The politics of market redevelopment in African cities: Insight from two market projects in Ghana

Abstract

Recent studies have argued that most state-led urban regeneration projects around the globe are implemented through the four-stage process of scoping, planning, financing and implementation. This article examines the processes of market infrastructural redevelopment in Ghanaian cities and the politics that characterize each phase of the process. Through case studies of market projects in Cape Coast and Kumasi, I argue that, unlike other urban regeneration projects, the redevelopment process of market infrastructure in African cities is better conceptualized through the six stages of scoping, financing, planning, relocation, construction and allocation. I demonstrate that state-led redevelopment of market infrastructure reflect a highly politicized nature of existing practices of urban governance in Ghana and Africa more broadly. In response, there is increasing activism among market traders to intervene, challenge and change the predominant forms of urban governance. I conclude that we must pay more attention to the politics embedded in the governance of urban (re)development processes in order to understand the contemporary dynamics of citizen resistance and activism in African cities. It is through such an investigation that new insights, meanings and concepts emerge in the fields of urban politics and urban governance in Africa.