Abstract
Large-scale spatial planning and urban development projects have gained popularity in cities of the Global South. Such projects are being used to improve connectivity, scale up cities’ competitiveness, and in return, attract investments. However, while road development changes peri-urban environments in the Global South cities, little attention is given to the consequences of road infrastructure in those areas. The objective of this paper is to investigate how the implementation of road infrastructure projects is transforming the socio-spatial landscapes and economic development, and how they affect social groups within the peri-urban areas of Kisumu (Kenya) and Accra (Ghana) cities, focusing on effects at the community level. The research employed a case study approach, using qualitative, quantitative and spatial methods to examine these socio-spatial and economic development dynamics. The findings show that, on the one hand, road infrastructure projects scaled up residential development, both in Kisumu and Accra, as the roads contributed to housing rents and land prices to increase and rendered peri-urban communities along them as attractive zones for real estate developers. Furthermore, accessibility to facilities and services improved. Also, in both cities, the road improvements fuelled employment opportunities. Conversely, in both cities, the road infrastructure projects led to gentrification and therefore to the displacement of poor residents into the hinterlands, which changed the social fibre and integration to a certain degree. The road infrastructure projects benefitted the rich, who own land at the expense of the poor. The findings that the impacts of road infrastructure appear to differ in locational context and class of individuals within peri-urban areas make us suggest that place-based and people-based policies need to be combined to address the consequences of road infrastructure projects.
Highlights
IntroductionMost governments in the Global South are using such projects to scale up their cities’ competitiveness, requiring structuring and re-structuring of their road networks, and in return, attract investments
Large-scale spatial planning and urban development projects are increasingly becoming popular in transforming landscapes in rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South.International Journal of Community Well-Being (2021) 4:33–53Most governments in the Global South are using such projects to scale up their cities’ competitiveness, requiring structuring and re-structuring of their road networks, and in return, attract investments
This paper summarizes the main impacts of road infrastructure projects in transforming the socio-spatial landscapes and economic development and their effects on local communities in the peri-urban areas and reflects on how empirical insights can inform policy formulation
Summary
Most governments in the Global South are using such projects to scale up their cities’ competitiveness, requiring structuring and re-structuring of their road networks, and in return, attract investments. From a historical point of view of the Global South countries, especially Kenya and Ghana, transportation infrastructures show some contrasting outcomes though with a few similar scenarios In both countries, road infrastructure projects are on the increase resulting in social and spatial heterogeneities, within the peri-urban areas. Road infrastructure projects are on the increase resulting in social and spatial heterogeneities, within the peri-urban areas These include growing inequalities, exclusion, housing, safety and security (UNHabitat 2016). This has led to competition between newcomers and old inhabitants for land and other natural resources, affecting living conditions, especially of the very poor (Yankson and Gough 1999; ASIRT 2014)
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