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QUESTIONS OF OWNERSHIP: PROPRIETORSHIP AND CONTROL IN A CHANGING RURAL TERRAIN – A CASE STUDY FROM GHANA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2013

Sara Berry
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Abstract

Using a case study of a rural town in the Ashanti Region, this article explores transformations in enterprise, property relations and informal governance that have occurred since Ghana embarked on a period of neo-liberal economic and political restructuring in the mid-1980s. Rather than a linear move away from state-controlled markets and authoritarian rule toward privatization and democratic decentralization, Ghana has witnessed a proliferation of authorities and economic enterprises, both formal and informal, that defy clear-cut distinctions between public and private property and institutions. In the town described here, as in many other localities in Ghana, chiefs have figured prominently as both instigators and examples of transformations in economic and governing practices and institutions.

Résumé

S'appuyant sur l’étude de cas d'une ville rurale de la région Ashanti, cet article explore les transformations survenues dans les domaines de l'entreprise, des relations de propriété et de la gouvernance informelle depuis que le Ghana est entré dans une ère d’économie néolibérale et de restructuration politique au milieu des années 1980. Plutôt que d'un désengagement linéaire des marchés contrôlés par les pouvoirs publics et d'un régime autoritaire en faveur de la privatisation et de la décentralisation démocratique, le Ghana a été témoin d'une prolifération d'autorités et d'entreprises économiques, tant formelles qu'informelles, qui défient les distinctions clairement définies entre propriété publique et privée, et entre institutions publiques et privées. Dans la ville décrite dans cette étude, comme dans beaucoup d'autres localités au Ghana, les chefs occupaient une place importante en tant qu'instigateurs, mais aussi en tant qu'exemples de transformations de pratiques et d'instances économiques et dirigeantes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 83 , Special Issue 1: Land Politics in Africa: Constituting Authority over Territory, Property and Persons , February 2013 , pp. 36 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2013

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