Urban governance and its implications for the micro-geographies of market trading in Ghana: a case of the Kotokuraba Mar
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Urban governance and its implications for the microgeographies of market trading in Ghana: a case of the Kotokuraba Market Project in Cape Coast Lewis Abedi Asante
. Ilse Helbrecht
Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract This article scrutinizes the consequences that arise when current modes of urban governance fail to consider the micro-geographies of market trading during urban regeneration and relocation processes. It argues that the marketplace possesses significant and complex spatial dimensions that are fundamental to the sustenance and capital accumulation of traders. Findings from an empirical scrutiny of the regeneration of market infrastructure in Cape Coast reveal that the unwillingness of municipal authorities to consider the spatial dimensions of market trading during a period of temporary relocation caused negative consequences for traders, who experienced loss of customers, loss of capital, low savings, inability to meet family responsibilities and deterioration in health, among others. In response, the traders devised several coping strategies to survive these experiences. Due to the intimate relationship between state and non-state actors in urban governance, the municipal authority in Cape Coast not only suffered a sharp decline in its revenue generation but also could not recoup the funds invested in the development of the temporary markets. This study calls for inclusive L. A. Asante (&) I. Helbrecht Department of Geography, Humboldt-Universita¨t zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] L. A. Asante Department of Estate Management, Kumasi Technical University, Kumasi, Ghana
urban governance in market development projects in order to preserve the spatial characteristics of market trading during relocation. Keywords Urban governance Relocation Marketplace Traders Cape Coast Ghana
Introduction One conspicuous piece of urban infrastructure found in the commercial hubs of most cities in West Africa is the marketplace. This usually takes the form of openair, purpose-built spaces (Ikioda 2013; Lindell and Ampaire 2017) and, for many decades, has played a significant role in providing affordable food and manufactured products for millions of urban populations (Battersby and Watson 2019). Marketplaces provide a crucial link between rural producers and urban centres, serve as sources of employment and income for thousands of traders, allow many women to effectively combine household and family responsibilities, and contribute significantly to the internallygenerated revenue of local governments (Asante and Helbrecht 2018a; Gombay 1994; Ikioda 2013; Owusu and Lund 2004; Sowatey et al. 2018). However, these marketplaces have, likewise, been characterized as sites of high informality, poor hygiene and sanitation, congestion and derelict infrastructure as well as
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sources of numerous fire outbreaks in the inner city (Adaawen and Jorgensen 2012; Awuah 1997; Battersby and Muwowo 2019; Gombay 1994). City governments in Gh
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