IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v137y2021ics0305750x20302886.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A critique of overpopulation as a cause of pathologies in African cities: Evidence from building collapse in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Godwin Boateng, Festival

Abstract

Urban discourses in Africa have long followed the conventional pathological–indeed Malthusian–view that the continent’s urban problems are the result of overpopulation. This study examines how this diagnosis holds up against evidence on specific urban problems systematically collected and forensically analyzed. The study assembled detailed empirical data on building collapses in cities in Ghana, via interviews and focus group discussions, from a range of professionals, including building inspectors, planners, architects and researchers in the country and draws on data from various secondary sources. The data was knitted together and interpreted within the political economists’ methodology of accident research framework. Based on this analysis, the study found that the population-heavy approach to urban problems in Africa totters badly. Not only is it too focused on problems internal to Africa, but it also overlooks the systemic underdevelopment conditions (i.e. inherited and externally-imposed factors) which interplay with the internal factors created the present socio-political-economic order determining life chances of people in cities in the continent. Africa’s urban problems, the study will argue, do not stem from population characteristics, but the prevailing socio-political-economic systems that shape, dictate and structure access and the distribution of resources and exercise of power. The socio-political-economic systems are, however, not natural creations – they are the legacies of colonial and post-colonial national policies and the neoliberal-capitalist programs of international bodies implemented in the continent. The present-day conditions in cities in Africa are, therefore, best understood not in the context of their population characteristics, but the various colonial and post-colonial national policies and programs of international bodies that organized and continue to organize the continent’s urban systems for particular purposes.

