Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T13:10:35.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - The Proliferation of Gated Communities

Towards Reimagining Urban Planning in Ghana

from Part II - Case Studies on Urban Planning in African Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2023

By
Richmond Juvenile Ehwi
Edited by
Patrick Brandful Cobbinah  and
Eric Gaisie
Patrick Brandful Cobbinah
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Eric Gaisie
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Get access

Summary

Planning systems are instrumental in the emergence and proliferation of gated communities globally. This chapter presents evidence of how Ghana’s planning system has contributed towards the emergence and proliferation of gated communities as a basis for reimagining urban planning. The study employs institutional analysis and uses data from interviews with planning officials in 7 district assemblies and 11 gated community developers in the Accra City Region. Unlike the colonial planning law which had little regard for local exigencies, Ghana’s current planning system now recognises gated communities and the emerging indigenous typologies. It also allows gated community developers to prepare local plans for areas lacking one. By recognising gated communities and allowing them planning functions, district assemblies save on the cost of preparing planning schemes, while also benefiting from significant increases in property rates, and easing the mobilisation of those rates. While applying formal rules to deliver their mandate, officials also draw on informal rules that appear to privilege developers of gated communities, creating avenues for dubious practices to thrive. The study concludes by positing that urban planning in Ghana, and indeed across Africa, can be reimagined by focusing on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of planning systems.

Keywords

gated communitiesurban planningspatial planningGhanaAccra City Region
Type
Chapter
Information
Reimagining Urban Planning in Africa , pp. 109 - 130
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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.)

