Building the City of the Future: Visions and Experiences of Modernity in Ghana's Akosombo Township

Miescher, Stephan F.

doi:10.1017/s0021853712000679

Cited by 49 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Such physical infrastructure-based compensation is often carried out by contractors hired by the hydropower developer. Although the planning and budgeting may appear to be comparatively straightforward, given the tangible nature of the assets that are being replaced, seemingly minor questions such as the architectural style, sizes or building materials of new houses can pose significant challenges that may test the relationship between developer and project-affected people [51]. Where resettlement processes are required to meet international donor safeguards, any new land allocated to resettled displaced people must provide equivalent crop yields to traditional fields.…”

Section: Replacement Of Lost Land and Lost Housingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropower benefit-sharing and resettlement: A conceptual review

Schulz

Skinner

2022

Energy Research & Social Science

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Globally, hydropower developers are increasingly expected to share benefits with people living in projectaffected areas. Nevertheless, hydropower benefit-sharing has not found sufficiently widespread application, and the concept is not yet widely understood. The present paper aims to make the following contributions: First, we clarify the commonalities and differences between benefit-sharing, compensation and related concepts, which refer to processes in which developers transfer resources to project-affected people. We suggest that benefitsharing can be understood as a 'sustainability intervention', i.e. the focus is on making an additional and positive long-term development impact, beyond replacing or marginally improving on lost assets. Further, we propose that benefit-sharing is defined by the transfer of resources and services that are 1) substantively different from those serving as compensation for lost assets; 2) determined via participatory processes with projectaffected people and 3) delivered in the later stages of the timeline from dam planning to operation. Second, we explore some governance challenges on the pathway towards 'good' benefit-sharing, highlighting: (i) that effective participation by project-affected people requires capacity building over time, involving a gradual transfer of control over spending decisions; and (ii) that the appropriate institutional set-up for benefit-sharing may be dependent on the existing capacity of governments in the dam-hosting location. Legally mandated benefit-sharing mechanisms to raise funds may be more appropriate in the context of high existing state capacity, whereas developer-led mechanisms will be required where the existing capacity is low. In practice, a mix of multiple institutional arrangements and benefit-sharing mechanisms is possible and desirable.

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Section: Replacement Of Lost Land and Lost Housingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropower benefit-sharing and resettlement: A conceptual review

Schulz

Skinner

2022

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…Scott argued that twentieth century states attempted to make society more “legible” and “manipulable,” in order to enact massive social engineering plans, which drew upon high modernist ideologies (Scott, 1998, p. 2). This framework has not only inspired much scholarship, but also, much criticism of the portrayal of the state as hegemonic and monolithic (Connelly, 2006; Isaacman & Isaacman, 2013; Li, 2005; Miescher, 2012).…”

Section: Historiographical Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

International development in Africa: Historiographical themes and new perspectives

Moskowitz

2022

History Compass

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This article explores scholarship on the history of international development in Africa and highlights promising new perspectives. The literature review reveals common themes in writing on the history of development—neocolonialism, knowledge production, and statecraft—but also shows that scholars have given too much power to development paradigms and policies. While the scholarship has demonstrated the rhetorical significance of development and the importance of developmentalist states, historians have paid less attention to institutional cleavages, material outcomes, and the complexity of development intervention on the ground. New work draws on oral histories to center local communities, while also examining national and transnational actors and contexts. Examining how development was executed on the ground, and how local communities experienced and reconfigured development, has the potential to help scholars completely rethink these histories. Recent scholarship demonstrates the long‐term continuities of development; the disjunctures between economic theory and development practice; the particular forms of power and modalities of governance that have emerged in different settings; and the social, political, and material implications for local communities targeted by the international development apparatus.

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“…Following completion of the dam in 1966, an editorial in the state‐owned Ghanaian Times (1966) praised their selflessness: “Not least in the pride of place of honor and praise are those Ghanaians whose love for the motherland and the prosperity of mother Africa sacrificed their lot to bring the project to fruition. History will not forget them.” While resettlement was celebrated in public discourses as a sacrifice for the broader good of national development, it was itself associated with progress (Miescher ). In a widely reported quote, frequently cited by inhabitants of the resettlement communities today, Nkrumah made a personal pledge that none of the resettled communities would be worse off as a consequence of the move.…”

Section: Planning Modernization: the Inception And Failure Of The Volmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remains of the Future: Rethinking the Space and Time of Ruination through the Volta Resettlement Project, Ghana

Yarrow

2017

Cult. Anthropol.

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Building the City of the Future: Visions and Experiences of Modernity in Ghana's Akosombo Township

Cited by 49 publications

References 19 publications

Hydropower benefit-sharing and resettlement: A conceptual review

Hydropower benefit-sharing and resettlement: A conceptual review

International development in Africa: Historiographical themes and new perspectives

Remains of the Future: Rethinking the Space and Time of Ruination through the Volta Resettlement Project, Ghana

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