title: Emergent new cities and spatial transformation in Ghana's Greater Accra Region: Exploring the drivers, governance and consequences of growth
Creators: name: Korah, Prosper I
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Africa
subject: Cities
subject: Greater Accra Region
subject: Ghana
subject: development
subject: new urban spaces

description: Cities all over Africa are undergoing significant transformations. The majority of these transformations, with the exception of the expansion in informal settlements, have involved the sudden emergence of ambitious new city projects. Over 200 new city projects are underway across the continent of Africa, making the past decade the most active city-building period since the colonial era. The advocates and enablers of new cities argue that the development of new urban spaces on a massive scale is necessary for creating modern, world class, smart cities; a precondition for economic competitiveness even though such projects raise concerns regarding their tendency to exacerbate segregation, ecological destruction and the displacement and exclusion of the poor. The new city building trend in Africa is generating considerable scholarly interest, yet the discourses, foreign and domestic actors, governance and the consequences of new city projects for adjoining communities is poorly understood. Within the context of rapidly changing urban spaces in Africa, research which makes sense of the trends, drivers and implications becomes central. Focusing on new city projects in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana (GAR), this thesis analyses: (1) the drivers and rationales for new African cities and the contemporary urban governance regimes that shape them; (2) the social and spatial outcomes which are produced in the process of developing new cities; and, (3) how, with and for whom are planning strategies for new cities mobilised? The overarching research question is: How are contemporary urban spaces produced and transformed in Ghana’s GAR? The thesis deploys assemblage thinking to explore the emerging new city building phenomenon in GAR, the ways in which state intervention and power relations influence the production of new cities, their socio-spatial impacts, and the struggles over access to urban land. This thesis is based on multiple sources of data including in-depth key informant interviews, policy and archival document reviews and Geographic Information System-based spatial analysis. The results of this research are presented as three journal papers (two published and one under review). The findings suggest that the state’s desire to raise the competitiveness of Accra as an international business centre, i.e., a ‘world city’ ideal, and the need to decongest Accra’s central business district and ensure rational land use development were central to the emergence of new cities in GAR. Other explanations include the infertility of farmland, the decision by government to acquire part of the farmland for residential development, and the availability of expertise in building technology. Challenges associated with land transactions in GAR, such as disputes and multiple land sales, and embedded social and cultural factors including the prestige attached to owning a home in Ghana, increased the appeal and uptake of new cities among investors. In terms of new cities’ governance, the findings show the continuing involvement of the state, demonstrating a departure from the privatised governance models that typically characterise scholarship concerning the administration of new cities. The findings further show that the socio-spatial effects of new cities are not given, but are produced through the nature of assemblages that the actors enter and re/constitute. The findings demonstrate that the production of new cities and subsequent transformation of urban spaces in GAR is the outcome of the interactions among specific state and non-state framings of urban development, the nature of land ownership, and both global and local economic, political, institutional, and social conditions. The interactions of these factors create winners and losers in relation to access and use of peri/urban land. While neoliberalism was influential in the transformation of urban spaces in GAR, it was not the only determining factor. The overall findings of the thesis centre contemporary spatial transformation in GAR as emergent, becoming, relational, and subject to a range of determinations. Thus, the findings of this thesis contribute to attempts to post-colonise urban studies and add to critiques of ideas that centre neoliberal logics in contemporary spatial transformation. Recommendations to improve spatial planning outcomes in GAR are proffered. The results of the thesis will be of interest to spatial planners and policymakers, international organisations such as The World Bank and UN Habitat, as well as other sub-Saharan Africa countries seeking to create inclusive and sustainable urban spaces under conditions of rapid transformation. The results will also be of interest to academics interested in African urbanism, urban geography and planning.