: Explaining the prevalence of slums in African countries’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). http://www.oecd.org/development/perspectivesonglobaldevelopment/46837274.pdf. Accessed 2.8.15.Google Scholar
Blundo, G. & de Sardan, O., eds. 2006. Everyday Corruption and the State: citizens and public officials in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Brown, A., Msoka, C. & Dankoco, I.. 2015. ‘A refugee in my own country: evictions or property rights in the urban informal economy?’, Urban Studies 52, 12: 2234–49.Google Scholar
Bryceson, D. & Potts, D., eds. 2006. African Urban Economies: viability, vitality or vitiation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cohen, B. 2004. ‘Urban growth in developing countries: a review of current trends and a caution regarding existing forecasts’, World Development 32, 1: 23–51.Google Scholar
Davis, M. 2006. Planet of Slums. London: Verso.Google Scholar
De Soto, H. 2000. The Mystery of Capital: why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Farouk, B.R. & Owusu, M.. 2012. ‘‘If in doubt, count’: the role of community-driven enumerations in blocking eviction in Old Fadama, Accra’, Environment and Urbanization 24, 1: 47–57.Google Scholar
Freund, B. 2007. The African City: a history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, A. 2007. ‘The return of slum: does language matter?’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 31: 697–713.Google Scholar
Gillespie, T. 2013. ‘ Struggles over urban space in Accra, Ghana ’, University of Leeds, PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Gillespie, T. 2015. ‘Accumulation by urban dispossession: struggles over urban space in Accra, Ghana’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 41: 66–77.Google Scholar
Government of Ghana. 2012. ‘Ghana national urban policy action plan’, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.Google Scholar
Grant, R. 2006. ‘Out of place? Global citizens in local spaces: a study of the informal settlements in the Korle Lagoon environs in Accra, Ghana’, Urban Forum 17, 1: 1–24.Google Scholar
Hagmann, T. & Péclard, D.. 2010. ‘Negotiating statehood: dynamics of power and domination in Africa’, Development and Change 41, 4: 539–62.Google Scholar
Hansen, K.T. & Vaa, M., eds. 2004. ‘Informality reconsidered: perspectives from urban Africa.’ Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Hart, K. 1973. ‘Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana’, Journal of Modern African Studies 11, 1: 61–89.Google Scholar
Konadu-Agyemang, K. 2001. ‘A survey of housing conditions and characteristics in Accra, an African city’, Habitat International 25: 15–34.Google Scholar
Langevang, T. 2008. ‘'We are managing!': uncertain paths to respectable adulthoods in Accra, Ghana’, Geoforum 39, 6: 2039–47.Google Scholar
Locatelli, F. & Nugent, P., eds. 2009. African Cities: competing claims on urban spaces. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Lund, C. 2003. ‘‘Bawku is still volatile’: ethno-political conflict and state recognition in Northern Ghana’, Journal of Modern African Studies 41, 4: 587–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, C. 2011. ‘Property and citizenship: conceptually connecting land rights and belonging in Africa’, Africa Spectrum 46, 3: 71–5.Google Scholar
Lund, C. 2014. ‘Of what is this a case? Analytical movements in qualitative social science research’, Human Organization 73, 3: 224–34.Google Scholar
Lund, C. Forthcoming. ‘Rule and rupture: state formation through the production of property and citizenship’, Development and Change. Google Scholar
Lund, C. & Boone, C.. 2013. ‘Land politics in Africa: constituting authority over territory, property, and persons’, Africa 83, 1: 1–13.Google Scholar
Lynch, K. 2005. Rural–Urban Interaction in the Developing World. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, W. 2009. ‘The blacksmiths of Tamale: the dynamics of space and time in a Ghanaian industry’, Africa 79, 2: 169–85.Google Scholar
Migdal, J., Kohli, A. & Shue, V.. 1994. State Power and Social Forces: domination and transformation in the third world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mohanty, S. 2006. ‘Urban squatters, informal sector and livelihood strategies of the poor in Fiji Islands’, Development Bulletin 70: 65–68.Google Scholar
