Frictions of everyday mobility: traffic, transport and gendered confrontations on the roads of Accra

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores how experiences related to daily mobility negatively impact and shape the way women in Accra engage with and perceive the city they live in and the opportunities it provides for them. In Accra, being mobile is crucial for women’s ability to work and provide for their families and for their identity as modern and hardworking women. However, when traveling through the city women are faced with severe traffic congestion, a volatile public transport system and gendered confrontations, which create frictions in their daily mobility. These frictions make it difficult for women to plan their everyday lives and their immediate futures, they reduce their ability to move alone or after dark and challenge their conceptions of gender equality and rights to the city. Underscoring the socio-material structures that shape mobility, I argue that women’s everyday mobility in Accra is circumscribed by these frictions, which impact their lives on multiple levels and ultimately construct a mistrust of, and disillusionment with, the city’s ability to provide for its citizens. This perspective on mobility contributes to an improved understanding of urban life and urban identities as shaped through mobility and the circumstances created by the specific transport system.