Suggested Citation

  • Godwin Boateng, Festival, 2021. "A critique of overpopulation as a cause of pathologies in African cities: Evidence from building collapse in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:137:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x20302886
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X20302886
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105161?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Grant, 2001. "Liberalization Policies and Foreign Companies in Accra, Ghana," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(6), pages 997-1014, June.
    2. Fox, Sean, 2014. "The Political Economy of Slums: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 191-203.
    3. Thomas D. Beamish, 2002. "Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262523205, December.
    4. Godwin Arku & Kenneth O. Mensah & Nii K. Allotey & Ebenezer Addo Frempong, 2016. "Non-compliance with building permit regulations in Accra-Tema city-region, Ghana: exploring the reasons from the perspective of multiple stakeholders," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 361-384, July.
    5. Ambe J. Njoh, 2013. "Equity, Fairness and Justice Implications of Land Tenure Formalization in C ameroon," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 750-768, March.
    6. Jill Wells, 2007. "Informality in the construction sector in developing countries," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 87-93.
    7. Franklin Obeng-Odoom, 2018. "Petroleum Accidents in the Global South," Research in Political Economy, in: Environmental Impacts of Transnational Corporations in the Global South, volume 33, pages 111-142, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    8. Obeng-Odoom, Franklin, 2016. "Reconstructing Urban Economics," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9781783606603, Febrero.
    9. Franklin Obeng-Odoom, 2015. "The Social, Spatial, and Economic Roots of Urban Inequality in Africa: Contextualizing Jane Jacobs and Henry George," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 550-586, May.
    10. Catherine Oosterbaan & Godwin Arku & Alex Asiedu, 2012. "Conversion of Residential Units to Commercial Spaces in Accra, Ghana: A Policy Dilemma," International Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 45-66.
    11. Sean Fox, 2012. "Urbanization as a Global Historical Process: Theory and Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 38(2), pages 285-310, June.
    12. Festival Godwin Boateng, 2020. "“Indiscipline” in context: a political-economic grounding for dangerous driving behaviors among Tro-Tro drivers in Ghana," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-5, December.
    13. Franklin Obeng-Odoom, 2017. "Urban Governance in Africa Today: Reframing, Experiences, and Lessons," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 4-21, March.
    14. Lewis Abedi Asante & Alexander Sasu, 2018. "The Challenge of Reducing the Incidence of Building Collapse in Ghana: Analyzing the Perspectives of Building Inspectors in Kumasi," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mintah, Kwabena & Boateng, Festival Godwin & Baako, Kingsley Tetteh & Gaisie, Eric & Otchere, Gideon Kwame, 2021. "Blockchain on stool land acquisition: Lessons from Ghana for strengthening land tenure security other than titling," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sean Fox & Robin Bloch & Jose Monroy, 2018. "Understanding the dynamics of Nigeria’s urban transition: A refutation of the ‘stalled urbanisation’ hypothesis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(5), pages 947-964, April.
    2. Sugata Bag & Suman Seth, 2018. "Does It Matter How We Assess Standard of Living? Evidence from Indian Slums Comparing Monetary and Multidimensional Approaches," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 715-754, November.
    3. Giovanni Ferri & Roshan Borsato, 2018. "Urbanization And International Migration From Africa," CERBE Working Papers wpC29, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    4. Chandan Deuskar, 2020. "Informal urbanisation and clientelism: Measuring the global relationship," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2473-2490, September.
    5. Philippe Bocquier & Sandra Brée, 2018. "A regional perspective on the economic determinants of urban transition in 19th-century France," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(50), pages 1535-1576.
    6. Sangeetha Madhavan & Shelley Clark & Sara Schmidt, 2021. "Single mothers coping with food insecurity in a Nairobi slum," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2703-2720, October.
    7. Richmond J. Ehwi & Lewis A. Asante, 2016. "Ex-Post Analysis of Land Title Registration in Ghana Since 2008 Merger," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, April.
    8. Fox, Sean, 2014. "The Political Economy of Slums: Theory and Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 191-203.
    9. Tchakouni Sondou & Coffi Cyprien Aholou & Jérôme Chenal, 2025. "Territorial Coherence Through Urban Planning, Myth or Reality: Analysis of Planning Instruments in Ho (Ghana) and Kpalimé (Togo)," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-31, January.
    10. Felix SK Agyemang & Nicky Morrison, 2018. "Recognising the barriers to securing affordable housing through the land use planning system in Sub-Saharan Africa: A perspective from Ghana," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(12), pages 2640-2659, September.
    11. Jedwab, Remi & Christiaensen, Luc & Gindelsky, Marina, 2017. "Demography, urbanization and development: Rural push, urban pull and…urban push?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 6-16.
    12. Franklin Obeng-Odoom, 2015. "The Social, Spatial, and Economic Roots of Urban Inequality in Africa: Contextualizing Jane Jacobs and Henry George," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 550-586, May.
    13. Samuel Adams & Edem Kwame Mensah Klobodu, 2019. "Urbanization, Economic Structure, Political Regime, and Income Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 971-995, April.
    14. Nihan Yıldırım & Derya Gultekin & Doğan Tilkici & Dilek Ay, 2022. "An Institutional System Proposal for Advanced Occupational Safety and Labor Standards in the Turkish Construction Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-31, November.
    15. Emily Rains & Anirudh Krishna, 2019. "Will urbanization raise social mobility in the South, replicating the economic history of the West?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-102, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Busisiwe Nkonki-Mandleni & Abiodun Olusola Omotayo & David Ikponmwosa Ighodaro & Samuel Babatunde Agbola, 2021. "Analysis of the Living Conditions at eZakheleni Informal Settlement of Durban: Implications for Community Revitalization in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    17. Karakadzai, Thomas & Bandauko, Elmond & Chaeruka, Joel & Arku, Godwin, 2023. "Examining the conformance of development to local spatial plans amid rapid urbanisation in Harare, Zimbabwe," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    18. Elise Huillery, 2009. "History Matters: The Long-Term Impact of Colonial Public Investments in French West Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 176-215, April.
    19. Jayajit Chakraborty & Timothy W. Collins & Sara E. Grineski & Alejandra Maldonado, 2017. "Racial Differences in Perceptions of Air Pollution Health Risk: Does Environmental Exposure Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-16, January.
    20. Forouhar, Navid & Forouhar, Amir & Hasankhani, Mahnoosh, 2022. "Commercial gentrification and neighbourhood change: A dynamic view on local residents' quality of life in Tehran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:137:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x20302886. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.