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Placing the Environment in Migration: Environment, Economy, and Power in Ghana's Central Region

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  • Edward R Carr

    (Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, Callcott Social Sciences Building, Columbia, SC 29208, USA)

Abstract

This paper examines the role of environmental change as a driver of migration, a central concern of areas of inquiry ranging from the Human Dimensions of Global Change research to population geography and development studies. Although much of the literature on the role of the environment in migration reflects a general awareness that environmental factors are but one of a suite of influences shaping migration decisionmaking, a framework within which to place social, economic, and environmental issues with regard to particular migration decisions is absent from this literature. Drawing upon recent contributions to the literature on migration, and political ecological concerns for access to and control over resources, in this paper I present a framework for placing such issues founded on a Foucauldian conceptualization of power. This framework treats environment, economy, and society as both products of and productive of social differentiation, instrumental modes of power, and resistance. These forms shape actors' understanding and negotiation of their social, economic, and environmental contexts, and therefore their migration decisionmaking. I illustrate the application of this framework through the example of three villages in Ghana's Central Region, where rural environmental and economic changes appear to have driven a complex pattern of out-migration over the past thirty-five years. This migration shows the ways in which environmental change becomes inseparable from local perceptions of economy and local politics through local manifestations of power.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward R Carr, 2005. "Placing the Environment in Migration: Environment, Economy, and Power in Ghana's Central Region," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(5), pages 925-946, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:37:y:2005:i:5:p:925-946
    DOI: 10.1068/a3754
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Reardon, Thomas, 1997. "Using evidence of household income diversification to inform study of the rural nonfarm labor market in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 735-747, May.
    2. Lynne Brydon, 1987. "Women in the Family: Cultural Change in Avatime, Ghana, 1900–80," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 251-269, April.
    3. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    4. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2001. "Land, trees, and women: evolution of land tenure institutions in Western Ghana and Sumatra," Research reports 121, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. M. M. Huq, 1989. "The Economy of Ghana," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-19749-1, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Susan F Martin, 2012. "Environmental Change and Migration: Legal and Political Frameworks," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 30(6), pages 1045-1060, December.
    2. Lezlie Morinière, 2012. "Environmentally Influenced Urbanisation: Footprints Bound for Town?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(2), pages 435-450, February.
    3. Amr Abdelwahed & Anne Goujon & Leiwen Jiang, 2020. "The Migration Intentions of Young Egyptians," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-38, November.
    4. Giovanni Bettini & Giovanna Gioli & Romain Felli, 2020. "Clouded skies: How digital technologies could reshape “Loss and Damage” from climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), July.

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