Developing Accra for All? The story behind Africa's largest millennium city

Obeng‐Odoom, Franklin

doi:10.1057/dev.2011.56

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…The neighborhood is largely urbanized; however, we observed several unfinished buildings and, in some plots, urban agriculture being practiced. Moreover, housing in the neighborhood is profoundly differentiated, reflecting a pattern documented across the entire city (Obeng-Odoom, 2011). When walking across the neighborhood, one observes kiosk-like structures lacking basic services in which multiple people share one room, but also single-family houses, landscaped properties, and gated communities inhabited by higher income groups.…”

Section: Study Area and Research Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

First-Class but not for Long: Heterogeneous Infrastructure and Water Bricolage in Accra’s Kiosk Compounds

Alba

2021

Urban Forum

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This paper explores the micro-geographies of water access in the context of a first-class residential neighborhood of Accra served by the city’s networked infrastructure. We focus our analyses on how water is accessed and supplied to six kiosk compounds—privately owned, walled plots of land provisionally inhabited by urban dwellers living in kiosk-like structures with the (tacit) knowledge of the plot-owners. We document how kiosk inhabitants access pipe-born water, despite not being directly connected to the city’s network, through diverse configurations of actors, practices, and material set ups. Our findings suggest more attention should be paid to the micro-geographies of water distribution in networked neighborhoods as this contributes to more nuanced understandings of the uneven and diverse ways through which water is distributed in the context of Accra’s incremental urbanization. To analyze this diversity, we suggest combining the heuristic of heterogenous infrastructure configurations with the concept of water bricolage and using the plot as a unit of analysis.

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Section: Study Area and Research Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

First-Class but not for Long: Heterogeneous Infrastructure and Water Bricolage in Accra’s Kiosk Compounds

Alba

2021

Urban Forum

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Reflections on ‘Microbiological quality of packaged water sold in Accra, Ghana’

Dada

2015

Food Control

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“Your Mall with it All:” Luxury Development in a Globalizing African City

Hobden

2014

Perspect Global Dev Technol

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In this article I examine the impact of luxury development on an African city through a case study of the Accra Mall, in Accra, Ghana. Completed in 2008, the mall is the first self-contained shopping and leisure destination in the country and has been celebrated for propelling Ghana into the modern era. Situating the Accra Mall within the globalization of Accra, I contrast the private consumption-oriented development of twenty-first century Accra with the public architecture of the 1950s and 1960s, arguing that contemporary development in Accra responds to the demands of elite urban consumers while marginalizing the needs of the majority of urban residents. I then explore how elite development is contributing to shifting notions of urban citizenship, whereby citizenship is being defined in increasingly neoliberal and consumerist terms.

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Developing Accra for All? The story behind Africa's largest millennium city

Cited by 5 publications

References 21 publications

First-Class but not for Long: Heterogeneous Infrastructure and Water Bricolage in Accra’s Kiosk Compounds

First-Class but not for Long: Heterogeneous Infrastructure and Water Bricolage in Accra’s Kiosk Compounds

Reflections on ‘Microbiological quality of packaged water sold in Accra, Ghana’

“Your Mall with it All:” Luxury Development in a Globalizing African City

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