Ian E. A. Yeboah

Structural Adjustment and Emerging Urban Form in Accra, Ghana

Researchers have postulated the emergence of new urban forms in the Third World (TW), which are characterized by either a deconcentration of urban functions to peri-urban or smaller cities (polycentric), or a fusion of urban and rural functions (desakota). This paper provides empirical evidence, in the form of the phenomenal growth of Accra, on emerging urban forms. It argues that Accras growth is a quality residential sprawl with unicentric tendencies, rather than either a deconcentration of urban functions or a fusion of urban and rural functions. For Accra, globalization, economic growth, and Structural Adjustment have helped the state provide enabling circumstances for global and local factors to contribute to the citys expansion. Based on the case of Accra, the paper raises a series of questions that relate to generalization, planning, and the management of sub-Saharan African cities (SSACs).

Demographic and Housing Aspects of Structural Adjustment and Emerging Urban Form in Accra, Ghana

Previous research on the nexus of global and local forces suggests that African cities such as Accra and Dar es Salaam are experiencing new forms of settlement. For Accra, the new form has been described as a quality residential sprawl with unicentric tendencies (QRSUT). Demographic and housing data released in Ghanas 2000 population census confirm the emergence of this form. This development is significant to city planners and managers, not just in Accra, but in other African cities. This essay presents demographic and housing evidence supporting the interpretation that a QRSUT has emerged in Accra and discusses developments that have occurred since 1997.

Structural adjustment and the contemporary sub‐Saharan African city

Although it has been suggested that structural adjustment policies have slowed Third World urban growth and have stimulated a spatial deconcentration of economic activity, this paper argues that African cities continue to grow and mainly through peri-urban development. This investment comes mainly from domestic sources and migrants’ remittances, and tends to be in consumption rather than production. Reasons include cultural factors, lack of confidence in the national economy and in the state’s long-term economic objectives, an increasing demand for housing, improvements in intraurban transport, and a desire to spread investment risk among a range of alternatives including housing.

WHAT'S INFORMAL ABOUT THE INFORMAL SECTOR? CULTURE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF DEVELOPMENT IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

ABSTRACT Development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been constructed from a viewpoint of westernization and modernization. This is mostly the case with the duality or dichotomy between the informal and formal sectors of African production and employment. Informal economic activity is associated with indigenous systems of production and culture and has increasingly been viewed as inferior to formal sector activity which is associated with modern systems of production and European culture. These two sectors are viewed as opposite to each other. Critical assessment of the division between formal and informal sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa indicates that such a dichotomy is misplaced. Yet, this division between sectors has been used as the basis for policy formulation. Using wood producers in Kumasi, this paper illustrates that the dichotomy between formal and informal sectors is not based on economics, negates the contribution of indigenous production to development, and stifles growth of production in Sub-Saharan...

Public parks as an element of urban planning: a missing piece in Accra's growth and development

ABSTRACT Public parks are important to urban environments, residents, and visitors. Among other functions, they provide environmental services, such as air and water purification, and they increase both recreational opportunities and the attractiveness of the urban environment. Because of their importance, urban parks serve as public spaces that provide visitors and urban residents with rights to the city. This paper identifies the dearth of urban public parks in Accra-Tema city-region as worrying. The Accra Plan 1958 underscored the significance of green spaces and designated the coastal strip for parks development but the areas have been lost to various urban uses. We argue that the continual neglect of public parks within urban planning and community development schemes in the Accra-Tema city-region is a major concern because it is depriving the citizens a right to the city and its public spaces. A number of factors have worked adversely against the provision of public parks and green spaces in the city-region. These include development pressures, undue political interference, a complex land delivery system, and ad hoc planning. The paper concludes by offering policy suggestions as to how to resolve the dearth of parks and green spaces in the city-region.

Producing an urban system for the spatial development of Ghana: lessons for sub-Saharan Africa

This paper illustrates the power of geography in solving spatial problems. We demonstrate how an urban system can be produced to meet spatial development objectives stated in Ghana’s nascent National Urban Policy. Even though the growth pole, functional, territorial and economy of affection approaches have been used to theorize the role of towns, we conceptualize the role of towns in the development process as arenas for providing services, infrastructure, livelihoods, housing, governance and environmental protection. Urban systems are therefore produced to meet development objectives which are often spelled out in development plans or societal imperatives. Based on our conceptualization of the role of towns, we identify the current functional structure of Ghana’s urban system. This is followed by a determination of functional gaps and weaknesses in the country’s urban system. We offer ways of filling the gaps and strengthening weaknesses in the country’s urban system in the light of objectives of the proposed NUP. We conclude the paper with general lessons for sub-Saharan African countries.

