Fraught with Friction: Inclusive Development for Informal Workers in Urban Ghana

Suame Magazine

Car repair location in Suame Magazine, Kumasi. Photo: Rafael Verbuyst

This article by Tanja Hendriks, Rafael Verbuyst and Mayke Kaag appeared in The European Journal of Development Research. In the article, they analyse the ways in which informal workers in Ghana are organising (themselves) in response to proposed relocations of their workspace. Based on two case studies in Accra and Kumasi, the authors show how striving for inclusive development is a process shaped by diverse agendas and potentially conflicting interests. These relational and political aspects are crucial for understanding the frictions involved, as well as how these may lead to change.

Read the full article.

This article appeared in The European Journal of Development Research, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-022-00511-7. ISSN: 1743-9728.

Author(s) / editor(s)

Hendriks, Verbuyst & Kaag

About the author(s) / editor(s)

Tanja Hendriks is currently a PhD candidate in the ANTHUSIA project at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. The working title of her PhD project is “Governance and Human Security: The state and everyday practices of governing in disaster relief interventions in Malawi”.

Rafael Verbuyst defended his PhD dissertation at Ghent University (2021) and focused on the situation of contemporary Khoisan activists in Cape Town.

Mayke Kaag is a professor in the anthropology of Islam in Africa and its diaspora at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and a senior researcher working on the political anthropology of Africa's global connections at the African Studies Centre Leiden.

Full text, catalogue, and publisher website

Publisher website: 
Palgrave Macmillan
Posted on 22 February 2022, last modified on 4 March 2022