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ABSTRACTEconomic crisis and structural adjustment in Ghana have put large numbers of formal sector employees and civil servants out of work. This informalisation process has gendered consequences. Unemployed people, rural–urban migrants and school-leavers of both genders seek employment in the urban informal economy, and increasingly take up 'female' occupations – particularly in retail trade. Overcrowding in women's economic domains thus occurs. This study examines the livelihood strategies of informally employed men and women in Accra. It is argued that gender ideologies regarding appropriate occupations for women and men are continuously adapted in response to a changing political economy. Thus, even if female traders face competition, declining returnsanda heavier dependency burden, frustration with government policies failing to create decent jobs (for men) is more prevalent than gender antagonism and ridicule of those who find gender-atypical ways of eking out a living.

ABSTRACTDuring the last decade, debates about the livelihood impacts of large‐scale biofuel projects have focused mainly on either employment creation or on land dispossession. The mediating role of social institutions and communal reciprocity in resource‐access manoeuvring processes have rarely been considered. This comparative study of two biofuel projects in Ghana shows that households affected by land dispossession quickly obtained new productive land areas by switching to fallow farmland or through long‐term reciprocal social networks. The livelihoods of households with members employed by the projects improved in terms of increased income and access to cultivation on project land. Not everyone, however, had the resources and ability to use social networks for job‐seeking and land access negotiation, particularly those considered to be migrants. The authors argue that a context‐specific focus on, and processual examination of, the abilities of individuals and groups to utilize social institutions to sustain their livelihoods during a project's lifetime, are crucial in analysing the impacts of biofuels land deals. Such an approach explores the various forms and uses of livelihood capitals, and shows how new configurations of social and economic relations emerging from land commercialization can reinforce local inequalities.

AbstractThis paper introduces a special issue addressing the relationship between innovations and geographical contexts. The content, role, and sourcing of knowledge and how this relates to production systems and particular innovation projects is addressed. It includes a discussion about how firm strategies and organizational arrangements such as sourcing strategies, brokering arrangements, and project bundling effects the position of clusters as a knowledge source. Part of this discussion refers to the content of the three papers that follows.

ABSTRACTIn December 2010 Ghana pumped its first oil and a local content law was passed in 2013 to promote local participation in the oil and gas industry. This paper examines Ghanaian entrepreneurial activities and the dynamics of local participation in the emerging oil and gas sector. We explore Ghanaian entrepreneurs' strategies of mobilising networks to acquire information, build trust, raise financial capital and reduce risk with the aim to gain entry, win contracts and participate in the oil and gas industry. We argue that the resources and strategies activated by entrepreneurs embedded in the context of the Ghanaian business environment are inadequate and problematic when deployed in the context of the international oil and gas industry. The international oil companies' cost-intensive standard requirements and state officials' informal interventions further limit local firms' prospects for participation in the oil and gas industry.

Power plays a key role in definitions of political ecology. Likewise, empirical studies within this field tend to provide detailed presentations of various uses of power, involving corporate and conservation interventions influencing access to land and natural resources. The results include struggle and conflict. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical elaboration showing how power may be understood in political ecology. In this article, we start to fill this gap by reviewing the different theoretical perspectives on power that have dominated this field. There are combinations of influences, two of them being actor-oriented and neo-Marxist approaches used from the 1980s. Typically, case studies are presented of environmental interventions by a broad range of actors at various scales from the local to the global. The focus has been on processes involving actors behind these interventions, as well as the outcomes for different social groups. Over the last two decades, in political ecology we have increasingly seen a move in power perspectives towards poststructuralist thinking about "discursive power", inspired by Foucault. Today, the three approaches (actor-oriented, neo-Marxist and Foucauldian) and their combinations form a synergy of power perspectives that provide a set of rich and nuanced insights into how power is manifested in environmental conflicts and governance. We argue that combining power perspectives is one of political ecology's strengths, which should be nurtured through a continuous examination of a broad spectrum of social science theories on power. ; publishedVersion

Power plays a key role in definitions of political ecology. Likewise, empirical studies within this field tend to provide detailed presentations of various uses of power, involving corporate and conservation interventions influencing access to land and natural resources. The results include struggle and conflict. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical elaboration showing how power may be understood in political ecology. In this article, we start to fill this gap by reviewing the different theoretical perspectives on power that have dominated this field. There are combinations of influences, two of them being actor-oriented and neo-Marxist approaches used from the 1980s. Typically, case studies are presented of environmental interventions by a broad range of actors at various scales from the local to the global. The focus has been on processes involving actors behind these interventions, as well as the outcomes for different social groups. Over the last two decades, in political ecology we have increasingly seen a move in power perspectives towards poststructuralist thinking about "discursive power", inspired by Foucault. Today, the three approaches (actor-oriented, neo-Marxist and Foucauldian) and their combinations form a synergy of power perspectives that provide a set of rich and nuanced insights into how power is manifested in environmental conflicts and governance. We argue that combining power perspectives is one of political ecology's strengths, which should be nurtured through a continuous examination of a broad spectrum of social science theories on power. ; Norges forskningsråd 250975 ; publishedVersion