References

Acheampong, R. A., & Ibrahim, A. (2016). One nation, two planning systems? Spatial planning and multi-level policy integration in Ghana: Mechanisms, challenges and the way forward. Urban Forum, 27(1), 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acheampong, R. A., & Siiba, A. (2018). Examining the determinants of utility bicycling using a socio-ecological framework: An exploratory study of the Tamale Metropolis in Northern Ghana. Journal of Transport Geography, 69, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adarkwa, K. K. (2012). The changing face of Ghanaian towns. African Review of Economics and Finance, 4(1), 1–29.Google Scholar
Agyemang, F. S. K., & Morrison, N. (2018). Recognising the barriers to securing affordable housing through the land use planning system in sub-Saharan Africa: A perspective from Ghana. Urban Studies, 55(12), 2640–2659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agyemang, F. S. K., Amedzro, K., & Silva, E. (2017). The emergence of city-regions and their implications for contemporary spatial governance: Evidence from Ghana. Cities, 7, 70–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, J. E., Jenkins, P., & Nielsen, M. (2015). Who plans the African city? A case study of Maputo: Part 1 – the structural context. International Development Planning Review, 37(3), 424–444.Google Scholar
Arku, G., Mensah, K. O., Allotey, N. K., & Addo Frempong, E. (2016). Non-compliance with building permit regulations in Accra-Tema city-region, Ghana: Exploring the reasons from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. Planning Theory and Practice, 17(3), 361–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asabere, S. B., Acheampong, R. A., Ashiagbor, G., Beckers, S. C., Keck, M., Erasmi, S., ... & Sauer, D (2020). Urbanization, land use transformation and spatio-environmental impacts: Analyses of trends and implications in major metropolitan regions of Ghana. Land Use Policy, 96(104707), 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asiedu, A. B., & Arku, G. (2009). The rise of gated housing estates in Ghana: Empirical insights from three communities in metropolitan Accra. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 24(3), 227–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: An analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 1(3), 385–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baffour Awuah, K. G., Hammond, F. B., Lamond, J. E., & Booth, C. (2014). Benefits of urban land use planning in Ghana. Geoforum, 51, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandauko, E., Arku, G., & Nyantakyi-Frimpong, H. (2021). A systematic review of gated communities and the challenge of urban transformation in African cities. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 37, 339–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blakely, E. J., & Snyder, M. G. (1997). Fortress America: Gated communities in the United States. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Blandy, S., & Lister, D. (2005). Gated communities: (Ne)gating community development? Housing Studies, 20(2), 287–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boamah, N. A., Gyimah, C., & Bediako Nelson, J. K. (2012). Challenges to the enforcement of development controls in the Wa municipality. Habitat International, 36(1), 136–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cities Alliance (2007). Liveable cities: The benefits of urban and environmental planning. Washington, DC: Cities Alliance.Google Scholar
Cobbinah, P. B. (2017). Managing cities and resolving conflicts: Local people’s attitudes towards urban planning in Kumasi, Ghana. Land Use Policy, 68, 222–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbinah, P. B., & Darkwah, R. M. (2017). Urban planning and politics in Ghana. GeoJournal, 82(6), 1229–1245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbinah, P. B., & Korah, P. I. (2016). Religion gnaws urban planning: the geography of places of worship in Kumasi, Ghana. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 8(2), 93–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbinah, P. B. et al. (2019). Urban planning and climate change in Ghana. Journal of Urban Management, 8(2), 261–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Côté-Roy, L., & Moser, S. (2019). Does Africa not deserve shiny new cities? The power of seductive rhetoric around new cities in Africa. Urban Studies, 56(12), 2391–2407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullingworth, B. & Nadin, V. (2006). Town and country planning in the UK (14th ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, C., & Scheurer, J. (2010). Planning for sustainable accessibility: Developing tools to aid discussion and decision-making. Progress in Planning, 74(2), 53–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diko, S. K. (2023). Urban green space planning in the Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana: A prioritization conundrum and its co-benefits solution. Socio-Ecological Practice Research, 5(1), 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, T. J., & Tewdwr-Jones, M. (2021). How can we plan for urban futures beyond COVID-19? www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2021/06/10/how-can-we-plan-for-urban-futures-beyond-covid-19/Google Scholar
Dowling, R., Atkinson, R., & Mcguirk, P. (2010). Privatism, privatisation and social distinction in master-planned residential estates. Urban Policy and Research, 28(4), 391–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Duren, N. R. L. (2006). Planning à la carte: The location patterns of gated communities around Buenos Aires in a decentralized planning context. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 30(2), 308–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Duren, N. R. L. (2007). Gated communities as a municipal development strategy. Housing Policy Debate, 18(3), 607–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehwi, R. J. (2020). The proliferation of gated communities in Ghana: A new institutionalism perspective. PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ehwi, R. J. (2021). Walls within walls: Examining the variegated purposes for walling in Ghanaian gated communities. Housing Studies, 39(2), 1–25.Google Scholar
