Journals
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An academic or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published in University of Ghana. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and discussion of research. They are usually peer-reviewed or refereed.
Listed here are Journals from the University of Ghana.
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Item Temporality, informality, & translocality in Africa’s urban archipelagos(Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), 2019-11) Landau, Loren B.Mobilities across time and space are reshaping African lives, communities, and imagination. As people make lives across multiple sites – connections forged through travel, media and the circulation of goals, memories and values – they generate novel forms of mobile urbanism and belonging. Cities’ rapidly expanding, diversifying, and mobile urban populations now interact with each other in ways largely unstructured by state regulations or hegemonic social norms. The results are urban socialities often deviating from the models of solidarity, integration, and membership described in classic urban sociology or more recent debates around transnationalism, multiculturalism, and urbanization. While often appearing deeply anomic, fragmented, and relatively unregulated by officials or constitutional orders, these are not genetically antisocial or disconnected sites. Nor are they singular in the histories, morphologies or trajectories. Yet despite the diversity and distance between them, they are linked. These connections draw together urban estuaries where highly fluid populations move into and through cities with archipelagos of people and sites interlinked across and within spatial and temporal horizons. These changing social and urban forms raise epistemological, ethical, and practical challenges around the governance of space, rights, and representation. This paper outlines these concerns as a way of charting research directions for the study of mobile urbanisms.Item Migration Infrastructures in West Africa and Beyond(Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), 2019-11) Kleist, Nauja; Bjarnesen, JesperInfrastructure is becoming an influential field of inquiry across the social sciences as it has been in policy related research for some time. In migration and mobility related research, the recent introduction of the concept of “migration infrastructure” represents an attempt to theorise the infrastructural approach in relation to the multifaceted mediation of migration. This MIASA working paper considers the usefulness and limitations of the concept of migration infrastructures in understanding labour mobilities in various West African contexts. This juxtaposition of West African cases with the Asian examples that informed the articulation of the concept of migration infrastructures suggests that the framework holds potential for moving beyond migrant-centred analysis, while leaving some open questions regarding the role of migrant agency, the discrepancies between intentions and uses of (migration) infrastructures, the significance of culturally embedded migrant imaginaries, and the impact of global migration governance on national or regional regulatory frameworks.Item “Acting together”: How Non-State Actors shape migration policies in West Africa(Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), 2019-11) Bisong, AmandaThis paper examines how non-state actors (NSAs) leverage their role in regional migration governance in West Africa. The paper focuses on the involvement of non-state actors in the migration policy process at the regional level. It unpacks the relationships between state and non-state actors, focusing on the media, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and academia in West Africa. It examines the engagement between state and NSAs at the regional and national levels, finding that formal and informal spaces for engagement exist and linkages between these levels of governance provide avenues for transposing national solutions to the regional level and vice versa. The paper finds that NSAs leverage formal and informal mechanisms for engagement at the regional and national levels to ensure that their interests are achieved. The paper concludes that involving NSAs in regional migration governance is essential to promote the integration of migration approaches and initiatives from the ‘bottom-up’, complementing the ‘topdown’ state-centric processes in ECOWAS.Item Urban Sanctuary and Solidarity in a Global Context: How Does Africa Contribute to the Debate?(Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), 2019-11) Bauder, HaraldAs national governments and supranational institutions fail to cope with international migration and refugee movements, many cities in the Global North are asserting stronger roles in protecting and including vulnerable international migrants and refugees. Various labels, such as sanctuary city, solidarity city, and city of refuge describe corresponding municipal policies and practices. However, literature that connects such labels to urban policies and practices in the Global South is sparse. I review the English language literature to assess whether the concepts of urban sanctuary and solidarity are applicable in Africa, or whether they represent inherently Eurocentric or Western concepts of little relevance to cities in Africa. The review indicates that there may be some similarities between cities in Africa and the Global North, but that the differences are fundamental and challenge the universality of the concepts of urban sanctuary and solidarity.Item Growing Up With Disability in Ghana: Experiences and Perspectives(Ghana Social Science Journal, 2014-06) Moasun, F.Y.; Sottie, C.A.Despite the international conventions and national laws that exist to ensure the welfare of people living with disabilities, major issues of abuse and neglect continue to persist in Ghana. The paper looks at the challenges associated with growing up with disabilities