Myers, G. 2011. African Cities: alternative visions of urban theory and practice. New York, NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Obeng-Odoom, F. 2011. ‘The informal sector in Ghana under siege’, Journal of Developing Societies, 27: 355–92.Google Scholar
Owusu, G., Agyei-Mensah, S. & Lund, R.. 2008. ‘Slums of hope and slums of despair: mobility and livelihoods in Nina, Accra’, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift – Journal of Geography 62: 180–90.Google Scholar
Owusu, M. 2013. ‘Community-managed reconstruction after the 2012 fire in Old Fadama, Ghana’, Environment and Urbanization 25: 243–8.Google Scholar
Paller, J.W. 2014. ‘Informal institutions and personal rule in urban Ghana’, African Studies Review 57, 3: 123–42.Google Scholar
Paller, J.W. 2015. ‘Informal networks and access to power to obtain housing in urban slums in Ghana’, Africa Today 62, 1: 31–55.Google Scholar
People's Dialogue. 2009. ‘Housing the masses: final report to Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlements on community-led enumeration of Old Fadama Community, Accra, Ghana', <http://sdinet.org/publication/ghana-final-report-to-peoples-dialogue-on-human-settlements-on-community-led-enumeration-of-old-fadama-accra/>, accessed 2.8.15., accessed 2.8.15.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=People's+Dialogue.+2009.+‘Housing+the+masses:+final+report+to+Peoples+Dialogue+on+Human+Settlements+on+community-led+enumeration+of+Old+Fadama+Community,+Accra,+Ghana',+,+accessed+2.8.15.>Google Scholar
Pieterse, E. 2008. City Futures: confronting the crisis of urban development. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Pieterse, E. 2010. ‘Cityness and African urban development’, Research Working Paper 42. Cape Town: African Centre for Cities, United Nations University–World Institute for Development Economics.Google Scholar
du Plessis, J. 2005. ‘The growing problem of forced eviction and the crucial importance of community-based, locally appropriate alternatives’, Environment and Urbanization 17: 123–34.Google Scholar
Potts, D. 2009. ‘The slowing of sub-Saharan Africa’s urbanization: evidence and implications for urban livelihoods’, Environment and Urbanization 21, 1: 253–9.Google Scholar
Potts, D. 2012. ‘Challenging the myths of urban dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: the evidence from Nigeria’, World Development 40, 7: 1382–93.Google Scholar
Rose, N. & Miller, P.. 1992. ‘Political power beyond the state: problematics of government’, British Journal of Sociology 43, 2: 173–205.Google Scholar
Roy, A. 2005. ‘Urban informality: towards an epistemology of planning’, Journal of the American Planning Association 71, 1: 147–58.Google Scholar
Roy, A. 2009. ‘Civic governmentality: the politics of inclusion in Beirut and Mumbai’, Antipode 41, 1: 159–79.Google Scholar
Roy, A. 2011. ‘Slumdog cities: rethinking subaltern urbanism’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 35, 2: 223–38.Google Scholar
Scott, J. 1998. Seeing Like a State: how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shabane, I., Nkambwe, M. & Chanda, R.. 2011. ‘Landuse, policy, and squatter settlements: the case of peri-urban areas in Botswana’, Applied Geography 31, 2: 677–86.Google Scholar
Sikor, T. & Lund, C.. 2009. ‘Access and property: a question of power and authority’, Development and Change 40, 1: 1–22.Google Scholar
Songsore, J. 2009. ‘The urban transition in Ghana: urbanization, national development and poverty reduction.’ London: IIED.Google Scholar
Stacey, P. 2015. ‘Political structure and the limits of recognition and representation in Ghana’, Development and Change 46, 1: 25–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, M. & Liebenberg, S.. 2014. ‘Contested spaces: housing rights and evictions law in post-apartheid South Africa’, Planning Theory 13, 4: 428–48.Google Scholar
Trefon, T. 2011. ‘Urban-rural straddling: conceptualizing the peri-urban in Central Africa’, Journal of Developing Societies 27: 421–43.Google Scholar
United Nations. 1997. ‘Glossary of environment statistics, studies in methods’, Series F, No. 67. New York, NY: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). 2010. ‘The state of African cities 2010: governance, inequality and urban land markets.’Google Scholar
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). 2011. ‘Participatory slum upgrading and prevention; millennium city of Accra, Ghana.’Google Scholar