Oxford street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism

In Oxford Street, Accra, Ato Quayson makes a bold effort to interpret the city of Accra under capitalist expansion in cultural terms. As an urbanist working from a social science epistemology, I looked forward to reading this often-ignored interpretation of the African city, especially because I listened to an earlier presentation of the core of this book by Quayson at the British Council Hall in Accra in early 2008. Quayson breaks the book into two parts. The first deals with the history of the Ga people and the impact of colonialism and its planning on Accra Central. In addition, he traces the transcultural activities that shaped Accra Central through activities of the Danes and colonialism on Osu, Accra. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Capitalism and Sub-Saharan African human capital

Abstract This paper situates Sub-Saharan African migration to the global core, especially the United States, within a historical-structuralist framework and in the process connects migration from the region to global capitalism in a political economy. It considers mechanisms adopted in exploiting the region’s human capital in three regimes of accumulation under capitalist expansion: slavery, colonialism, and globalization. The paper uses both the historical record and empirical data from American Community Survey in analyses. It concludes that recent migration from the region is a continuation of the historic exploitative relationship between the global core and Sub-Saharan Africa. By connecting African human capital utilization to global capitalism, the findings of this paper emphasize the continued need to consider migration as part of the broader postcolonial project. The policy implication of these findings for the region is that countries need to focus on economic development, rather than focusing solely on the role of remittances, brain drain and gain, and migration policy to the detriment of development policy. The paper also argues that core country policies to the migration crisis depend upon whether conservative/nationalists, neoliberal or humanist perspectives prevail in these countries.

Thirtieth Anniversary of African Geographical Review: History, Adoption, Institutionalization, and the Future of the Journal

Abstract This paper reflects on the 30th anniversary of the African Geographical Review (AGR) by looking at the history and future of the journal. It originated in a panel discussion organized by the current editors of the AGR at the 2010 annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in Seattle. It synthesizes presentations made by participants of the panel including William Moseley, Florence Margai, Isaac Luginaah, Maano Ramutsindela, Padraig Carmody, Kefa Otiso, Bakama BakamaNume, and Ian Yeboah among others. The paper demonstrates how the East African Geographical Review (EAGR), a regional journal serving the East African region from 1963 to 1996, has grown into the mouthpiece of the Africa Specialty Group (ASG) of the AAG. The role of individual agency and the tenacity of the editors of the journal since its arrival in the United States have been central in growing it into the ASGs mouth piece. We anticipate that when the next stocktaking of the AGR occurs, the AGR will be a leading global geography journal on Africa.

A New Day for African Geography

It is with excitement and trepidation that we take the helm of the African Geographical Review (AGR). We are buoyed, however, by the fact that this is such an interesting time to be working in African geography, both in terms of the changes occurring on the continent and the academic and institutional landscape. Over our collective four-year term, we hope the AGR will provide a vehicle for geographers to provide insight on Africas enduring dilemmas as well as its important contemporary questions. Herewith, a summary of some of the key issues and events that have caught our eye over the past six months. At the time this issue was going to press in July 2007, the African Union (AU) had recently concluded its ninth ordinary session in Accra, Ghana. One of the most interesting developments at this meeting was a debate about creating a United States of Africa. This proposal was pushed by a so-called radical camp led by Libya, and greeted more skeptically by a gradualist camp led by South Africa. Even though this was reminiscent of the debate between the Casablanca and Monrovia groups after independence in the 1960s, in the end, a compromise was brokered with the AU agreeing to take six months to study the timing and implications of this proposal. Some have argued that Libya and Senegals strong support for a US of Africa reflects the limited sphere of influence of many Sahelian and Saharan states in the current African geopolitical alignment (as reflected in NEPAD) that is dominated by large states such as South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt (Kornegay 2007). While some may question Libyan President Muamar Gaddafis credibility as a pan-Africanist (given the lack of democracy in his own country), we must give the man credit for pushing African leaders to further consider continental integration and governance. While political scientists and economists will surely come out of the woodwork to comment on this idea, should not economic, development and political geographers also be contributing to the public debate on this interesting proposal? In June 2007, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon publicly argued that climate change was playing a role in the ethnic conflict in