Book
Democracy in Ghana: Everyday Politics in Urban Africa
Rapid urbanization and political liberalization is changing the nature of African politics and societies. This book develops a framework for the study of democracy and development that emphasizes informal institutions and the politics of belonging in the context of daily life, in contrast to the formal and electoral paradigms that dominate the social sciences. Based on fifteen months of field research including ethnographic observation, focus group interviews, and original quantitative survey analysis in Ghana, this book intervenes in major debates about public goods provision, civic participation, ethnic politics and democratization, and the future of urban sustainability in a rapidly changing world. By developing new understandings of democracy, as well as providing novel explanations for good governance and development in poor urban neighborhoods, the book transcends the narrative of a failing and corrupt Africa and charts a new way forward for the study of democracy and development.
Buy it from Cambridge or Amazon.
You can listen to more about the book on the Ufahamu Africa Podcast, GLD Governance Uncovered Podcast and the Neither Free Nor Fair? Podcast.
The book is reviewed in African Studies Review, Canadian Journal of African Studies, Political Science Quarterly, Ghana Studies, Foreign Affairs, and Washington Post’s The Monkey Cage.
Articles & Chapters
“The social embeddedness of elections: Ghana’s 2016 and 2020 election campaigns.” OnlineFirst in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics. With George Bob-Milliar.
“Demanding recognition: a new Framework for the Study of Political Clientelism.” 2023 in African Affairs. With Kathleen Klaus and Martha Wilfahrt.
“Urbanization and political change in Africa.” OnlineFirst in African Affairs. With Kristian Hoelscher, Nick Dorward, Sean Fox, Taibat Lawanson, and Melanie Phillips.
“Sustainability Politics and Housing Development in Urban Brazil and Ghana.” OnlineFirst in International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. With Maureen M. Donaghy.
“The NBA’s Partnership with Rwanda.” With Michael M. Goldman. Chapter 25 in The Geopolitical Economy of Sport, edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop, and Michael M. Goldman.
“Practical reflections on conducting survey research in cities in low and middle-income countries.”ODI Working Paper Series. With Felix Agyemang, Saeed Ahmed, Sean Fox, Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Hussain Bux Mallah, Rashid Memon, and Levi John Wolf.
“Everyday politics and sustainable urban development in the Global South.” 2021 in Area Development and Policy.
“Population and Urbanization.” Chapter 7 in Understanding Contemporary Africa, edited by Peter Schraeder.
“Dignified public expression: A new logic of political accountability.” October 2019 in Comparative Politics.
“Building permanence: Fire outbreaks and emergent tenure security in urban Ghana.” August 2019 in Africa: Journal of the International African Institute.
“Ethnographies of Emergence: Everyday Politics and their Origins across Africa Special Section Introduction." August 2019 in Africa: International African Institute. With Joshua Rubin and Susanna Fioratta.
“Slum Politics in Africa.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Politics. With Jacqueline Klopp.
“Democratic Ruptures and Electoral Outcomes in Africa: Ghana’s 2016 Election.” 2018 in Africa Spectrum. With George Bob-Milliar.
“Defending the city, defending votes: Campaign strategies in urban Ghana.” December 2017 in Journal of Modern African Studies. With Kathleen Klaus.
“From Urban Crisis to Political Opportunity: African Slums.” 2017 in Africa Under Neoliberalism edited by Nana Poku and Jim Whitman, Routledge Series on Contemporary African Politics.
“The Contentious Politics of African Urbanization.” Current History. May 2017.
“Informal Practices of Accountability in Urban Africa.” June 2016 in Oxford Bibliographies.
“Informal Networks and Access to Power to Obtain Housing in Urban Slums in Ghana.” Fall 2015 in Africa Today.
“Informal Institutions and Personal Rule in Urban Ghana.” December 2014 in African Studies Review.
“Political Struggle to Political Sting: A Theory of Democratic Disillusionment.” October 2013 in Polity.
Public Scholarship
“Rethinking clientelism for development.” GLD Policy Brief No. 20.
