Everyday contours and politics of infrastructure: Informal governance of electricity access in urban Ghana

Abstract

This article contributes to shaping the discourse on unequal geographies of infrastructure and governance in the global South, opening up new ways of thinking through politics, practices and modalities of power. Conceptually, informality, governance and everyday urbanism are drawn on to unpack how the formal encounters the informal in ways that (re)configure infrastructure geographies and governance practices. This conceptual framing is empirically employed through an analysis of electricity access in Accra, Ghana, highlighting how residents navigate unequal electricity topographies, engage in self-help initiatives, and negotiate informal networks and formal governance practices. The spatiality of the electricity infrastructure has created inequity and opportunities for exploitation by ‘power-owners’ and ‘power-agents’ who control and manage the electricity distribution network and, in turn, privately supply power. Electricity connections are negotiated, access is monetised and illegality excused on grounds of good-neighbourliness, thereby producing and perpetuating everyday politics of ‘making do’. Community movements, everyday acts of improvisation, and incremental modifications are shown to influence the workings of formal institutions of government and shape uneven power relations and experiences of inequality. Such an understanding of how marginalised residents navigate the electricity topographies of Accra reveals a more nuanced politics of infrastructure access, which reflects the complex realities of hybridised modalities of governance and the multiple everyday dimensions of power that shape urban space. The article concludes that informality should not be recognised as failure but as a sphere of opportunity, innovation and transition.

Private urbanism and the spatial rationalities of urban governance

“…The surge in urban population creates many urban governance challenges for municipalities. This rapid expansion has posed significant planning challenges in Accra (Amankwaa and Gough, 2021; Amoako and Inkoom, 2018; Gough and Yankson, 2000; Owusu and Oteng-Ababio, 2015; Yiran et al, 2020b).…”

“…Dispositional spatial rationality relates to creating boundaries for desired compartments (Brown and Knopp, 2010; Choi, 2017; Huang et al, 2019). Within African cities characterised by informality (Amankwaa and Gough, 2021), privatised cities are thus envisioned as the desired compartments that can bring order to chaos, a plan to the unplanned, peace to violence (Huang et al, 2019), and that can act as a solution to the so-called African urban problem (Amis, 2018). However, these euro-centric characterisations of African cities are ahistorical and fail to account for African cities’ complex culturally embedded relations and practices.…”

“…It is thus possible that KKMA officials view pacification in Appolonia as minimal conflict. Crucially, the positive views of planning officials regarding privatised cities are emblematic of challenges such as poor funding, understaffing and lack of support from the central government (Amankwaa and Gough, 2021; Amoako and Inkoom, 2018; Gough and Yankson, 2000), which undermines their ability to plan and effectively manage a rapidly growing city.…”

“…In Ghana, the retrenchment of workers and cutbacks in state expenditure under neoliberalism resulted in unemployment and a ballooned informal sector. The capacity of many state agencies to respond to the emerging urban issues was weakened (Briggs and Mwamfupe, 2000; Geo-JaJa and Mangum, 2001; Konadu-Agyemang, 2000), resulting in a large number of the urban poor living in the slums of Accra (Amankwaa and Gough, 2021). The context of neoliberal governance in post-independent sub-Saharan Africa generates what Watson (2009) termed a conflict of rationalities, which in many ways undermines the drive towards inclusive and equitable cities.…”

‘We are at the mercy of the floods!’ : Extreme weather events, disrupted mobilities, and everyday navigation in urban Ghana

“…These broader perspectives on mobility have informed research in the global South, including motivations for navigating between places in the city; whilst some urban residents travel between home and work on a daily commute, it is more usual for mobility to be an inherent element of income‐generating activities, especially for low‐income households (Amankwaa, 2017; Esson et al ., 2016; Yankson et al ., 2017). Through their mobility practices, poor urban residents forge and sustain social relations and ‘navigate the interplay between personal hopes, social expectations, and the financial uncertainty associated with urban life’ (Amankwaa et al ., 2020: 2; see also Esson et al ., 2021; Amankwaa & Gough, 2022). Such mobility practices are recognized as being highly gendered (Akyelken, 2020; Moller‐Jensen, 2021), as well as influenced by age (Langevang & Gough, 2009; Wignall et al ., 2019).…”