State of Slum : Precarity and Informal Governance at the Margins in Accra

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

State of SlumPrecarity and Informal Governance at the Margins in Accra\nAuthor(s): Paul Stacey\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom\nImprint: Zed Books Ltd\nISBN-13: 9781786992048, 978-1786992048\nSynopsis\nHome to eighty thousand people, Accras Old Fadama neighbourhood is the largest illegal slum in Ghana. Though almost all its inhabitants are Ghanaian born, their status as illegal squatters means that they live a precarious existence, marginalised within Ghanaian society and denied many of the rights to which they are entitled as citizens.\n\nThe case of Old Fadama is far from unique. Across Africa, over half the population now lives in cities, and a lack of affordable housing means that growing numbers live in similar illegal slum communities, often in appalling conditions. Drawing on rich, ethnographic fieldwork, the book takes as its point of departure the narratives that emerge from the everyday lives and struggles of these people, using the p.