Ehwi, R. J. (2022). Modelling the supply-side factors influencing the provision of amenities in gated communities: The case of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area in Ghana. Journal of Urban Affairs, 2022, 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehwi, R. J., & Morrison, N. (2023). Entanglements in urban governance in new African cities: Appolonia City in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. Journal of Urban Affairs, 45(3), 407–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehwi, R. J, Holmes, H., Maslova, S., & Burgess, G. (2022). The ethical underpinnings of smart city governance: Decision-making in the Smart Cambridge programme, UK. Urban Studies, 59(14), 2968–2984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehwi, R. J., Morrison, N., & Tyler, P. (2019). Ghana’s land administration challenges and the proliferation of gated communities: Re-appraising reasons people move into gated communities. Housing Studies, 36(3), 307–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fält, L. (2019). New cities and the emergence of ‘privatized urbanism’ in Ghana. Built Environment, 44(4), 438–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuseini, I., & Kemp, J. (2015). A review of spatial planning in Ghana’s socio-economic development trajectory: A sustainable development perspective. Land Use Policy, 47(May), 309–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghana Institute of Engineers (2016). Ghana Infrastructure Report Card 2016: Roads & bridges, electric power & potable water. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27160.70409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giroir, G. (2007). The Purple Jade Villa (Beijing): A golden ghetto in Red China. In Glasze, G., Webster, C. J. & Frantz, K. (eds.), Private cities: Global and local perspectives (pp. 139–150). London: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Gooch, D., Wolff, A., Kortuem, G., & Brown, R. (2015). Reimagining the role of citizens in smart city projects. In 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers. New York, September, 1587–1594. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2800835.2801622Google Scholar
Government of Ghana (2015). Ghana national spatial development framework (2015–2035). Accra-Ghana.Google Scholar
Government of Ghana (2021). 2021 Population and Housing Census, Ghana Statistical Service. Accra-Ghana. Ghana Statistical Service.Google Scholar
Grant, J. L. (2005a). Planning responses to gated communities in Canada. Housing Studies, 20(2), 273–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, J., & Mittelsteadt, L. (2004). Types of gated communities. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 31(6), 913–930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, R. (2005b). The emergence of gated communities in a West African context: Evidence from Greater Accra, Ghana. Urban Geography, 26(8), 661–683.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, R. (2015). Sustainable African urban futures: Stocktaking and critical reflection on proposed urban projects. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(3), 294–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, R., & Yankson, P. (2003). City profile Accra. Cities, 20(1), 65–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, P. A., & Taylor, R. C. (1998). The potential of historical institutionalism. Political Studies, 46, 957–962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammah, N. K. (2015). Streamlining of building permit approval processing of town and country planning department in Ghana. Cogent Social Sciences, 1(1), 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healey, P. (1999). Institutionalist analysis, communicative planning, and shaping places. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 19(2), 111–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healey, P. (2003). Collaborative planning in perspective. Planning Theory, 2(2), 101–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helmke, G., & Levitsky, S. (2004). Informal institutions and comparative politics: a research agenda. International Handbook on Informal Governance, 2(4), 85–113.Google Scholar
Hendrikx, M., & Wissink, B. (2017). Bienvenue au club! Une étude exploratrice de l’accessibilité aux services dans les cités résidentielles fermées de Guangzhou, en Chine. Social and Cultural Geography, 18(3), 371–394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karvonen, A., Cook, M., & Haarstad, H. (2020). Urban planning and the smart city: Projects, practices and politics. Urban Planning, 5(1), 65–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenna, T., & Stevenson, D. (2013). Experiences of ‘community’ in a gated residential estate. Geographical Research, 51(4), 412–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kostenwein, D. (2021). Between walls and fences: How different types of gated communities shape the streets around them. Urban Studies, 58(16), 3230–3246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kufour, K. O. (2011). Gated communities in Ghana: A new institutional economics approach to regulation. In Home, R. (ed.), Africa land law (pp. 171–186). Cape Town: ABC Press.Google Scholar
La Grange, A. (2014). Hong Kong’s gating machine. Housing Studies, 29(2), 251–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landman, K. (2004). Gated communities in South Africa: The challenge for spatial planning and land use management. Town Planning Review, 75(2), 151–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larbi, W. O. (1996). Spatial planning and urban fragmentation in Accra, Third World Planning Review, 18(2), 193–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemanski, C. (2006). Spaces of exclusivity or connection? Linkages between a gated community and its poorer neighbour in a Cape Town master plan development. Urban Studies, 43(2), 397–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, L., Wan, W. X., & He, S. (2021). The heightened ‘security zone’ function of gated communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing housing market dynamic: Evidence from Beijing, China. Land, 10(9), 1–21.Google Scholar
