Nana Akua Anyidoho

Communities of practice’: Prospects for theory and action in participatory development

‘The myth of community’ permeates both the understanding and the practice of participatory development. Yet the idea that communities exist as coherent units of people who inhabit bounded geographic spaces and are ready to be mobilised for development restricts the very agency that participation promises. This article offers an alternative model of community: one that is more compatible with the ideal of people-centred, participatory development. Using Etienne Wengers concept of ‘communities of practice’, and drawing on narrative theory and cognitive approaches to policy analysis, the article argues that community should be created and sustained around shared meanings.

Leveraging national and global links for local rights advocacy: WACAM's challenge to the power of transnational gold mining in Ghana

Abstract This article explores local–global interconnections in the context of local rights-based struggles against the adverse impact of gold mining by transnational corporations in Ghana. It examines how a small community-based organisation, WACAM, approached a situation of huge power asymmetry by both mobilising local resistance and developing national and international linkages. In explaining WACAMs relative success in challenging corporate and state powers behind gold mining activities, we focus on its ability to maximise the benefits of alliances with selected organisations, while minimising the risks of doing so through staying locally grounded. This we attribute to WACAMs political orientation to rights advocacy, based in a democratic left political tradition.

Young people’s perspectives on farming in Ghana: a Q study

An emerging orthodoxy suggests that agriculture is the key to addressing the youth employment challenge in Africa. The analysis that informs this orthodoxy identifies a number of persistent barriers to increased productivity; and the programmes that work to get young people engaged with agriculture make assumptions about the young people’s interests and behaviours. In this paper we report results from a study with secondary students in Ghana using Q Methodology. The objective was to determine to what degree the students’ perspectives were aligned with the main tenants of the emerging orthodoxy. Results show that different perspectives on the two questions (What explains young people’s attitude toward farming? What should be done about young people and farming?) can be identified. There are a number of points of convergence between the students’ perspectives and the new orthodoxy. However, two important points of divergence were also identified, and the impications of these are discussed.

'To Beijing and Back': Reflections on the Influence of the Beijing Conference on Popular Notions of Women's Empowerment in Ghana

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was a pivotal moment for legitimating womens rights work in Ghana and served as a powerful framing for womens empowerment. This article explores the Beijing conference and examines its influence on popular notions of and efforts to promote womens empowerment. We argue that the discursive context provided by the conference shaped popular narratives about women directly and also through its influence on the ideas and practices of public institutions and civil society. There is greater acceptance that women have rights that should be promoted and protected, and that there should be institutions and systems to which they have recourse. However, significant work remains to be done in tackling the resistances and tokenism that continue to dominate public discourses and actions to advance gender equality. Further efforts to advance womens empowerment and gender equality in Ghana must therefore build on the legacy of the Beijing conference.

Leveraging global links for local advocacy: WACAM’s challenge to the power of transnational mining corporations

Abstract This article explores local–global interconnections in the context of local rights-based struggles against the adverse impact of gold mining by transnational corporations in Ghana. It examines how a small community-based organisation, WACAM, approached a situation of huge power asymmetry by both mobilising local resistance and developing national and international linkages. In explaining WACAMs relative success in challenging corporate and state powers behind gold mining activities, we focus on its ability to maximise the benefits of alliances with selected organisations, while minimising the risks of doing so through staying locally grounded. This we attribute to WACAMs political orientation to rights advocacy, based in a democratic left political tradition.