Oiling the Urban Economy : Land, Labour, Capital, and the State in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana

This book presents a critical analysis of the ‘resource curse’ doctrine and a review of the international evidence on oil and urban development to examine the role of oil on property development and rights in West Africa’s new oil metropolis - Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. It seeks answers to the following questions: In what ways did the city come into existence? What changes to property rights are oil prospecting, explorations, and production introducing in the 21 st century? How do the effects vary across different social classes and spectrums? To what extent are local and national institutions able to shape, restrain, and constrain trans-national oil-related accumulation and its effects on property in land, property in housing (residential, leisure, and commercial), and property in labour? How do these processes connect with the entire urban system in Ghana? This book shows how institutions of varying degrees of power interact to govern land, housing, and labour in the city, and analyses how efficient, sustainable, and equitable the outcomes of these interactions are. It is a comprehensive account of the tensions and contradictions in the main sectors of the urban economy, society, and environment in the booming Oil City and will be of interest to urban economists, development economists, real estate economists, Africanists and urbanists. Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Part I The economics of 'black gold'; 1 Africa's oil wealth and crude interpretations of its ramifications; 2 Oil in orthodox theory: repudiation and riposte; 3 Ghana's oil industry; Part II From fishing settlements to oil city; 4 Sekondi-Takoradi: the twin city and its history; 5 Urban economic development in the age of oil; 6 Fishers and farmers in a changing twin city; Part III Towards the good city; 7 Compensation and betterment; 8 Taxation; 9 Socialisation of oil rents. This book presents a critical analysis of the 'resource curse' doctrine and a review of the international evidence on oil and urban development to examine the role of oil on property development and rights in West Africa's new oil metropolis - Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 List of illustrations 10 List of tables 11 Preface 13 Part I The economics of ‘black gold’ 16 1 Africa’s oil wealth and crude interpretations of its ramifications 20 2 Oil in orthodox theory: repudiation and riposte 32 3 Ghana’s oil industry 61 Part II From fishing settlements to oil city 80 4 Sekondi-Takoradi: the twin city and its history 90 5 Urban economic development in the age of oil 109 6 Fishers and farmers in a changing twin city 131 Part III Towards the good city 150 7 Compensation and betterment 154 8 Taxation 164 9 Socialisation of oil rents 180 10 Sekondi-Takoradi: challenges, prospects, and lessons 200 Appendix 208 Bibliography 212 Index 242