in Ghana. It examines the factors that contribute to the maltreatment of children living with disabilities (CWDs), and the nature and effects of such maltreatment. In-depth interviews were held with children and adults with disabilities, community members and officials working with or on behalf of CWDs. The findings indicate that poverty, ignorance and societal perceptions, and the general inadequacy of facilities for the care of CWDs contribute to their abuse and neglect. The study recommends communitywide education on the causes of disability and the need for social workers to act to influence policy implementationItem Expanding Social Protection Opportunities for Older People in Ghana: A Case for Strengthening Traditional Family Systems and Community Institutions(Ghana Social Science Journal, 2014-06) Doh, D.; Afranie, S.; Aryeetey, E.B.D.The need to augment social protection arrangements to safeguard the wellbeing of older people now extends to societies beyond the borders of the welfare states of Europe. However, the emphasis seems to be on formal systems of support, with little attention paid to the extent to which the traditional family system and community structures could be enhanced to support this process. This study examines the relevance of the traditional family and community structures in providing social protection for older people using both quantitative and qualitative data. It is clear that the traditional family and community-based support arrangements remain a useful and reliable option for care and support of older people even if they are inadequate in some respects. We suggest that the traditional family system and community structures be strengthened through collaborative efforts of government and civil society for optimum social protection delivery for older peopleItem Gender, Migrant Remittances and Asset Acquisition in Ghana(Ghana Social Science Journal, 2014-06) Oduro, A.D.; Boakye-Yiadom, L.The growing importance of migrant remittances has been the subject of many studies in recent decades. The remittance literature has however not addressed extensively the role of remittances in the accumulation of assets by members of remittance-receiving households. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which households in Ghana use migrant remittances – sent from former household members – to finance the purchase of assets, using data from the 2010 Ghana Household Asset Survey (GHAS). The paper also explores the interplay of gender, migrant's location, and the use of migrant remittances to acquire specific asset types. The study's findings suggest that the three asset types most likely to be acquired using migrant remittances are savings, the place of residence, and businesses. The findings further suggest that the use of migrant remittances to finance specific asset types is linked to the sex of the remitter, as well as the location – internal versus international – of the migrantItem Simulation Modelling of Self-Destructive Behaviour Related to the Spread of HIV/AIDS Disease in Port Harcourt, Nigeria(Ghana Social Science Journal, 2014-12) Akikibofori, J.S.; Peter-Kio, O.B.This paper explores the contemporary debate concerning choosing a partner (Positive (+) or negative (-)) and being promiscuous, and their effects on the spread of the HIV virus and AIDS disease. An agent-based simulation model is constructed to analyse the effect of these factors on the spread of the virus and the AIDS disease among sexually-active, high-risk people in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The results of the analysis suggest that choosing a partner (Positive (+) or negative (-), a decision making practice about whether or not to engage in sexual activity based on one's HIV positive or negative status, is an effective strategy in containing the disease when practised consistently. The level of promiscuity has mixed results regarding the spread of the diseaseItem The Role of Pentecostal Churches as an Influential Arm of Civil Society in Ghana(Ghana Social Science Journal, 2014-12) Okyerefo, M.P.K.This paper argues that in its bid to mediate between the State and the social world by promoting discourse, Pentecostalism in Ghana has become a strong arm of civil society. The general distrust in the weak state in Africa projects church organizations in the limelight, thereby making Pentecostal churches, for example, wield power by exercising their authority in the public sphere by means of public discourse on individual success and wealth creation (business entrepreneurship), good governance, and national development. Pentecostalism achieves this by cultivating civil society strategies such as media presence, organizational and leadership skills. By these means it exerts social, economic and political influence over the Ghanaian polity. At the same time, however, the weaknesses of Pentecostal-based organizations are akin to those of the leaders of State institutions and political leaders, as the ills and sins of the society also apparently affect themItem Archaeological Perspectives of the Danish-Dangbe Encounter along the Eastern Coastal Belt of Ghana and their Implications for Understanding Dangbe Culture(Ghana Social Science Journal, 2016-06) Biveridge, F.This research presents results of historical archaeological investigations undertaken along the eastern coastal belt of Ghana on how the Danish- Dangbe encounter which spanned circa, 1650–1800, shaped the socioeconomic history of the indigenous Dangbe who occupied the area. Data for the study was derived primarily from archaeological, historical and ethno-historical investigations conducted at Kpone, Prampram, Sega and Ningo. The study revealed that European cuisines, dress codes, weaponry and architecture constituted some major material culture embraced by the ancestors of the Dangbe. The large quantum and wide array of European trade goods recovered from the excavations is also evident of the importance of commercial relations that developed between the two groups during the period