“Five Trends That Will Shape Urban Africa in 2023.” Democracy in Africa. Podcast at Governance Uncovered.
“How Is China Impacting African Cities?” Management and Organization Review.
“The Contentious Politics of African Urbanization: Insights from Africa.” APSA Comparative Politics Newsletter.
“A longtime leader has died. Jerry John Rawlings leaves a complicated legacy.” Monkey Cage, Washington Post. With George Bob-Milliar.
“Understanding informal norms: Politics and community in Ghana.” Center for Strategic andInternational Studies“ Talking Urban Futures in Africa.”
“The meaning of party politics in Ghana’s urban neighborhoods.” Africa is a Country.
“How everyday politics shapes the way African cities are run.” The Conversation.
“What do shifting grass-roots dynamics tell us about the Zimbabwe election?” Monkey Cage, Washington Post. With George Bob-Milliar and Kathleen Klaus.
Intro to Symposium: “Africa in today’s world.” APSA Africa Workshop Newsletter. Co-edited with George Bob-Milliar.
“The practice of accountability in Ghana’s poor urban neighborhoods.” Center for Research, Artistic, and Scholarly Excellence at the University of San Francisco.
Intro to Symposium: “The politics of urbanization in Africa.” APSA Africa Workshop Newsletter. Co-edited with George Bob-Milliar.
“7 things to understand about elections in Ghana.” Africa Research Institute. With George M. Bob-Milliar.
“How to build the better cities of tomorrow? It takes careful planning – and political science research.” Monkey Cage, Washington Post.
“How elites and corruption have played havoc with Nairobi’s housing.” The Conversation. With Jacqueline M. Klopp.
Intro to Symposium: “The Politics of Higher Education in Africa.” APSA Africa Workshop Newsletter. Co-edited with George Bob-Milliar.
“Who really governs urban Ghana?” Africa Research Institute Counterpoints. With Mohammed Awal.
Intro to Symposium: “Grassroots politics in African elections: A look at Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.” APSA Africa Workshop Newsletter. Co-edited with George Bob-Milliar.
“How Africa can build inclusive, safe and sustainable cities.” The Conversation. With Jacqueline M. Klopp.
“Do public goods have to be public? Not in some African countries.” Monkey Cage, Washington Post. With Danielle Carter Kushner and Lauren M. MacLean.
“Rising through cities? A look at Ghana.” Africa Research Institute (June 9, 2015).
“What Clean Sewers Tell us about Development in African Slums.” Africa at LSE and Favelas at LSE.
“Political Accountability in Ghana: Evidence from Afrobarometer Round 5 Survey.” Afrobarometer Briefing Paper No. 136. With Daniel Armah-Attoh and Edward Ampratwum.
“Five simple points to take away from the 2013 Kenyan Elections.” African Arguments (March 9, 2013).
“Uncovering Informal Networks and Spontaneous Decision-Making: Field Research in African Slums.” African Politics Conference Group Newsletter 9:1 (February 2013).
“Political Accountability in Ghanaian Slums: Evidence from the Grassroots.” Ghana Center for Democratic Development Briefing Paper 11:1 (August 2012).
Book Reviews
Book review of “Everyday state and democracy in Africa: Ethnographic encounters” edited by Wale Adebanwi. Commonwealth & Comparative Politics.
Book review of “The Political Life of an Epidemic: cholera, crisis and citizenship in Zimbabwe” by Simukai Chigudu. Journal of Modern African Studies.
Book review of “Living Politics in South Africa’s Urban Shacklands” by Kerry Ryan Chance and “Garbage Citizenship: Vital Infrastructures of Labor in Dakar, Senegal” by Rosalind Fredericks. Peace Review.
Book review of “Democratizing urban development: Community organizations for housing across the United States and Brazil” by Maureen Donaghy. Journal of Urban Affairs.
Book review of “Monrovia Modern: Urban Form and Political Imagination in Liberia” by Danny Hoffman. Journal of Modern African Studies.
Book review of “The African Affairs Reader: Key Texts in Politics, Development, and International Relations.” African Studies Review.