Liao, K., Wehrhahn, R., & Breitung, W. (2018). Urban planners and the production of gated communities in China: A structure–agency approach. Urban Studies, 56(13), 2635–2653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowndes, V. (1996). Varieties of new institutionalism: A critical appraisal. Public Administration, 74(2), 181–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, T., Zhang, F., & Wu, F. (2019). The meaning of ‘private governance’ in urban China: Researching residents’ preferences and satisfaction. Urban Policy and Research, 37(3), 378–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, T., Zhang, F., & Wu, F. (2020). The variegated role of the state in different gated neighbourhoods in China. Urban Studies, 57(8), 1642–1659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mabogunje, A. L. (1990). Urban planning and the post-colonial state in Africa: A research overview. African Studies Review, 33(2), 121–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenzie, E. (1994). Privatopia: Homeowner associations and the rise of residential private governance. Binghamton, NY: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McKenzie, E. (2003). Common-interest housing in the communities of tomorrow. Housing Policy Debate, 14(1–2), 203–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenzie, E. (2005). Constructing the Pomerium in Las Vegas: A case study of emerging trends in American gated communities. Housing Studies, 20(2), 187–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, E. A., & Banaszak-Holl, J. (2005). Cognitive and normative determinants of state policymaking behavior: Lessons from the sociological institutionalism. Publius, 35(2), 191–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouratidis, K., & Yiannakou, A. (2022). COVID-19 and urban planning: Built environment, health, and well-being in Greek cities before and during the pandemic. Cities, 121(103491), 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nee, V., & Ingram, P. (1998). Embeddedness and beyond: Institutions, exchanges, and social structure. In Brinton, M. C. & Nee, V. (eds.), The new institutionalism in sociology (pp. 19–45). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Njoh, A. J. (2009). Urban planning as a tool of power and social control in colonial Africa. Planning Perspectives, 24(3), 301–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Njoh, A. J. (2010). Europeans, modern urban planning and the acculturation of ‘racial others’. Planning Theory, 9(4), 369–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, D. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obeng-Odoom, F., Abdalla, Y., & Elhadary, E. (2014). Life within the wall and Implications for those outside it. Gated communities in Malaysia and Ghana. International Journal of Environment, Society and Space, 2(2), 1–9.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. (2015). Practical norms: informal regulations within public bureaucracies (in Africa and beyond). In De Herdt, T. & Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. (eds.), Real governance and practical norms in sub-Saharan Africa: The game of the rules. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Quarcoopome, S. S. (1992). Urbanisation, land alienation and politics in Accra, Research Review NS, 8(1&2), 40–54.Google Scholar
Rakodi, C. (2001). Forget planning, put politics first? Priorities for urban management in developing countries. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 3(3), 209–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rakodi, C., & Leduka, C. (2004). Informal land delivery process and access to land for the poor: A comparative study of six African cities. International Development Department, University of Birmingham.Google Scholar
Rosen, G., & Razin, E. (2009). The rise of gated communities in Israel: Reflections on changing urban governance in a neo-liberal era. Urban Studies, 46(8), 1702–1722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rydin, Y. (1998). Urban and environmental planning in the UK. London: Macmillan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarpong, S. (2017). Building bridges or gates? Gated communities’ escape from reality. International Journal of Social Economics, 44(12), 584–1596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troustine, J. (2018). Segregation by design: Local politics and the inequality in American cities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Noorloos, F., & Kloosterboer, M. (2018). Africa’s new cities: The contested future of urbanisation. Urban Studies, 55(6), 1223–1241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Noorloos, F., Avianto, D., & Opiyo, R. O. (2019). New master-planned cities and local land rights: The case of Konza Techno City, Kenya. Built Environment, 44(4), 420–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, V. (2009a). Seeing from the south: Refocusing urban planning on the globe’s central urban issues. Urban Studies, 46 (11), 2259–2275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, V. (2009b). ‘The planned city sweeps the poor away…’: Urban planning and 21st century urbanisation. Progress in Planning, 72(3), 151–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, C. (2001). Gated communities of tomorrow. Town Planning Review, 72(2), 149–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (2000). The new institutional economics: Taking stock, looking ahead. Journal of Economic Literature, 38(3), 595–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, A., Tewdwr-Jones, M. & Comber, R. (2019). Urban planning, public participation and digital technology: App development as a method of generating citizen involvement in local planning processes. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 46(2), 286–302.Google Scholar
World Bank (2012). A sourcebook of pollution management policy tools for growth and competitiveness. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Yeboah, E. & Obeng-Odoom, F. (2010). ‘We are not the only ones to blame’: District assemblies’ perspectives on the state of planning in Ghana. Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 1996(7), 78–98.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×