Everyday politics of land use planning in peri-urbanisation

Abstract

This paper compares everyday land administration systems and local planning practices involving traditional authorities and local statutory planning officials in the transformation of peri-urban areas in Ghana. First, it analyses the processes and conflicts in local plan preparation for peri-urban transformation. Second, it examines the power relations between traditional authorities and statutory planning officials in peri-urban land use planning. It uses a qualitative research design involving in-depth interviews and secondary data analysis, and a comparative case studies of Abuakwa and Adomako peri-urban communities in Ghanaian cities of Kumasi and Sunyani respectively. Findings show that conflicting rationalities and power relations between formal and customary land use planning are likely to occur when one stakeholder significantly overshadows the role of the other. In Abuakwa, the dominance of traditional authorities in land use planning has rendered statutory planning agencies ineffective. Similarly, the overemphasis on Lands Commission's role in land use planning activities in the Adomako case is producing conflicting rationalities both within and between statutory planning and traditional authorities. This paper argues that when roles are not defined in hybridized land use planning and management system, it is the peri-urban areas experiencing rapid transformation that suffer from haphazard, unplanned and non-inclusive development.