Living together but gates apart: aspirations and place caring practices among residents living outside a gated community in Peri-urban Accra.

Abstract

Global capital investment in the housing sector has transformed major African cities such as Accra into segregated clusters of high-rise buildings and ultramodern residential areas. The development of housing projects, such as Gated Communities (GCs), in peri-urban areas has resulted in a contrasting phenomenon of residents living in traditional housing units alongside modern housing complexes. This paper maps the impacts of Ayi Mensah Park, a privately built gated community in peri-urban Accra, Ghana. Specifically, it explores the perceptions, emotions and attitudes of residents living in the immediate environs of this gated community and how these opinions shape their life aspirations, particularly regarding housing. Using semistructured interviews and drawing on the concepts of ‘peripheral urbanisation’ and ‘care’, we found that residents express varied emotions (happiness, excitement, admiration, pride, disappointment, anger, apathy, and frustration) towards the presence of the gated community. Some of these emotions resulted in action, such as pulling down old buildings and constructing new modern apartments in their places. We conclude that the presence and aesthetic characteristics of gated communities in peri-urban areas invoke contrasting affective elements of both aspirations and despair among residents, resulting in new practices of care for the community and future generations.