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28 results

Page 1 of 2

  • Building permanence: fire outbreaks and emergent tenure security in urban Ghana

  • Jeffrey W. Paller
  • Journal:
    Africa / Volume 89 / Issue 3 / August 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    16 July 2019, pp. 437-456
    Print publication:
    August 2019

  • Fire outbreaks are common sources of anxiety and insecurity in informal settlements, but they can also provide new opportunities for claim making and governance of urban space. This article examines how a series of four fires in Accra, Ghana – three of which took place in its largest squatter settlement – offered new opportunities to experiment with governance, or a new way for residents and leaders to imagine and construct the future. Empirically, I document how, in the process of reconstruction, residents redrew property lines and reshaped social relations. They did this through the emergent political action I call building permanence, or a physical claim to the urban space one inhabits, as well as a new existential state of being and living in environs that will last and remain unharmed. The article offers a possible way towards achieving more secure tenure beyond formalization and infrastructure upgrades, and focuses attention on how institutions change in the context of daily life after a moment of crisis.

  • Ethnographies of emergence: everyday politics and their origins across Africa Introduction

  • Joshua D. Rubin, Susanna Fioratta, Jeffrey W. Paller
  • Journal:
    Africa / Volume 89 / Issue 3 / August 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    16 July 2019, pp. 429-436
    Print publication:
    August 2019

  • The articles that appear in this part issue focus on disparate topics, from rumours of electoral fraud to the production of art, and span the African continent from Guinea and Ghana in the west to Zimbabwe in the south. Despite their evident differences, the contributors see their pieces as united by a common theme: emergence. Elaborating on Simone's influential exploration of the intertwined concepts of emergence and emergency (2004), as well as prior research in Africa on informal economic practices (the exchange of goods and services unregulated by states) (Hart 1973; Piot 2010; Roitman 2004; Weiss 2009), we consider emergence to be the process by which new social formations become thinkable, repeatable, and even – at times – habitual. Although conditions of crisis or precarity or even revolutionary upheaval might be fertile ground for emergence, insofar as these social conditions represent ‘rupture[s] in the organization of the present’ (Simone 2004: 4), the articles here also show that new social practices do not emerge out of nowhere. Rather, these articles demonstrate that attention to quotidian encounters can illuminate how citizens mobilize previously existing norms and patterns of behaviour in response to social change or economic crisis.

  • 3 - The Political History of Urbanization in Ghana

  • from Part I - The Roots of Urban Politics in Africa
  • Jeffrey W. Paller, University of San Francisco
  • Book:
    Democracy in Ghana
    Published online:
    18 February 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 81-116

  • Summary

    This chapter provides an addition to conventional accounts of Ghanaian urbanization by reconstructing the political history of urban growth from pre-colonial times to the modern day. The chapter emphasizes how informal norms of settlement and belonging help explain the political development of Ghanaian cities at different stages of urbanization, despite changes in social structure and formal institutions. While much has changed in Ghana, the leaders’ and residents’ desire to control territory and urban space has maintained its importance throughout history.

  • 1 - Democracy, Development, and Daily Life

  • Jeffrey W. Paller, University of San Francisco
  • Book:
    Democracy in Ghana
    Published online:
    18 February 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 1-32

  • Summary

    Rapid urbanization and political liberalization is changing the nature of African politics and societies. This chapter introduces a framework for the study of democracy and development that emphasizes informal institutions and the politics of belonging in the context of daily life, in contrast to the formal and electoral paradigms that dominate the social sciences. By developing new understandings of democracy, as well as providing novel explanations for good governance and development in poor urban neighborhoods, the chapter outlines a theory that transcends the narrative of a failing and corrupt Africa and charts a new way forward for the study of democracy and development.

  • 5 - Distributive Politics for an Urbanizing Continent

  • from Part II - Everyday Politics in Urban Ghana
  • Jeffrey W. Paller, University of San Francisco
  • Book:
    Democracy in Ghana
    Published online:
    18 February 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 157-202

  • Summary

    This chapter provides ethnographic and survey evidence to substantiate a theory of distributive politics for an urbanizing continent. It pays close attention to the historical evolution of urban neighborhoods, as well as how certain residents and groups make meaning of specific goods and resources. This is particularly important in cities where land is scarce while property values rise, enabling politicians and leaders to politicize the commons. The chapter provides an alternative to conventional accounts of distributive politics by considering how informal norms of settlement and belonging shape certain types of distributive politics across neighborhoods. The chapter shows how Ashaiman residents and leaders constructed a public sphere in their city, while Ga Mashie and Old Fadama restrict decision-making along club and private lines, respectively.

  • 2 - Leadership and Civic Life in Urban Africa

  • from Part I - The Roots of Urban Politics in Africa
  • Jeffrey W. Paller, University of San Francisco
  • Book:
    Democracy in Ghana
    Published online:
    18 February 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 35-80

  • Summary

    This chapter outlines a theory of leadership and civic life in urban Ghana. The chapter starts with inductive logic, and traces the evolution of leadership, the origins of settlement, the history of migration, and the growth of squatter settlements. It introducs a typology of urban settlements that fits these empirical patterns of African urban development. The analytical differences between indigenous, stranger, and squatter settlements are explained. The second half of the chapter explains how these settlement patterns shape governance and development outcomes today. In particular, it suggests how they shape the construction of legitimate authority, the type of distributive politics, and the organization of civic life. In doing so, the theory introduced in the chapter contributes to existing theories of political clientelism, distributive politics, and ethnic politics, respectively.

  • 7 - Everyday Politics in Urban Africa

  • from Part II - Everyday Politics in Urban Ghana
  • Jeffrey W. Paller, University of San Francisco
  • Book:
    Democracy in Ghana
    Published online:
    18 February 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 248-264

  • Summary

    This chapter concludes with the empirical and theoretical implications of the study. It demonstrates how the theory is best generalizable to other West African countries—particularly countries like Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire—where customary law structures land access and the historical experience of indigeneity and settler dynamics are similar. Nonetheless, the theory of everyday urban politics and the importance of informal norms of settlement and belonging go a long way to explaining developmental outcomes in urban Africa. The chapter briefly discusses the urban experience in Kenya to show how the theory applies to Eastern Africa, as well as discusses the policy implications of the study. It concludes that everyday politics is a central and crucial aspect of the democratization process in urban Africa, and goes a long way toward explaining political clientelism, distributive politics, and ethnic politics.

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