E-waste recycling slum in the heart of Accra, Ghana: The dirty secrets

This chapter unpacks reasons underpinning constant contestations for space in Agbogbloshie, an urban area in Ghana’s capital Accra, housing a vegetable market, a scrap metal yard, a vast slum, an industrial area, and a household waste dump. The city authorities, with tacit support from the traditional authorities and some media outlets, employ discursive practices and documentaries to sensationalize the settlement, thereby masking its economic potentials and bringing it into direct conflict with local livelihoods. Bringing Lefebvre’s “right to the city” thesis into conversation with contemporary entrepreneurial urbanism illuminates the authorities’ deviation from its historical focus on all-inclusive development, though they continue to make loud pronouncements in local and international fora. Drawing on Lefebvre’s foundational concept of “lived space, " we demonstrate how the contours of urban place-making are more complex than generally appreciated. Our focus on residents’ place-making and their informal space economy uncover the prospects for rethinking informal urban settlements. By capturing the messy, dynamic, and contextualized processes that give life to informal settlements as places, we suggest reimagining informal settlements to better achieve their real contributions to the city economy as a whole.